Language lessons

The tension in my suite is palpably high at the moment after an explosive argument occurred between two of my suitemates regarding kitchen hygiene. I’ve witnessed plenty of disagreements between room/suitemates in my day, but this one was especially memorable given the volume at which it was conducted, the hysteria involved, and the fact that I could understand much of what was shouted even though the argument occurred primarily in Hebrew (apparently English curse words are well entrenched in the Hebrew lexicon).

This week I went to practice with the University’s women’s soccer team for the second time. We play indoors, at least for now, and practice is only once a week, although I don’t know if it will become more frequent. I don’t understand what’s going on, so I just try to follow what other people are doing. To highlight the extend of my cluelessness, I didn’t even realize I was attending tryouts – I simply thought anyone could join the team. But apparently I made the team, and fortunately once we start to scrimmage the language requirements are pretty minimal.

I cannot communicate at all with the coach without a translator. He doesn’t speak a word of English, and I have a hard time understanding his Hebrew, which might be because he has a Russian accent. A couple of my teammates speak Spanish, so sometimes they’ll translate something into Spanish, which I can then understand. The diversity of languages spoken here is absolutely amazing (and, sometimes, incredibly confusing). Just walking down the halls of the University of Haifa I’m likely to hear Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian and Spanish. And of course people speak other languages as well, but I can't necessarily identify them in passing.