The international student staying in my home this year is doing well. He stays in his room a lot, but lets be honest, if I didn't speak the language and it gave me a headache trying to figure out what people were saying every minute of every day, I would probably stay in my room as well.
We have had several language issue barriers which have created awkward moments (which are now humorous enough to share.)
The hair cutting incident.
He has been in our home for a month and his hair is getting kind of long so I asked him (through Google Translator). " do you want to get a haircut".
He said "ok" and so I set up the appointment.
I picked him up one afternoon to go get a haircut and as we were driving he had his translator app say "no scissors"
I said, "you don't want scissors"
"No"
"Do you want clippers" and I made the sound and ran an imaginary clippers across my head
"NO"
"What do you want?"
Back to the translator "No haircut"
What? I thought you said you wanted a haircut?
Translator app "You say I must get haircut"
"Must" as in YOU HAVE NO CHOICE! That is what the poor kid thought I said. Stinking Google Translator. Because he is a respectful boy, he was going to do it.
Well at this point we are almost at the haircutting place so I took him in and introduced him to my hair stylist and let him know that there had been a miscommunication so we were just coming to make introductions. My international student said that he would let me know when he needed a haircut.
We left and drove home in silence. Well that was awkward. I talked to him about the miscommunication and we agreed that the word Like was a better word for him to understand.
Would you like to get your hair cut?
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