E.S.L.

Have you tried to learn any another language? When I arrive in the US, my biggest problem was language differences between here and Turkey. I have been in difficult situations many times because I could not speak English very well. I have two memories from that time I can never forget.
One time, I went to Wal-Mart for printing my film. When I got there, I recognized that I had one more frame of film left. I saw one man who was around 70 years old. He was working there and giving shopping carts to people. Before I gave the film for printing, I decided to ask him if he could take my picture. He smiled and said “sure.” He put on his Wal-Mart uniform and posed. I was surprised because I was trying to give him my camera to take my picture but he was waiting for me to take his picture. Suddenly, I understood that I had told him “Can I take your picture?” instead of “Can you take my picture?” but I didn’t tell him that I asked wrongly because he had already posed and also seemed so happy. Finally, I took his picture. It was so funny. The picture is still in my album and people who see his picture ask me “Who is that guy?” and I explain to them what happened on that day.

My other funny experience happened at the Texas Roadhouse, which is on Rockville Road. I was on my first date with a girl. We went to the steakhouse and we had a great dinner and chat. We were trying to understand each other because my English was not good enough to understand and talk to him. Most of the time, we were using our body language, but anyway everything was ok until I went to the restroom. I walked to the restroom area and started to stare at the doors because one of them says “gal” and the other one says “guy.” I know man-woman, girl-boy, lady-gentleman but I didn’t know guy or gal. I had never seen these before. In Turkey, restroom doors have signs with men’s and women’s shoes or hats on them. This time they wrote gal and guy! I had no idea about their meaning. After I looked and waited a little while I decided to try one of the doors because I knew that he was watching me. I tried and I was wrong. I was in the woman’s restroom. Suddenly I went back and I entered to the other door. I was so embarrassed because he saw me. Actually, I made fun of myself more than he made fun of me and I told that it was going to be our secret.
I am pretty sure that many people have a problem like me on their first visit to the United States. I had a really hard time when I came here because I could not speak English well. I believe that it is difficult to live here if you don’t know enough English.

Ozgur Coskun

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