My trip to Russia in May of 2006 had great impact on me. It raised my conciousness of my internal disconnect and lack of a complete identity. I also remembered what it is like to be in a country where I do not speak or understand the language. All of my travels in the past ten years have been within Latin America and the Caribbean; to countries whose languages I speak. My level of fluency in Spanish is such that I can switch back and forth between English and Spanish effortlessly. It requires no thought or translation for me to use the Spanish language. In addition, I am extremely comfortable in the cultures which I have recently spent time in. I feel totally at ease and at home in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. I had forgotten what it is like to really feel like a foreigner. Despite (obviously) my awareness that in Russia, I would not know the language, upon arrival, I was taken aback by the realization that I really did not understand. (My mother was born and rasied in Russia and we were visiting family... who I could not communicate with)
This experience with language compounded by all of the people I met and places I visited, made me acutely aware of the importance of learning the language and garnering a greater understanding of the culture(s) of that part of the world.
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