Bonds between language

Me with new friends. Photo credit Lauren Fisher

In a foreign country, the importance of bilingualism (or multilingualism) quickly becomes evident. Even with the Spanish I've learned for the past six years, it's still overwhelming at times to hear these foreign sounds every day. The good news is that communication is becoming smoother by the day. I thought I was doing well by mastering one language, however in just two hours on a plane I'm back to the drawing board and left wondering why I haven't learned to speak more than two languages. 

This past weekend I traveled to Brussels, Belgium with two other girls from my school. It didn't occur to me communication might be struggle until I was already up to my eye balls in a language I don't understand. French. I couldn't even rack my brain of simple phrases like "thank you" or "good bye."

It's not surprising that in a foreign country people will bond over a shared language. Or rather lacking the knowledge of the respective native language. I saw this back in high school at Fryeburg Academy with the many international students coming from places in both Europe and Asia. Nationalities seemed to band together and form cliques. It's really no different in my case. My friends are Americans, I travel with Americans, and in turn I meet more traveling Americans.

Lauren and I with our two new American friends.

On the way to Brussels another group of Americans was on the same bus ride from the airport to the center of the city. They heard us speaking English and quickly made their way to the back of the bus to converse with us. As it turned out they were all students from America, studying in Bilbao (through another program), and spending the weekend in Brussels. Ironically enough we were even at the same hotel.

The entire weekend including all travel time back to Bilbao was spent by their side as a team. Bonding occurred purely due to the fact we all spoke the English language. This is what my new friend, Lauren calls "hyper-bonding," she describes it as friendship on high speed.

Humans are products of their own cultures, so it's only natural we gravitate to those who share the same background. Travelers may try to blend in and be seen as one of them because that seems like the right thing to do, but in the end people bond over commonalities, and here that starts with language.