Coffee break or car brake

I still have vivid memories of my first days and months upon arrival to Australia. When I first came, my English was just on an elementary level, which gave me enough skills to communicate with others, but most of all was giving me the headache and frustration of not being able to understand everything I wanted or express what I wanted to say. Soon after my arrival, one of the sisters from my community, accompanied me on the drive around the property where we lived, giving me some practice before I have passed my exam for the driver’s license. As we were approaching the corner I must have been going too fast, because she shouted: Break! Break! I stopped soon after turning and asked her: “Why do we have to have a break, if we’ve just started the lesson?”. It was a time of many other lessons about more than one meaning of some words and some words being both nouns and verbs.

I do remember driving the car and listening to the news and trying to understand the weather forecast. Everyone spoke too fast and there were too many words which were not part of my vocabulary. As soon as I would get home, I would read the forecast in the News or watch on TV to compare what I understood and what were the new words. My first study at TAFE was challenging not so much because of the contents of what I have been learning, but simply because I had to work harder than those for whom English is the first language to be able to interact with others, submit my assignments and use the knowledge in the workplace. One of my closest friends, whom I met during the study made sure I am practicing English simply by asking me (I think out of curiosity not the language improvement purposes) several questions about nun’s life, my faith and community.

The first book I read in English was the “Chronicles of Narnia”. Page after page I learnt new words, structure of sentences and more. It was  (and still is) not an easy ride. Some people, like my friend, have listened to me and were always trying to understand what I wanted to say. There were times when people would say in quite abrupt way “I don’t understand you”. There were and would be hilarious situations and those which would bring me most embarrassment and frustration only because of mispronounced words. I would always say: “bed linen” instead of “bed sheets” simply being worried not to be accused of swearing over the bed covers?.

In some workplaces I would need to the “paraphrase” of what I heard from my supervisors in order to make sure I understood correctly what was expected of me. In my written work I would ask very often for proofreading, joking with one of my friends that there is a need to “un-Polish” my English, meaning to correct grammar which is always affected by the structure of my first language, Polish.

All of these language adventures would require persistence and patience, active listening and a lot of a sense of humor at times. Even to pray in English was a big challenge.

In this blog, you might occasionally smile seeing that the prepositions in my text are not in the right place or some sentences are a bit awkward. This is the way I speak and write and this is who I am.

Language is much more than code of symbols creating words written and spoken in the certain way. Language is the ability to communicate through words but also through our body and expressed emotions. We learn each other through language. It is who we are and where we came from. Today I am grateful to God for the ability to read, write and speak English.

Have a nice day!

Sr. Grace