Chance and circumstance have left me in a foreign land , speaking a foreign language. For years I have been adrift, pausing for a few years here and there, only to move on. When the time came to drop anchor I found the home port was closed to me, alas, the tariff was too high. I have tied my ship to the pier, ah who am I kidding, I'm in dry dock and unlikely to sail again. It is not a sad thing, it just is. This port I now call home is not the land of my fathers, but it is a good land. The language can be a bit confusing at times and one needs to listen carefully. I find it best to speak slowly around these parts.
In the last few years I have discovered this social media. Through this venue I have been able to reconnect with those that shared the land of my youth. We even speak the same language; somewhat. Inflection and pronunciation are very difficult to type. But the common phrases appear and old memories stirred up. It is good to be able to communicate across the miles and in real time. What may have been different were this available say twenty years ago, or fifty ? Information is key and now readily available. The only issue now being trust. Can you trust the source ? The world has grown a little smaller because of it. Not necessarily a good thing though, close proximity can cause issues of its' own. Along with the good comes the bad. It really is a two sided coin. Memories don't always agree, and perceptions can be stark in their differences.
As I read the words others type I have to interpret their meaning. I looked meaning up in the dictionary and it is defined as, " the thing one intends to convey,especially by language." " What the source or sender expresses. " Reading that explains a lot if you think about it. Often the written language is different from the spoken language. That is where we get ourselves into trouble. The thing we intend to convey gets lost in the words. Happens all the time. The thing the source or sender expresses becomes blurred.
I find this happens in this foreign land where I now live. I do not share a common experience with the natives. I am foreign to them. They are foreign to me as well. Our intentions are not always clear in their meaning. Things held to be sacred here may not be where I came from. Tales from the past hold no water here, from either side. The only cure for this is assimilation. I find myself resisting. To set aside your youth and homeland is not an easy task. I am aware of it and that adds to the difficulty. It is through cultural assimilation that we find our place in society. The society where we now live. The society of my youth was an independent lot and strongly opinionated. "Set in our ways" is the expression. It is ingrained in me.
My children and grandchildren are native to this land. They hear my stories of the old land, akin to them of the old country. They do not share the experience with me, indeed my own wife does not. All that leads to this feeling of being in a foreign land and speaking a foreign language. Language is more than words, language is the expression of the soul. In my native tongue, yes,yes bub !
In the last few years I have discovered this social media. Through this venue I have been able to reconnect with those that shared the land of my youth. We even speak the same language; somewhat. Inflection and pronunciation are very difficult to type. But the common phrases appear and old memories stirred up. It is good to be able to communicate across the miles and in real time. What may have been different were this available say twenty years ago, or fifty ? Information is key and now readily available. The only issue now being trust. Can you trust the source ? The world has grown a little smaller because of it. Not necessarily a good thing though, close proximity can cause issues of its' own. Along with the good comes the bad. It really is a two sided coin. Memories don't always agree, and perceptions can be stark in their differences.
As I read the words others type I have to interpret their meaning. I looked meaning up in the dictionary and it is defined as, " the thing one intends to convey,especially by language." " What the source or sender expresses. " Reading that explains a lot if you think about it. Often the written language is different from the spoken language. That is where we get ourselves into trouble. The thing we intend to convey gets lost in the words. Happens all the time. The thing the source or sender expresses becomes blurred.
I find this happens in this foreign land where I now live. I do not share a common experience with the natives. I am foreign to them. They are foreign to me as well. Our intentions are not always clear in their meaning. Things held to be sacred here may not be where I came from. Tales from the past hold no water here, from either side. The only cure for this is assimilation. I find myself resisting. To set aside your youth and homeland is not an easy task. I am aware of it and that adds to the difficulty. It is through cultural assimilation that we find our place in society. The society where we now live. The society of my youth was an independent lot and strongly opinionated. "Set in our ways" is the expression. It is ingrained in me.
My children and grandchildren are native to this land. They hear my stories of the old land, akin to them of the old country. They do not share the experience with me, indeed my own wife does not. All that leads to this feeling of being in a foreign land and speaking a foreign language. Language is more than words, language is the expression of the soul. In my native tongue, yes,yes bub !
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