111. I didn’t know you talked so much

One of the evenings when the group of volunteers were in my village assisting in the building of a mini golf course and doing outreach to the community (see last post) a group of youth from the village had a social night with the group.  I was running around trying to help and translate and my Romanian tutor told me that she did not know I talked so much.

I did not really notice, but I was talking a lot more than usual… but at the same time, it is so much easier to speak in English than it is for me to speak in Romanian.  I was speaking a lot with our visitors in English and my confidence was high and I knew most of the Moldovans that were attending the event so I was striking up conversations in Romanian.

Not only did the volunteers’ visit help build a park in the community but they also showed the community that I could speak Romanian and boosted my Romanian confidence.  I am somewhat shy when it comes to meeting new people and even more so when I am trying to meet new people and speaking Romanian.  So by me translating for people and being forced to be more outgoing by the group of volunteers that could not speak Romanian many have observed that I am not really a hermit and can speak some Romanian so they are now more likely to come up to me and speak to me.