Cultural Differences

I decided to talk about some of the cultural differences on this post because honestly these are starting to become very apparent- and some are annoying.  To start, I should mention that I do absolutely love Ecuador and have never regretted choosing to live here.  The weather is perfect, I'm surrounded by mountains, and I can get to either the beach or the jungle within 4 1/2 hours.  I know, I know, I shouldn't ever complain since I'm able to live in such an amazing place and have the opportunity to travel to more countries on this incredible continent.

...but after living here for almost 5 months now, some of the cultural differences aren't so "cute" anymore.  For example, us Americans LOVE our personal space.  I'm pretty sure no one in Ecuador understands what personal space is, and my "bubble" is constantly being invaded. Last weekend, I was standing in line at the grocery store and the place was absolutely packed.  Like a normal American, I stood maybe 1 1/2-2 feet behind the lady in front of me.  A girl came up and started talking to the lady in front of me, so I thought "ok, she is with that lady, no problem."  Then, a few minutes later after they had stopped talking another lady with a completely full cart walked up and joined the girl in front of me.  I should probably mention that I was buying 4 things, not a cart full of groceries.  Right then I realized that they completely cut in front of me, only because I respected the lady in front of me's personal space.  UGH I was so frustrated and got even more frustrated that they had a cart full of groceries.  Now, American's aren't always known as the friendliest people, but if you have a cart full of groceries and someone only has 3 or 4 things, you usually let them go ahead, and you certainly don't cut in front of them.  To make things better, the lady behind me was so close to me that I just about felt violated by her cart.  I never thought it would be a bad thing to actually respect someone's personal space, but apparently you will never make it to the front of the line if you do.  

This is how you are supposed to stand in line

However, after I finally made it out of there, I went to the mercado, which is one of my favorite places- there is an abundance of fruit, veggies, and flowers for only a fraction of the price as in the US.  

Isn't this place amazing?!

I usually go to the same vendors and this time after I paid for my produce, 2 different vendors gave me a tangerine for free.  Maybe they could see that I was mad or having a bad day (yeah I know being cut in front of shouldn't make me so mad, but it did that day), so they felt that was the least they could do.  Whatever the reason, this very simple and unexpected act of kindness completely changed my mood.

As Americans (or maybe just Southerners), we are only passionate about one thing.  I'm pretty sure you all know what this one thing is, but in case you don't it's FOOTBALL!  I will admit that UGA football is, more than likely, the biggest thing that I am passionate about...and if you're being honest, I'm sure you will agree.  Don't get me wrong, Ecuadorians love their football (soccer) and the city did shut down these past 2 weeks when Ecuador played in the Copa America.  Unfortunately, Ecuador just isn't that good, and I do feel bad for them because they do love the sport so much but the sport just doesn't love them back- must be the Ecuadorian equivalent of being an Cubs fan?  As much as they love their football/soccer, they love their politics even more.  I have never seen a culture that cared and was as passionate about politics.  And I must admit, I really like that about this Latin American culture.  Everyone has an interest in what is going on in the country and when they aren't happy, they make sure the government notices.  In the previous years, the people have literally run at least 3 presidents out of the country.  I can't imagine Americans actually forcing a president out of the country fearing for his own life.  Yeah I'm sure there are people that would love to do that, but physically doing it is a whole 'nother thing.  Just last week I was walking to one of my classes and I noticed a school bus stopped in the right lane of a busy road during rush hour, causing a huge traffic jam.  Then, I could hear what sounded like the marching band from a college football game.  As I got closer, I could see that a group of about 15 people had somehow gotten ahold of a school bus, tied down a giant stuffed turtle and jaguar onto the top of the bus, and were playing instruments in the street.  

This entire protest was peaceful; the people just wanted to be heard not create violence.  This is something I think Americans can learn a thing or 2 from.  I love how passionate Latin Americans are about all aspects of their lives, and they aren't afraid to show any emotion.  

I do feel so lucky to live here and truly experience this different culture, which lately has shown to be very different from the American culture!

Learning a New Language

Since I have been in Ecuador now for a little over 4 months and am always surrounded by Spanish speakers, you would think that I would have a fairly decent grasp on the Spanish language...WRONG!  This learning a new language thing has been an incredibly humbling experience for me.  Growing up, I was in honors classes and got good grades, so I thought learning Spanish while living in Ecuador should be fine.  I mean, I do consider myself to be an intelligent person and school is what I was good at and this is just a different type of school.  Well, I can tell you first hand that this has been way more difficult and frustrating than when I learned French in high school.

Every time I feel like I am making progress and finally improving my knowledge of the Spanish language, someone out on the street asks me a question and I have no idea what they are saying.  I might be able to distinguish 1 or 2 words, but thats about all.  And out of a 10 word sentence, those 2 words that I understand don't really give me a very good grasp of what they are asking.  Usually, they see the "deer in headlights" look on my face, and then switch to English.  I appreciate them trying to make me more comfortable, but that is not helping me to learn Spanish.

For those of you that don't know, Spanish has about 3x as many tenses as English-or so it seems.  There are about 5 different tenses just when speaking in the past, so this has been very challenging for me to differentiate when to use which, and half of the time, I still use the wrong one-oops.  One day during my class, my teacher and I were going over one of past tenses and I just wasn't understanding why I should use this tense over another, and I about lost it.  All of the sudden, I put or more like threw my pen down and said "No no no...no..no.no."  At that moment, "no" was the only word that I could say.  My teacher had no idea what to do with me right then.  He tried to reason with me and help me with the worksheet, but I leaned back in my chair with my arms crossed.  I'm sure every one of you can picture this scene right now, and if you can't, then picture a 5 year old starting to throw a fit and that was pretty much me.  This was not one of my finest moments, but it happens sometimes.  Since we still had 1 hour left of class and I think my teacher was afraid of me, he decided the best way to calm me down was to play a game of "Guess who."  Playing this game did calm me down and also made class entertaining while using Spanish at the same time.  I guess the classes really are paying off because last week I was in a cab, and had a conversation with the driver for about 10 minutes.  And I understood most of what he said, so that was a perfect boost of confidence for me!  Then, when I didn't understand, I would just smile and nod...hopefully that was an appropriate response.

In the Spanish language, the word for "who" is "quien" which sounds very similar to Kim.  So when people ask me what my name is, I respond "Kim."  They will then say "Your name?" and I say "Kim" again, which then leads them to say "No YOU, what is YOUR name?"  Finally, I have to respond "MY NAME IS KIM."  It's like I'm living a real life version of "Who's on first."  I know my Spanish isn't that good, but after 10 weeks of classes, I do understand the question of "what is your name?"

I will say that people here are very nice and appreciate when you try to speak their language and they are usually patient with you as you try to put words together to get your point across.  But after a few experiences of being completely clueless when native speakers are talking to me, I have decided that I really need to step up my studying and practicing.  Luckily, both of my roommates speak Spanish, so I can practice speaking with them at home.  And I am watching one of the best shows of all time "Friends" in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.  This allows me to hear and see the words, which helps to reinforce what I already know as well as learning new vocabulary.  

Let's hope that my Spanish improves because it sure would be nice to have a full conversation for once!