English Speaker Extraordinaire

When you grow up having something your whole life, you often don't realize what you've got. Things like refrigerators, cars, even indoor heating. In my countryside town in Madagascar, those things are extravagant luxuries. (Although indoor heating only exists in the form of adding more blankets in this country.) If you have a refrigerator and the generator needed to run it for a few hours a day, or a car and the money to buy gas, then you have something that everyone else strives for. (That being said, I have learned that many things that say "refrigerate after opening" can actually be eaten without being refrigerated and won't make you sick.) While some Malagasy people yearn for a car and others for a generator, there is one thing that everyone wants: the ability to speak English.

Even after gaining independence from France in 1960, the Malagasy have continued to learn the French language. Not until recently (around 2006) was English made a national language. The face that there aren't many English speaking tourists or other arenas to practice their English speaking skills has had no effect on their desire to learn the English language. So in my town, rather than being known as the Peace Corps Volunteer or the foreigner that can teach us about business, I am known as the English speaker extraordinaire. I've had at least 3 times as many requests for English lessons as I have had for anything business related. Part of my role as English speaker extraordinaire is being a translator and foreign money connoisseur. People bring me manuals, beauty products, anything printed in English really, and ask me to tell them what it means in Malagasy. These are often not American items, but rather, things made in China with directions in both Chinese and English. So I try my best to explain that you must leave the conditioner in for 3 minutes, rinse and repeat if necessary. Then there is the phenomenon of foreign money. I call it a phenomenon because I'm really not sure where it comes from, but I've seen European cents, French francs, even Korean won. Just yesterday a woman brought me what she believed to be "vingt dollars"-a twenty dollar bill. It was a twenty dollar bill alright, with the words "play money" printed across the front. I realize that many people show me the foreign currency in hopes that I will buy it from them, giving them the Malagasy equivalent, something that they can actually use. Sadly, such is often not the case. While I have no need for francs or play money, I did purchase the won just because it makes for an interesting story. I envision someone asking me "Hey, where'd you get that Korean money?" to which I'd reply "Oh, you know, in Madagascar."