Great story! I lived in Jerusalem back in the late 70's. Count in arabic and be polite! But I moved to Italy in 84 and went through the same problems of speaking in Italian and having them answer me in English. At first I was offended, but then pushed through letting them speak English and I spoke back in Italian. We both needed to practice! Rarely are there translations for the food words I needed. I traveled around with a small dictionary.. all pre internet! I remember going to buy lipstick and all I could put together was " I would like some color for my lips".
This got me thinking about the linguistic diversity of Switzerland (there are four national languages)and how it would really be a wonderful thing if Israeli children were taught both Hebrew and Arabic in schools.
Ypur Gen Z line is worth its weight in gold. This is a big topic on my FB thread where old white guys, both Jewish and goyish—all Zionist in the sense that we all think Israel not only has a right to exist, but should be allowed to exist in peace—harumph about the general ignorance of not only Gen Z but many of our otherwise sensible colleagues.
Great story! I lived in Jerusalem back in the late 70's. Count in arabic and be polite! But I moved to Italy in 84 and went through the same problems of speaking in Italian and having them answer me in English. At first I was offended, but then pushed through letting them speak English and I spoke back in Italian. We both needed to practice! Rarely are there translations for the food words I needed. I traveled around with a small dictionary.. all pre internet! I remember going to buy lipstick and all I could put together was " I would like some color for my lips".
I love this story. It's amazing how creative we can get when we don't have all the right words :)
This got me thinking about the linguistic diversity of Switzerland (there are four national languages)and how it would really be a wonderful thing if Israeli children were taught both Hebrew and Arabic in schools.
I would be wonderful.
Ypur Gen Z line is worth its weight in gold. This is a big topic on my FB thread where old white guys, both Jewish and goyish—all Zionist in the sense that we all think Israel not only has a right to exist, but should be allowed to exist in peace—harumph about the general ignorance of not only Gen Z but many of our otherwise sensible colleagues.
Thank you, Richard. It's exhausting to think about how many otherwise sensible people are completely misinformed (or brainwashed) on these issues.