My first parent meeting in Danish

written by Lindsay

Cavan's day care had a "Parent Meeting" tonight, and I decided that I would attend. I knew it would be difficult to keep up, but I viewed it as an opportunity to hone my still shaky Danish skills. There are about 100 children in the whole day care, ages 1 1/2 to 6 - I would guess about half of the parents showed up. For the first 30 minutes or so we were all in one room, and the institution leader talked about the changes that have taken place in the organization of the day care over the past year. I could follow along on a very basic level, but most of it was over my head since they were talking about finances and allocation of resources (I assume).

The rest of the meeting we spent in smaller groups, according to our children's age groups. Maria, the pedagog in Cavan's room, led the discussion. She told us about the typical day for the children, and parents jumped in at times with suggestions for how things might run more smoothly. For the first hour, I felt like I was following along quite well. And then toward the end, everyone started talking faster and faster....more people talking at once...topics changing every few minutes...like any meeting, people go off on their tangents. There's only so much a brain can take, however, and I think mine shut down there temporarily.

I left the meeting feeling somewhat proud of myself. In just over 6 months, I have learned enough of this completely new foreign language to understand at least a little bit when people are talking at normal speed. And I also left fighting back tears. It is very hard work being a foreigner and quite depressing at times. You don't quite know what's going on, and once you figure it out, you don't know quite what to say, and then once you've formulated a thought in your head, the topic has already moved on to something else. I'm sure if I'd been attending this meeting in my native language, I would have had lots to say. But I sat there as silent as a rock, hoping no one would speak to me or ask me questions.

Of course, everyone here does speak at least a little English, and Cavan's pedagog (lead caregiver) Maria actually speaks it quite well. She came up to me after the meeting and gave me a hug and told me that she thought I was doing well, and to ask her if I ever don't understand what's going on. It's so helpful to have that support there, to have someone acknowledge that you might be confused. It's a steep learning curve no matter how you slice it, but people like Maria make it feel less impossible. We are really quite lucky.