I am currently taking a German class.  I am experiencing deeper depths of my second language with other students from Ukraine, Nigeria, Italy, Japan, China and Afghanistan.  Our Austrian teacher is engaging and motivating, spurring us all toward new heights and cheering us on as we let the harsh Germanic sounds drip off the tips of our tongues.

We entered this class as international strangers.  We end this class as international comrades.  We all speak different languages, come from varied cultures, earn different amounts of money, travel by different forms of transportation, and pledge our allegiances to different kinds of governments.  However, one thing remains the same:  we are all human at our core.

At this point, I must admit my ignorance.  I have discovered my world view is so isolated to my own experience.  Let me give you a few examples.  In a conversation with my classmate from China, I was asking her if she had brothers or sisters.  She gave me a polite, yet weird look and replied: “It is forbidden in my country to have more than one child.”  While talking with my classmate from Ukraine, she told me that she and her husband would make Vienna their home because they can earn more money here than in their homeland. 

Story after story points to one main theme:  living in Vienna means a better life.  My classmates are learning the language to become fluent so they can remain in this country at a stab of a better life than what they could live back home.

I don’t know what it means to sacrifice.  Yes.  I live in a different country.  I can’t run to Wal-Mart or buy over the counter medicines without a prescription.  I have to make my own cream of mushroom soup.  If  I want brownies I make them from scratch.  I live far, far away from friends and family … yet have the ability to Skype or call or email to reconnect.  Sacrifice?

Passing this fluency course for most of my classmates means a ticket to stay in a country where they will earn minimum wages, live in small flats, and join the ranks of  Austrians to live their dream.  Most will continue to be judged by the color of their skin, be racially profiled during random visa checks, and be spoken rudely to by bakery clerks because they are “foreigners”.  This is their “good life”.  You know what?  They are happy as little clams.  They are thrilled that they live in this country.  For them, they are the success stories of their countrymen.  They have reached a level of achievement others dream of and long for.  For me, it’s just everyday life.

I don’t know if I have a good conclusion to my ramblings this morning.  It’s just an opportunity to shine light on a new world perspective.  Maybe for you, it’s just an brief moment to realize that your supermarket not having the lime Jello you needed is really not that big of a deal.  Perhaps our country (I’m speaking to my fellow Americans) is declining by moral, economic or other perils, but no one has issued a decree that we cannot have as many children as we want.  I know gas prices are high, but you have a car.  I know that Bank teller was rude, but you earn a regular paycheck and I doubt if any of us are sending most of it back home to support other family members. 

Sometimes I think we just need to calm down, take a deep breath, and get a different perspective.  That’s what I’m doing this month in my class.  As I conjugate verbs with my little Chinese friend, and discuss the “N deklanation” with my buddy from Italy … I am gaining much more than German language acquisition.  I am gaining a broader world perspective.

How about you?

P.S.  You don't have to answer that out loud.  It's a rhetorical question!