January 2023

After a week of dining alone at a table for six, Larry and I suddenly gained two more dinner companions.

Usually, the ship places people who speak the same language together, but for some reason, they sat a Romanian couple with us. (They are the only Romanians on the ship.)

I suppose some Americans would be annoyed by this, but we love it!

Not only are Constantin and Maria wonderful dinner companions, but with each meal, our language barrier erodes a bit more.

Last night I was able to hold a rudimentary conversation with them in Romanian. So much fun!

It helps that Romanian is a Romance Language and many words are quite similar to Italian. It also helps that Constantin and Maria don’t mind my accent or how I butcher their language!

I am sometimes afraid to attempt speaking another language due to my limited abilities, but on this trip, I’ve even had moments where circumstances required me to attempt German and French.

Such moments are making me less self conscious when it comes to communicating in a foreign language, something that has often held me back in the past.

On recent sea days, the ship has been offering Italian lessons. (I’m already an advanced beginner, but I’ve never taken any actual lessons.)

The ship’s Italian class covers irregular verbs and prepositions, so it’s helpful.

Plus, when they give handouts, the translations are in English, Portuguese, German, Spanish, and French, so you can learn several languages at Italian class!

I sit by a German fellow, and it’s a good thing, because he caught a few typos on the German section. They had the word for “pregnant” down for “sister in law,” for instance.

Meanwhile, I use breakfast as my chance to practice Tagalog with the Filipinos who work the buffet line.

One morning, I showed up a bit late, so Arnie and Genna weren’t there. Even so, when the head chef saw me, he goes, “I will call your Filipino children over.”

It would be so fun to show my “Filipino kids” around Texas sometime.

My Tagalog needs serious work, though. It’s not a Romance language, so I can’t intuit how to work the verbs. I really butcher it!

With any luck, we’ll have a Tagalog class later in the cruise.

As for lunch, well, Larry and I skip lunch. On sea days, however, we play Scrabble, so words are still a feature, albeit English ones.

Up until recently, Larry could never beat me at Scrabble, but I shared all my tricks with him, and now he is a formidable opponent!

I come from a family of word lovers, so being exposed to so many different languages is a real treat for me!

If you’re a word lover like me, you might consider taking a cruise with an international line such as Costa. It’s a wonderful learning experience, plus you meet people from all over the world.

p.s. Here are a couple pics of us and our new friends from last night’s dinner.Читать далее