After I bought the cookies which I mentioned in my last blog post, Stan, who is my site mate, who is the other PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) here in town, and I walked to a café here in town, where we sat down to have some coffee. Seeing as it was nearly 8 p.m., and knowing how sensitive I am to the effects of caffeine, I resolved to make sure to order a beverage which would be unlikely to keep me awake. Thus, I told myself to make sure that I was saying the right thing to the waiter. After the waiter asked for my order, I thought to myself, "OK, 'qahwa mhersa' means 'coffee with a little milk,' so that's what I want to make sure that I order." I then quite confusedly asked him for a qahwa mhersa. When it arrived, I looked at it, and how it appeared darker than I expected it to be, and kind of just shrugged in my mind.
Later that night, lying in bed, eyes wide awake, I began to think about how I was so alert, and not at all sleepy. Usually before 10 p.m., my eyelids begin to get a little heavy. Then I realized that I had not ordered milk with a little coffee (which many Moroccans order), but rather the opposite, coffee with a little milk. I couldn't believe it. I thought of how I had translated the Arabic words into English in my head. I didn't fail to correctly translate them. I correctly translated them in my head; I just didn't process the English words well.
I have to imagine that, as a PCV specifically here in Morocco, where many Moroccans know English to varying degrees, I am less prone to this phenomenon of stumbling with English than PCVs are in other countries where natives speak less English than they do here in Morocco, or even no English at all. Then again, I don't know. I've heard stories of PCVs in countries where the PCVs never speak English with the natives. After being in such countries for months, those PCVs burst into a room of other PCVs, and immediately start randomly and quickly spouting English, borne of a lack of opportunities to speak English for months.
Maybe it's just that whenever one lives in a foreign country where one is speaking less English than one was accustomed to speaking back in the U.S., one will experience displacement of English abilities, no matter in what country one currently resides. I have to imagine that that is why another PCV here in Morocco asked me and other PCVs earlier this year, "Does 'E-Y-E' spell a word?"
Later that night, lying in bed, eyes wide awake, I began to think about how I was so alert, and not at all sleepy. Usually before 10 p.m., my eyelids begin to get a little heavy. Then I realized that I had not ordered milk with a little coffee (which many Moroccans order), but rather the opposite, coffee with a little milk. I couldn't believe it. I thought of how I had translated the Arabic words into English in my head. I didn't fail to correctly translate them. I correctly translated them in my head; I just didn't process the English words well.
I have to imagine that, as a PCV specifically here in Morocco, where many Moroccans know English to varying degrees, I am less prone to this phenomenon of stumbling with English than PCVs are in other countries where natives speak less English than they do here in Morocco, or even no English at all. Then again, I don't know. I've heard stories of PCVs in countries where the PCVs never speak English with the natives. After being in such countries for months, those PCVs burst into a room of other PCVs, and immediately start randomly and quickly spouting English, borne of a lack of opportunities to speak English for months.
Maybe it's just that whenever one lives in a foreign country where one is speaking less English than one was accustomed to speaking back in the U.S., one will experience displacement of English abilities, no matter in what country one currently resides. I have to imagine that that is why another PCV here in Morocco asked me and other PCVs earlier this year, "Does 'E-Y-E' spell a word?"
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