The language learning curve

One of the reasons I wanted to live in another country was because I wanted to understand a little bit more about what my immigrant/refugee patients experience in the US.

Even though we are speaking English, I sometimes have difficulty understanding what people are saying, and on the phone it is even worse.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a pt's house doing a postpartum visit. I asked where I could put the baby scale and she said, from another room, "put it on the bench." I looked in that room, no bench, I looked near the room, no bench, so I asked: "is it okay to put it on the table?" She said: "yes."
I thought to myself, she is postpartum, sleep-deprived, maybe her husband moved the bench...because I saw there was no bench. I didn't want to point out the obvious to her.

NOW two weeks later, I learn that a "BENCH" in NZ can be a counter top or table top. She wanted me to put the baby scale on the "bench" that was the tabletop.

We are speaking the same language, but with different interpretations.

This is even more apparent on the rural country roads which are unfamiliar. The man at the petrol station said: "Go left at the town hall--take your first left, then right over the bridge." So I went left, left and then PANIC. Do I need to go right, before I go over the bridge or do I go RIGHT over the bridge?

MANY times, I fake it. I get about 75% of what they are saying but am too embarassed to say over and over "what?", "can you repeat that?" This makes me REALLLLLLY compassionate to non-English speakers.

I really thought if I talked slowly, in my best Midwestern accented voice, and enunciated my words, using little words, that my patient "got" what I said. I bet they had significantly less understanding than I perceived. And thus, I am humbled a million times over for my English second language or non-English-speaking patients. It makes your brain hurt always trying to grasp conversations.