Then
The first time I traveled to France, I was sixteen. To make up for her various cruelties (or perhaps this was just another of them), my French teacher wrote such a glowing recommendation to the exchange program that they placed me with a family that spoke no English at all.
It was fine. My host sister and I could talk about differences, interests, families; we could go to the beach and to a heavy metal concert and to a bar with my host sister’s friends. It was fine.
Well.
If I had one complaint, it might be that there is a substantial difference between being able to say things in a language and being able to speak it.
I couldn’t get into the dynamics of my bizarrely blended family, and I still don’t fully understand the deal with the gay couple living with her parents above their store while she stayed alone at their place on the beach.
I couldn’t explain why “Hollywood Chewing Gum” wouldn’t sell in the U.S.–at least, not on the jaded and sarcastic coasts (this, of course, was when just being U.S.-themed was still a big selling point practically everywhere else).
I couldn’t explain why I nearly died laughing when the “heavy metal band”–which turned out to include a young man playing a saxophone–started playing Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” Which they sang in heavily-accented English. Instead, my host sister’s friends crowded around me to ask for a translation of the lyrics.
Which I also couldn’t explain.
And Now
Nick is stranded in a country where he has no access to nuance.
Can you imagine trying to buy a full set of kitchen appliances without nuance? We went to get a toaster oven, and wound up with a mini-oven that, it turns out, has no toast feature. You have to turn the temperature dial and set the timer before it will heat up at all, and I have so much guilt over it (even though Nick swears that it is still very useful) that I was relieved to be out of the country for things like the refrigerator.
Would you want to be responsible for picking out a refrigerator in a country where you cannot for the life of you tell the difference between a shower curtain and a fabric shower liner? Or where an elderly woman off the street basically calls you a liar when you are unable to adequately explain that, while you understand her in general, you didn’t catch the first thing she asked you? Or where you can say, “I turned the key and opened the door,” but never “I unlocked the door?”
Think about it. Think about never saying “I unlocked the door.” Then go price washer/dryer combos.