A cause for celebration

For the first time since the end of July, I have worked a full work-week.

I now work my regular job on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and my new job on Thursday and Friday. I really feel it is quite an accomplishment to be working full-time in my field, in a country that speaks another language. Finding work was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Everyone can expect the job hunt to be time-consuming and a kick to your pride, but the extra step of translating every piece of info I could find was a huge necessity that I didn't account for.

Job#2 is with a small group of people and run by a husband and wife team from a studio in their home. The husband is the founder of a very well-known and successful graphic design studio, and the wife is an established interior designer. Their intentions with this new (yet to be named) studio is to bring together the two disciplines and offer a service that doesn't just create commercial spaces, but also provides all the graphic material that accompanies it. For example, a new store opened today that the studio designed both the identity and the interior simultaneously. A very good idea!

I'm quite excited because I've wanted to try some environmental design but didn't know how to get into the field. Well, here I am, and I still don't know how I got here.

Working in Holland is not as easy as I thought it would be. I'm not talking about my qualifications, I mean just being at work is harder than expected. In Job #1, it's just the owner and I and – when she's not on the phone, or no one is visiting – English is the language spoken in the studio. Even then, sometimes it's really challenging to express ourselves and have one another understand. In addition, all the projects I have worked on are in Dutch. One of the first thing we were taught at school is to read the text before you design with it. Well, I read it, but understanding it is a whole separate task. I can't take anything for granted; every minor detail takes an effort to understand. (One day when my boss was in a meeting, I spent easily ten minutes trying to figure out how to send an email, and discovered it only after translating all the menu choices.)

At Job #2, there six or seven people and obviously they all speak Dutch. It's quite isolating to be the only one that doesn't speak a language because I am left out of every conversation that is occurring from large, important discussions, to asking if anyone wants some coffee. (FYI: Usually I can understand the later, but it takes me a few seconds to comprehend and by the time I turn around to answer, the asker has scurried off to the kitchen.) Obviously, I don't get any of the jokes.

I don't mean to sound as though this is traumatic or depressing. Obviously it gets kind of lonely, and I'm frustrated at myself for my lack of contribution. It's a new experience for me, and I don't think it's a bad one. I don't expect everyone to speak English just because I'm around.

On a brighter note, my comprehension is definitely improving. Now I can usually understand what people are talking about, although the specifics are lost. I've learned that Dutch-speaking people, just like English-speaking people, also have plenty of meaningless conversations. This might not sound like breaking news, but for the last 3 and a half months, I have listened to every conversation around me so carefully that each deserved to be quite profound. Well, it turns out all this time people were talking about rush hour, their cat, and stupid movies.

How nice it is to hear this! I'm sure this might not sound like anything too exciting, but I haven't overheard (and understood) someone else's conversation in all this time. As a result, I haven't joined in on a conversation, either. It's a small thing, but it wasn't until I couldn't that I realized how important it is.

I'm not joining in, yet. I usually just sit there and listen, and listen, and don't speak unless I'm spoken too. I feel bad interrupting a conversation to speak English. (Think about it, I have no verbal cues to know when is a good time to change topics.) I am looking forward to that day when I can actually contribute something worthwhile. I imagine my audience will be as surprised as I will.