The language barrier

Norway has spoiled us with the knowledge that we can easily survive in a foreign country with out speaking the language. Almost every one in Norway speaks English, and going shopping or going to a restaurant is never a problem. We naively thought that Spain would be the same way. We quickly discovered all menus were only in Spanish, and getting directions required a photo of where I wanted to go. I had to take a taxi back to the hotel one day, but was unable to correctly pronounce the name of the hotel. I resolved to show the driven hotel door card. It had the hotel logo printed on the front. The driver understood and I arrived at the hotel a few moments later.

We learned to point a lot in Spain. You would be amazed at the number of uses for pointing in a foreign country. For example, you can order food. If the menu has photos then you can just point to the picture. If you see another patron eating something appetizing, then just point to it when the waiter comes for your order. It may be a bit rude, but you do not have many options.

You can also get directions by pointing. When I was walking to the Picasso Museum, I got turned around in the many side streets. I stopped a man passing by and pointed to my photo of the museum. I then pointed to the street I thought I needed to take and looked at the man and shrugged. He smiled and said “si”. A few moments later I found the museum.

We did encounter one situation where pointing was of no help.  Myself and four other “trollies” got stuck in the hotel elevator. Instead of going up, the elevator took us to the bottom of the shaft. The doors would not open, and the elevator would not move. Now this situation was not like in the movies and TV, were there are two people in a very large elevator. They sit and talk and laugh. Well we were in an elevator with six people that was only big enough to hold eight. Even thou it was not full it was very tight and heating up quickly.

We pressed the alarm button and a voice came on the speaker. She did not speak English. We asked for English but apparently no one in her office spoke it. She was asking us questions we did not understand, and had no hope of answering. Finally someone suggested trying to manually open the door. Two other guys helped and thankfully it opened. We had to step up a bit, but everything worked out fine.