An American Foreigner trapped in a Windmill
March 23, 2011 by admin | Filed under Life Abroad, The Netherlands.
An American Foreigner trapped in a Windmill
Who is this woman?
Unrecognizable, boring, quiet
Foreign tongues engage in lively gibberish
Yet she is the foreigner here
In her distant home
She feels homeless isolation
Animated conversation bounces around her brain
And is lost to translation
Who she is, is hidden behind her silent expressions
Her inner truths imprisoned unto her singular vocabulary
Her intelligence minimized down to small
Childish phrases and words
Limited to a language spoken by a culture that dominates the world
Who is this woman?
Uninteresting, calm, solemn
The word weaver, the verb dancer
Silenced by unknown words
May 15th, 1998
Written to express my frustration on knowing very little Dutch after living in the Netherlands as a Love Immigrant© for about 3 weeks and feeling like my very essence was vanishing.
Julia Ann Ferguson
Tags: acculturation, Dutch language, expat, frustration, love immigrant, the Netherlands
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