Two Little Girls Broke The Language Barrier

It was Springtime, and Kelsy, a beautiful Danish Girl was looking forward to a vacation to the Greek Island of Crete. Kelsy did not fully understand how far Crete was because she was only 6 years old. But her mom told her that it’s very beautiful there, it’s warm and the sea is very blue, and there is lots of sand to build sandcastles.

They were supposed to travel In May, and Kelsy was driving her mom crazy, every morning she would ask, is it today we are going to the airport? Then the mom would say “No Kelsy, I told you it’s next week’’ Kelsy was very excited.

Kelsy Could Not Go With Her Best friend Julie, And That Made Her Sad

But there was one problem when she asked if her best friend Julie was coming too, she was told that her best friend cannot go. This news was not received well by Kelsy, she wondered why her best friend couldn’t come with them to Crete.

They used to go places together, the previous summer they went to Julie’s Parents Summer house, and they had a wonderful time. And Julie also has spent lots of vacations with Kelsy’s family, so the fact that this time Kelsy was traveling without Julie was not a very good thing.

When the day finally came, Kelsy Called her best Friend and said “oh I am gonna miss you so much, Julie” then It was time to get ready.

Although Kelsy had traveled by plane before, she could not remember, so this was like her very first flight. It was late in the afternoon when they landed at Chania airport. To them, it was very hot. Although for people like us who live on the island, May is not really hot. But for people who are coming from Scandinavia, it’s quite hot.

For Kelsy, Crete Was Quite Warm And Felt Like a Very Hot Summer Day In Denmark

Kelsy told her mom that she was very hot and she wanted to take off her jacket, she did so and took off her boots too, she wore a pair of flipflops, and that felt better. They proceeded to drive to where they were going to stay for the next 3 weeks.

Little Sofia, was playing with her toys outside her house when she saw the car approaching, she had never seen that car before. She stood up to observe, and as the car stopped, out came this blond girl, and a lady who Sofia assumed is the little girl’s mother. The girl looked as if she could be the same size as Sofia, but when Sofia looked closely, she noticed the girl was a little taller than her.

The Girls Didn’t Know Why They Couldn’t Understand Each Other

Kelsy, noticed, the girl, her long shiny brown hair blowing in the wind slightly as she got up to take a look at the guests. She approached Kelsy and said something that Kelsy didn’t understand. Kelsy replied and asked her why her Danish sounded different.

Sofia told her that they should play. I was observing as the two little girls tried to navigate the language barrier, only they did not understand that there was a language barrier. Little Sofia, asked me in Greek, why doesn’t she speak Greek properly? Me with my limited Greek, I told Sofia that Kelsy was not speaking Greek, that she was speaking Danish.

Now the problem came when Kelsy asked me to explain to her in Danish what was happening, I was in trouble because my Danish is worse than my Greek,  I told Her mom that Kelsy wants to know why Sofia was not speaking Danish properly.

We’ve Been Friends With The Family For a Long Time, So They Came To Visit Us

See, Kelsy’s Parents have been friends of ours for a long time, and we have visited them a few times in Denmark, so it was their turn to visit us. We had invited them to come and celebrate my birthday and also have a vacation.

The little girls somehow found a way to communicate and Kelsy took out her toys, and they started playing. I could not believe it, I watched them, and I said to myself, why can’t we be as pure as little children. These two little girls didn’t look the same, they did not speak the same language, they had never seen each other before this day, and here they were now laughing and playing together.

Goodbyes Were Not Easy For The Girls

By the end of the week, the girls were doing everything together, they would go to the beach, swim, play eat, and play some more. They played all kinds of games, they would also draw, watch tv, and generally just have fun.

And all this time, they were mainly communicating by sign language especially when there was no one to translate. that did not bother them at all.

Then came the time for Kelsy to leave, it was a very sad day for the girls Sofia’s grandmother explained to Sofia, that Kelsy has to go now, they hugged and cried, and Kelsy wanted Sofia to come with her to Denmark, she said Sofia can join her School and they could be going to school together.

Sofia on the other hand wanted Kelsy to stay so she can join her School. The parents had a hard time explaining the situation. The girls exchanged the drawings that they have been working on and reluctantly said their goodbyes.

Conclusion

I learned a very big lesson during those 3 weeks, watching those children. It showed me just how wonderful the world would be if we could just accept one another, and just learn to co-exist peacefully with one another.

Our differences should not divide us but instead should bring us together as we try to learn from one another, by the time Kelsy left, she knew a few words in Greek, and Sofia knew, a few words in Danish. They knew how to say come play, let’s go eat, water, hi, etc.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this story, and I hope that you will be open to people around you even if they don’t look like you, or speak the same language as you. Please leave me a comment below, I would love to read your views on this topic.

Thank you for your time.  

Rose is a blogger at letsworkinpjs.com

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