Sententi-seis?"

The young woman scans the crowded room with her eyes. Oh, yes, seventy-six.... That's me! I hold up my paper number and wave her attention.

"Si, hola." I say grinning, and then I look past her. There are rolls, pastries, croissants, and cookies piled high on the counter, in the display case, and in the baskets lining the walls. I came here just for the bread but this bakery always tempts me with it's huge variety of treats.

"Queiro pan" I say. She looks at me puzzled. My accent was way off- I said "pen" instead of "pan". Then she smiles and says with a slight shake of her head "pen-ne?" Ummm... sure I think, I must be off on what word to say, I nod and grin.

"Si, Si pene". She laughs out loud, and so do the other girls behind the counter. Frustrated I point to the rolls, "Queiro esta." Laughing she gathers rolls for me and moves on to the next customer.

It was two weeks later, while talking to my friend, Celeste, that I even realized what had happened. I actually went into a bakery and used the word for penis instead of bread. This was my most embarrassing moment so far as a foreigner living in Argentina. Not the only one and probably not the last one.

Learning as much of the local language that you can before you move abroad is absolutely essential to a successful adjustment. There are many options and approaches to language learning. If it's a common enough language like Spanish, that's spoken in many countries, it may be as easy as signing up for a course at your local community college, or paging through the classifieds for a tutor. However if your destination is Slovenia, finding a local tutor in Slovenian is probably a pointless and impossible task. Even in this case you don't want to show up cold, with no language skills at all. There are always audio programs like Pimsleur that you can play in your car. Textbooks that can be searched out on Amazon.com and language exchange websites where you can practice your skills with native speakers who are trying to master English.

When we first decided to move to South America, our original destination was southern Brazil. Learning Portuguese locally was notpossible, so we spent six months driving around with the Pimsleur tapes and studying our textbook. We were excited and eager to progress. And progress we did..... Rapidly. As we finished the last tape of 30 in the Portuguese #1 program, we discovered we would be unable to get the visa we had hoped for. Brazil was no longer an option so we reluctantly moved on to our second choice, San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina.

It's a smaller city than we wanted, but most of our reluctance came from starting over with the language. Neither my husband nor I had any experience with Spanish, and we had just spent so much time working on Portuguese that we now wouldn't ever be using in real life. Disheartened, we started from scratch with Pimsleur Spanish and found a teacher locally to work with the children, who's classes we sat in on.

The problem with a language like Spanish or French that's spoken in many countries is that sometimes words have different meanings in different countries. For example in Mexico the word "morado" is purple, but in Argentina the word "morado" means one is black and blue or bruised. The Spanish tapes we had were for Mexican Spanish, and the teacher we found was from Columbia, but we picked up what we could in the three months before our move. I didn't want to be unable to speak .

Unfortunately, despite our efforts our language skills were woefully inadequate upon arrival. We could handle greetings and knew how to ask for things like "Where is a taxi?", but when faced with locals speaking rapidly and confidently, we were instantly flustered. Like most travelers this initial lack of confidence faded after just a few days as our needs outweighed our embarrassment. There are several things we did to help us navigate in this new Spanish environment. It was always helpful to have a small blank notebook to jot down words to look up later, or to draw a picture or diagram of what you are trying to say. For a while we also carried a pocket dictionary with us, which is helpful when you feel desperate, but can be very awkward.

Ordering in a restaurant and talking to shopkeepers were the most basic skills that we had mastered after about a month. This is all that's needed for travelers, and our study proved sufficient for this. Of course, we needed to do more than buy groceries and order coffee. We needed an apartment, we needed to find a school to send our kids to, and a local doctor. These tasks required a better grasp of the language. By connecting with other expatriates we were able to begin our school search. We focused on bilingual schools, so there was usually an English speaker available to talk with us. In cases where this was impossible we leaned on the dictionary and the notebook . If we were meeting in an office setting it also helped to sign their computer onto a website like babelfish.com and use the automatic translator. This was something we did with our realtor and with one of the local schools and while it was a bit uncomfortable there's no denying it worked.

As the months went on we hired a tutor for ourselves and one for the kids and continued our studies. Different people have different learning styles, and aptitudes for language learning. Some people pick up languages with incredible ease, while some of us struggle for months on end. My husband found it was helpful to expand his vocabulary by sitting and reading our dictionary whenever he had the chance. For him it worked wonders, for me I was rewarded with a headache. He also always wanted to move on to the next audio lesson once he got the general idea, but I liked to go over it and over it until my responses were automatic. The most effective approach for me has been using flash cards and drilling the new words into my memory. We have both found listening to the radio to be extremely helpful.

Last autumn I stood in the afternoon sun waiting for a bus, when a mildly retarded man approached the bus shelter. He walked right up to each person in the queue and gave them a hug. Like good humored Argentines they all tolerated him and his inappropriate greeting. He came over to me and embraced me as well. Then he asked in perfect English. "Where are you from?" I answered him slightly embarrassed. Then he proceeded to ask me many other questions. All of them in English and he understood me if I responded in either English, or Spanish. I realized that day that anyone can be bilingual. If you have a learning disability it may take a bit longer but it's just a matter of effort.

Something else I've learned since moving here is how limited the world is for monolingual people. It's like being able to see out of only one eye. In every language there's a rich library of literature, and a vast collection of films, and songs that cannot be fully appreciated until you've mastered it. Then of course there's the opportunity to learn about another culture and befriend people who don't speak your own language. Bilingual people see the world with two eyes. The colors are the same but there's more depth and richness. I've finally opened my second eye. It's still blurry and sometimes I get a headache looking through it, but it's there and getting stronger all the time.

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