In my first week of exploring London, I remember the greatest challenge was talking to sales associates. I wasn\u2019t always in tourist areas and with long shifts they did not speak particularly slow. I found it initially frustrating because we both spoke the same language, but I had no idea what they were saying. When I asked a question, I also often received unexpected responses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I vividly remember an exchange where I asked an asked for the sales receipt and the sales associate looked at me and said something along the lines of \u201cbe patient\u201d. I was shocked by this response and was actively trying to process if she was being sarcastic or if I had done something to offend her or come off as impatient. I wasn\u2019t sure if I had crossed a line in asking for something or if she was already planning to give me a receipt and me asking was signaling to her that she was too slow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Small instances like these continued to occur where a gap in communication would form but I wouldn\u2019t be able to clearly see why. I think I feel self-conscious when I make others repeat themselves or make them feel like it is difficult to understand them, but I have also made friends through these moments because we can all laugh at how some phrases or words are spoken differently. I think I\u2019m able to value those who come to the States and learn English as a second, third, or fourth language much more now. I\u2019ve also learned that in those brief moments of panic I can slow down and be honest about how I lack understanding and most people are kind, open, and want to share their knowledge about their culture, language, and experience with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my first week of exploring London, I remember the greatest challenge was talking to sales associates. I wasn\u2019t always in tourist areas and with long shifts they did not speak particularly slow. I found it initially frustrating because we both spoke the same language, but I had no idea what they were saying. When…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-20335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qmul","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20336,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335\/revisions\/20336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}