During these four amazing days in Budapest, Hungary, I had the privilege of attending a cultural, religious, and social experiment that has truly changed my life for the better. Throughout this incredible journey, I not only learned a plethora of information regarding Hungary’s culture, history and even government, but I also became the greatest of friends with people I would otherwise never have the chance. One component I found extremely astonishing was the language barrier between us and how we overcame it.
At the beginning of the trip, I didn’t know what to expect regarding the complexity/depth of their linguistic skills. I could only imagine how difficult for us it will be to communicate with them—I would have been happy if we could maintain a simple conversation about the food at their school. I was immediately shocked by the understanding and ability of most of the kids. With the occasional repeated sentence, I found that conversing with the kids living on the opposite side of the world was little to no challenge at all.
Following my brief excitement over the simplicity of our task, we went to the escape room activity. (An escape room activity is a small group placed in a room filled with clues with the task of using the combination of the clues to unlock the door… Don’t worry it’s very safe.) As we divided into groups, I coincidentally ended in a group filled with Hungarians. I was thrilled with the opportunity to grow closer with my new-found friends, however, I had not anticipated the difficulty of the task at hand. As soon as the clock began ticking down, I felt an avalanche of foreign words hurdling towards me. In the rush of excitement, the Hungarians laughed at themselves for forgetting my disability. My Hungarian teammates kindly translated as we read the letter left as the first clue. After reading the entire letter, going back and forth with the painstaking translation, we clumsily noticed the English version on the back. Throughout the activity, we laughed and joked over the clues lost in translation.
On Friday night, this communication barrier proved to be no challenge at all as we split into our separate groups for the DMC. In the guys’ group we discussed what Judaism means for each of us. Every single one of us fluently expressed our beliefs in English conveying true depth and meaning with every explanation. I could not believe that these kids who live in a whole different country and experience Judaism in entirely different way could relay such powerful ideals in a language not their own.
Throughout this amazing experience and overcoming the challenge of speaking different languages, I recognized the importance of not only hearing what someone has to say but also listening to understand. It is very easy for me to just nod my head and say yes multiple times. However, investing in a conversation with a Hungarian student, listening for the purpose of understanding, conceptualizing another’s ideas is crucial to the foundation of inter-continental and intra-religious dialogue. All in all, I am so glad I had the unique opportunity to meet such amazing people, share such wonderful traditions, and learn such interesting ideas.
