It’s not a language barrier, it’s a language BARRIER. I’m trying to talk to new people. The thing that I didn’t expect is that I run out of things to talk about very soon. It didn’t happen when I used to talk in Persian language. It’s like most of my nerve cells are just trying to translate and understand the other person’s words and there will not be enough cells to think about what I’m going to say in the next steps. There are just some cliché questions that I ask one after another: What’s your name? Where are you from? What do you study? Is it your first semester? And BOOM! After that, I can’t talk about anything else.
For the first time after some years, I’m still feeling socially awkward. But I’m not disappointed. I know that I have to trust in the process and don’t give up. I know I have to keep trying to talk to people until I feel comfortable in the new language. I’m not going to give up just because of some unsuccessful attempts. If I have learned one thing from all of my failures, that’s it: Just don’t give up and trust in the process.
I’ll continue to meet new people and talk to them until I feel completely confident.