I have a friend from Lithuania and I love her dearly. We just finished traveling to Ireland and Portugal together and during our trip our language differences became apparent, at least, to me. I came to realize that while she speaks English well (B1-B2 level) there was this pervasive feeling that I'll never truly know her because the language she best expresses herself in is, naturally, Lithuanian. While in Ireland we stayed with some of her lithuanian relatives there and every so often she wanted to say something but didnt know the best way to say it in English so she asked her relatives in Lithuanian for help (her relatives have lived in ireland since childhood and speak very good english). These occasional exchanges really hit home that there may be so many nuances to her that I may never learn about because I dont speak Lithuanian (well).This reality leaves me with this claustrophobic-like feeling that eats at me. I am learning Lithuanian and I spoke with her and her family in Ireland but I am at best A2 so my ability to say anything profound is non-existent still lol not coincidentally it seemed that some of our happiest exchanges were when I asked her questions about speaking in Lithuanian. Anyway, has anyone else dealt with this sort of thing and if so, how did you remedy it?
Sidenote: I have a number of Lithuanian friends who contribute to my desire to learn lithuanian, not just this one person, although she alone would be more than enough motivation to learn her language.
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from Tere tulemast | Languagelearning https://ift.tt/2RDKvQp
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