On being illiterate

Having learned to read at the age of 6 or 7 most of us have no memory or experience what it is like to not have that ability.  Even when learning another language like French or Spanish or German, we quickly learn how to read those languages (and pronounce the written words), even if we don't always understand the meaning of the words we are looking at; we can quickly recognize the words we do know and get some kind of gist of what is being communicated.

But, imagine not being able to do that at all...

Even though none of us is any expert in Bangla at this point, we all know some number of words as well as names of places and so on.  But, as we haven't learned all of the alphabet yet (we are earnestly studying--check back soon!), we are almost helpless when looking at any kind of text.  It is an odd feeling to have all sorts of education, and yet, have to ask bystanders the meaning of any written information, even a simple sign or advertisement.  What makes it even more frustrating is that many of the signs are actually written in English with Bangla letters.  We could understand much of it just fine were it spoken to us, if only we didn't have to stand there for 5 minutes playing a personal game of multi-lingual Jeopardy in our heads (...I know 3 letters in that word and 2 in that one... can I figure it out?, but what language is it written in?).

And, don't think you can get by without asking dumb questions, either--for a dumb question picture someone in the US asking where the bakery is, right underneath a giant bakery sign.  That sign on the door you walk up to inside the restaurant could say "danger, high voltage" or "women's restroom" or "office, knock before entering".  An elementary school child here in some ways navigates around the world easier than we could by ourselves just thanks to a little literacy.  Luckily, we don't have to do much alone, and often those around us know some English and usually don't expect us to understand what we are looking at in Bangla anyways.  So, next time you run into that foreigner with a heavy accent in the US asking for help but who is having trouble understanding you, be extra nice, because we are receiving the balance of that kindness out here.