So… when I was a kid, like soon after I gained proficiency in English, they made me translate:
every paper they fill, tax documents, USCIS (the government agency in the US that deals with immigration) shenanigans, letters, bills, phone calls, talking to customer support (I mean like utilities, phone bills, banking, etc…), trying to buy a house, car dealership, court cases, doctor’s appointments, city hall stuff, bussiness licenses, and um…
fucking parent-teacher conferences? Wtf so… am I supposed to translate the negative things the teacher says about me? Huh? 🧐 (I kinda just refused, just sit there in silence while teachers were trying to find some adult in the building that can translate). I remember it felt so awkward.
Like, bruhhhh I went to 2nd grade in my previous country, I don’t even have the vocabulary to explain shit.
Then like if I refuse, my parents ask my older brother, then he gets mad and is like: “why not ask him [aka: me]?” So then it’s a sort of 3-way mini-cold-war at home.
Such a chaotic childhood.
I can sometimes almost sort of “hallucinate” my name being called for some weird bs.
When you think about it this way, I’m sort of like a diplomat between my household and the outside world. I guess I should just get a job at the UN (/kidding, no way in hell I wanna do any more “translating” bullshit as a job)
I saw this happen a lot to students at the high school I went to. It clearly was frustrating for the kids but they couldn’t say that without being labeled as mean, cruel, unhelpful, ungrateful while my autistic ass was just thinking “but you live here you really do need to know the language a bit???” (About the parents)
Good luck! I’m sorry!
I’ve seen it reversed with English speakers moving to other countries and not bothering to learn the local language because they didn’t see the point. And I’m not talking about Thailand, I’m talking about the Netherlands or Spain
They should be learning the local language as well! Not just people going to English speaking countries.
Definitely! It kind of baffles me that people can live for years in a place and not learn the local language, but because they speak English it’s fine
The Netherlands is a special case because everyone knows English and “helpfully” switches when you struggle with Dutch.
Not everybody knows English, I’ve been to the Dutch countryside where quite a few people aren’t comfortable speaking English. And even if they were, it’s not their native language, so if you never speak you will always be less integrated.
Denmark and the other Nordics are a bit in the same situation, of course people know English there, but not knowing the local language is still frowned upon.
My experience is solely as a tech worker in urban areas. It’s hard to break out of that bubble.