Learning a foreign language was something I had been wanting to do for a long time. I started with French and studied it for around two years (Basic – Level 1) before I realised the language did not have too much of a reach and then moved on to Spanish.
My friend and I had been discussing a road-trip in Europe much before the release of the movie ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara’. The movie did act as a catalyst though in putting our plan in motion and finally in May 2018, we zeroed on Spain for the same.
Around the time I was preparing for the trip, I had just completed my Level 1 of Spanish and one of the things I was looking forward to was to try and see if anyone in Spain understood what I was trying to say.
My friend was coming from New York and our tentative plan was to meet in Barcelona – then fly to Malaga, hire a car for a few days to explore Andalucia region and then finish off at Madrid.
In most cities we visited, we did not have an issue with communication and apart from words like ‘agua’ (water), ‘vino’ (wine), ‘pan’ (bread) and ‘caliente’ (hot – when we wanted our food/coffee heated), we were able to convey our requests in English.
Surprisingly, the language barrier reared its head in Madrid. Being the capital city, we assumed it to be more cosmopolitan but that was not the case.
Having returned our car at Seville, we arrived in Madrid by train and booked an Uber to take us to our accommodation.
The cab arrived quickly enough but we weren’t able to pinpoint the exact spot to the driver. Because, he just didn’t understand what we said!
My friend explained we were across the road from ‘Burger King’ which was a huge outlet on the main road, but shockingly, he had no idea what or where that was.
Finally, I took over phone and tried to explain in whatever little Spanish I knew using my limited direction vocabulary:
‘derecha’ (right), ‘izquierda’ (left), ‘en frente de’ (in front of).
There was still a small matter of explaining ‘Burger King’ to him. Finally, in a moment of epiphany, I said, “in front of Booorger King” (trying Spanish phonetics) and was awarded with “aaaahhhh – voy (Coming)”.
Booorger King. Phew. Yay.
This was our first language problem experience in Madrid. First of many.
Madrid was our last stop on the trip and for some reason we craved for a hot Asian meal. We managed to locate a Thai restaurant with good rating online and to top it, it was close to our apartment.
We reached there at around 7 pm and the restaurant seemed empty.
Greeted by the flavorsome aroma of Thai food, we were mentally getting set for some delicacies when we realised the waitress did not understand English again. Between my half-baked Spanish and her nearly-incomprehensible English, we finally realised there were no tables available because we hadn’t reserved one.
The Thai food aroma had already performed its magic and we were set on having it. A quick check on Google Maps told us there was another such restaurant about a couple of kilometers away from our location.
Our previous experience had been enough of a warning and we decided to call them beforehand to check on the table availability. And given our experience with cab drivers, passersby and restaurants, I offered to call and converse in my level 1 Spanish.
The conversation went well and I managed to reserve a table at the restaurant.
My friend was mightily impressed with my effort and our entire walk was dedicated to me preaching the importance of knowing another language (and in turn coercing her to also learn it along with me).
On reaching the restaurant, we were led to a table with a sign stating ‘Reservado’. It felt like such an achievement.
The manager who I had spoken with earlier met us and while he looked like from closer to home, his Spanish sounded perfect. Very soon I realised he was from Bangladesh and had moved to Spain around 10 years ago.
Curiosity and the chance to further impress my friend got the better of me and I asked the manager for his feedback on my Spanish.
He admitted I communicated my request perfectly well over the phone and then looked at me, smiled and added:
“Agar aapne hindi mein baat ki hoti, toh bhi main samajh jaata.”
Loosely translated to “If you had even spoken to me in Hindi, I would have understood you equally well!”
Oh well, much ado about nothing and my friend had a nice long chuckle at my expense.
