You're Not From Here, Are You?

I've been asked this question a lot in the past couple of weeks, more times in fact than I think I was asked the entire last year I was here.  To be precise, I have been asked this question four times in the past two weeks, including three times in the span of two days.  What is it that makes my foreignness so noticeable as of late?

My foreigner status becomes more apparent when I open my mouth to say something.  I know I have a strange accent when I speak.  I tend to use peninsular verb forms and intonation with Central American pronunciation influenced by English.  There are some sounds, both in Spanish and in Basque, that will always mark me as a foreigner, specifically the "r" and the "l".  If you don't believe me, ask anyone who has suffered through my attempts at pronouncing the Basque word for clock, erlojua. Not only do I have difficulties with pronunciation and grammar, as would most non-native speakers, but I feel that my levels of oral and written production have worsened since living here.  Because I am not actively studying Spanish and spend the majority of my time thinking in English I don't speak or write as well as I used to.  However, some of the people who asked me this didn't have the opportunity to judge me based on my speaking ability because I had yet to say a word.

So, if it isn't my accent or speaking ability that gives it away, what is it? Is it how I dress? On three out of the four occasions I was wearing a fleece jacket and white socks, however, I was wearing long pants and they couldn't be seen over the tops of my shoes. If you have read my previous post about the subject, you know that is common for Americans to wear white socks.   In fact, we love our white socks.  Recently, my parents sent me a couple of care packages with things I was missing.  My instructions to them were that if there was extra space and the packages were underweight that they fill they fill the extra space with white socks.

Every time I have come to Spain I have come with more than enough pairs of socks to last me through the year, yet, by the end of the year, I seem to have only a couple of pairs left.  I am convinced that there is a sock monster living under my bed that eats only white socks, because none of my colored socks ever go missing. I believe that no one ever wears white socks because they know they wouldn't last long in the face of the sock monster so they don't even bother.  Either that or people are just more fashion conscious.  I personally support the sock monster theory.

What is the first thing that marks others as foreigners for you? What marks you as a foreigner?

"He's Tramping, He's Tramping"

One of the great things about being human beings is our ability to use language.  We can express ourselves to others using our language, sometimes more eloquently than others.  We have the ability to create phrases and sentences that have never been uttered before, and will probably never be uttered again. This post contains some of my favorite quotes of the past couple of weeks, quite a few of which I'm sure the world has never heard before.

"Hello, my graffiti."  We were working on introductions in class and the students asked me which languages I could speak.  When I mentioned that I had studied a little bit of Swahili, they asked if I could say a sentence for them.  I told them in Swahili that I could speak a little Swahili.  They were so interested in the language that I decided to tell them that some of the names of the characters in the Lion King were taken from Swahili.  After explaining that simba meant lion, I moved on to rafiki, which means friend. One of the students thought I kept saying "graffiti" and turned to the person sitting next to her and, while giving her a big hug, said, "Hello, my graffiti".  It was entertaining for the entire class.

Student 1: "I have 12 years old." (We're still working on using the verb "to be" to say ages instead of  "to have".)
Student 2: "You are only 12!"
Student 1: "No, pero no sé cómo se dice 13 en inglés." Translation : No, but I don't know how to say 13 in English.

Student, upon first seeing me after the summer vacation: "You go home for vacation?"
Me: "Yes."
Student: "How was England?"
Me: "I don't know. I went to the United States. I'm American."
Student: "What?"  The student couldn't believe that I was from the U.S. even after being in class with me for a year.

Woman from choir: "¿No eres de Inglaterra? Pensaba que eres de Inglaterra." Translation: You're not from England? I thought you were from England.

After trying to establish that I was from Seattle, Washington, a student asked me, "You're from Washington. Do you know Obama?".

Pointing at a photo of the Space Needle, "Do you live there?".

Student: "And your father's name?"
Me: "Ken."
Student: "Your father is Ken, like the boyfriend of Barbie. Then your mom is Barbie?! Your mom is Barbie. Barbie and Ken."   In case you were wondering, my mom's name isn't Barbie. It's Tina, which I had told them about 10 seconds prior to this exchange.

Student: "He's tramping, he's tramping!" In Spanish, hacer trampas means "to cheat".

Student: "Rita, what is this word?"
Me, after trying unsuccessfully to define it in English: "I don't know how to explain it."
Student: "In Spanish?"
Me: "I don't know, but I have a friend named Oxford," gesturing towards the dictionaries at the back of the room. "Ask him, he'll know."
Student, thinking about it then laughing: "He's your friend, not ours."