The Question

The other day we went out to lunch after church with a group of friends from the Deaf church that we have been attending since we have been living here in Romania.  Our new friends have been very gracious and patient while they teach us Romanian Sign Language (RomSL).  Carolyn and I have made substantial progress in our basic conversational ability, but we are still sorting a lot of the basics out. If I’m truthful, I will admit that there are times that I do not completely understand what our new friends are saying, but often I can understand the main concepts.

While we were waiting for our food at the restaurant, I was chatting with our friend Toma in RomSL and he was telling me about his work.   So, I asked him where he works.  Specifically, I used the following three signs: where, work, & you.   As soon as I finished my question, he looked at me quizzically, as if I should already know the answer.  My first thought was, “Oh no, I hope he didn’t just tell me and I misunderstood!”  He answered me, nonetheless, and he signed the following 3 signs: “because, children, have”. My second thought was that maybe I misunderstood/mistranslated what he said, and he actually said something about him working with children or something like that.  But, that still didn’t explain his quizzical look!  Next, I decided to reevaluate the question I asked him, which if you remember, was “Where do you work?”

In thinking about my question, I realized that once again, I was the source of the confusion. You see, I realized that I did not ask what I tried to ask!   Instead, I asked him why he works instead of asking him where he works.  Oops.  After laughing at myself, and then telling Toma that I didn’t mean “why”, and that I actually meant “where” he was laughing with me.  He did eventually answer my intended question though.  But, I didn’t really understand his answer.

Maybe I’ll ask him again in another few weeks when my RomSL skills are a little better.

In other news, I have decided to be more compassionate when people who are learning English mix up their question words and ask me thing like, “When is your name?” or “What do you live?”