Coyans in the Czech Republic

Bubble wrapped for your protection

Yesterday at work the teachers had a meeting with the principal and the vice-principal about foreign language classes taught at the school. As always, the meeting got pretty heated. My colleague in the English department was yelled at and told that her ideas were stupid by another teacher. Consoling her back in our office, I was reminded of a conversation that Danny and I had had just a day ago. We were discussing how ,due to the language barrier, embarassment or anger or shock aren't such intense feelings here as in the States. Almost as if we are plastic coated or bubble wrapped by our ignorance for our own protection. It isn't a question of understanding, I understand about 95% of what is going on, it is a question of depth of understanding, intonation and subtleties that we just can't pick up either because of language or cultural barriers. For instance, it is still hard for a Czech person to tell us a Czech joke in Czech. Their sense of humor and timing are different than ours, many of the jokes are imbedded with cultural jabs that escape us and the nuances within the language also come in under our radar. So, we have become masters of knowing when to laugh, when to guffaw and when to smack our friend in the arm because obviously he just told a dirty joke. So, back to this teachers' meeting. At this meeting it was also announced that because I (Krista) needed full-time work this year, one of the other teachers would have to teach one day a week at a different school in a neighboring village so that everyone could have the hours they needed. Normally, being singled out like this would completely horrify me and cause heart palpitations, sweating, anxiety and maybe a case of the runs. But with this magical protective coating that I wear, I understand the situation but don't experience the sharp intensity of emotions related to it. Interesting, eh?