September 10th, 2008
Good communication between home exchangers is always important. But when you don’t share a common language with your home exchange partner, communication becomes essential for a successful swap. Don’t hesitate to raise any remaining issues that you might have and leave detailed instructions about your home before the swap begins. To give you an example, I sent a simplified version of our personal Home Exchange Guide (Google translated into Spanish) to the Spanish home exchangers a few weeks before the swap. That gave them enough time to ask further questions.
In return, little posts in English stuck to kitchen cabinets helped us to orient ourselves, when we arrived at their apartment. (It always touches me to find such thoughtful and caring signs left behind to ease the trip of the home exchange guests.)
Despite our careful preparations we still encountered a misunderstanding due to the language barrier at the last minute. The Spanish home exchangers arrived at the train station in Tutzing where we live and picked up our car. In the car, they found a bunch of keys among them car and house key - just as agreed (or so I thought). Our direct neighbors had an additional house key for emergencies…
The Spanish home exchangers arrived after a flight across Europe and a long train ride, only to find out that the neighbor who was supposed to have our house key was not home. Imagine the situation! Luckily, I had informed several of our neighbors of our expected home exchange guests. One of them called us on our mobile – meanwhile we were crossing and enjoying the vast Catalonian landscape on our way to the Pyrenees. It took only a moment to explain that our house key had been there all along.
At last, the way was cleared for a joyful stay of the Spanish home exchangers at our home!
Tags: Communication, Home Exchange, Pyrenees, Spain
Posted in Editor's Swap Adventures, Pyrenees | No Comments »
September 9th, 2008
What seemed trying to push our luck a bit too far not long ago, became a new challenge this early year, when we received a very interesting home exchange offer from Spain. It was composed in Spanish. My husband’s Spanish language skills would have been very usefully now, but as he was unavailable due to a very heavy workload, I could not resort to his wonderful language abilities. My Spanish is literally “nada”, but since I am the one doing our personal home exchange corresponding normally anyway, I decided to try something new.
Google translation of the home exchange invitation. The result was not too good. The translation tool hadn’t recognized some of the words. These words were placed in Spanish within the English translation. The syntax was baffling. However, I was able to understand the overall message. I liked the message and it felt good, but I needed some more reassurance whether I could trust my own judgment under the circumstances.
I sent the email to a friend – a native of Argentina. On the phone, he translated the message word for word for me. His first comment was: “This is a very polite, kind letter”. He only confirmed what had showed through the imperfect Google translation already.
After consulting with my family, I replied favorably to the home exchange offer. I wrote my message in English and added the Spanish Google translation for easier reading. And that is how I kept up my correspondence with the Spanish home exchangers.
A last language hurdle before the home exchange arrival, next…
Tags: Language Barrier, Successful Home Exchange
Posted in Editor's Swap Adventures, Pyrenees | No Comments »
September 1st, 2008
Have you ever turned down a home exchange offer because of communication problems? I am not talking about misunderstandings that can arise sometimes in communicating with a potential swapper. I am talking about the challenge of overcoming a language barrier.
No doubt, English is the lingua franca among home exchangers. With so many other languages spoken, especially in Europe, it could happen though, that you receive a home exchange offer composed in French, Italian, Spanish, or in another unfamiliar language.
Is it possible and advisable to do a home exchange under such circumstances?
A few years ago and with less home exchange experiences to count on, I always immediately and politely turned down such offers. Communicating is such a vital part of a successful home exchange. No wonder, I did not feel comfortable trying to arrange a home exchange under the circumstances.
And that is what I still advise today. If you are new to home exchange, get yourself familiar with the concept first, before tackling the language barrier.
Next, for the advanced home exchanger: How to successfully overcome a language barrier.
Tags: Communication, Home Exchange, Language Barrier
Posted in Editor's Swap Adventures, Pyrenees | No Comments »
June 10th, 2007
- Departure from the tower
Sadly we left the tower and our Tuscan paradise today – just now, that the hot summer weather arrived. Patrik and I got up very early this morning to greet the new day on the observation platform for the last time. Miasma was hanging over the small valleys below while the sun was just rising, gently melting away the fog. We admired the swallows below catching insects with much grace and high speed.
On our various excursions throughout the region, we have met some wonderful people. A few of them were intrigued about home exchange and offered to list their homes with JewettStreet. In the weeks to come I would like to introduce them and their homes to you on the JewettStreet Blog.
You might have wondered why you couldn’t find the tower in our listings. The tower owner simply was so overwhelmed with home exchange offers when he first tested the concept that he decided to try another approach. He is now a member of JewettStreet. At present, his parents would like to find a home exchange in California. So, you Californians out there, if you get a request from a tower owner in Tuscany, don’t be surprised!
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June 9th, 2007
It was in the deep of the night when I woke up suddenly. Our two daughters dressed in their night gowns stood silently at my bedside in the top room of the tower. You must understand that to do the trip from the lower floor to the upper part of the tower was quit an undertaking in the dark. Even though we had left the light on in the long, steep staircase it must have been scary for the children to come up all this way. “Mama, we can’t sleep any more”, said my older daughter calmly. “There is a bat flying around in our room making a lot of noise.” With that said my husband got up and went downstairs with the children. I fell back to sleep immediately. The next morning at the breakfast table there was much discussion about the bat, especially, how to get it out of the tower safely.
The next night, we all sat on the children’s king size bed with dimmed lights. We had just finished the bedtime story, when the bat woke up and started to fly around frantically near the ceiling of the room. Isabel Thalia, our younger daughter, sat up in her bed with a “this-is- better-than-any-good-night-time-story” look in her eyes.
With a double-long broomstick my husband tried to guide the bat to one of the open windows. But because of the very tall room the broomstick was not long enough to help the bat find its way out. Meanwhile, Isabel Thalia so mesmerized by the play but very tired, had fallen asleep while still sitting up. Nora, our older daughter, got very worried. How long could a bat survive without any food?
The next day we found a spoon net in the cellar of the tower. That came in very handy when my husband found the bat in the evening. It had flown up through the narrow staircase to the top room. There it clung against a side wall within easy reach. We caught it with the spoon net and let it free on the top of the tower. Long after we could hear her shrieking sound through the fog high above the medieval town.
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