When we decided to stop dreaming and start planning for an extended time outside the United States, one of the considerations was whether it had to be to a place where English was the primary language. My partner is an English-only guy who does incredibly well getting his daily needs met in any country we’ve visited, regardless of language barriers. Day to day living and casual conversation work just fine, but deep connection is harder, it just is, when one or both of you is operating at a beginner language level. So, we thought, we’ll go to Ireland, problem solved.
Not so fast. It turns out that the privilege we enjoy around the world of being English speakers doesn’t exempt us from the possibility of getting lost in translation anyway. Currency conversion is one thing, but the mental math of moving abroad permeates every aspect of life.
The United States is one of only three countries in the world that hasn’t adopted the metric system for day to day living. Go anywhere else, and you’ll find yourself multiplying and dividing all day long and consulting conversion charts all day long.
Cooking your favorite recipes for a taste of home? First, you’ll have to get the ingredients and convert the weights and measures. Once in a while you’ll buy way too much and once in a while not nearly enough. Then, you’ll figure out what temperature to select on that Centigrade oven. Oh, and watch what you’re doing when you wash and dry your clothes, too.
Speaking of Fahrenheit to Centigrade, there’s the weather to consider. Is it subtract 32° times 5/9, or add 32° times 9/5, or do they even teach that in school anymore?
Want to go clothes shopping? Your U.S. size 6 shoe is a European 36 in Ireland, unless it happens to be a British brand in which case it might be 4, which is actually a European 37. You might as well forget about vanity sizing in clothes, too. That size 6 ideal in the United States? Sorry, you’re a size 10 now.
Of course there is technology that you can use to spit out conversions and let you avoid immersing yourself in the metric world. At first that’s probably what you’ll do, but it would be a shame to get stuck there. If you lean in, pretty soon you’ll know without translating that a cold water wash is 20°, that most things cook at about 180°, and when the forecast is for a high of 30° is really hot if there’s no air conditioning.
There you go, you learned a foreign language after all.
(Also published on my Substack)