If you’ve never been in a situation where everyone around you speaks a different language, where the man at the post office is talking at rapid-fire speed and you can’t understand a thing, where you try to speak in basic word clusters but nobody can understand your accent, where “communication” is just one humiliating blunder after another, I’m about to tell you what it’s like.

After living here for four months, I can get by with the Albanian that I know, meaning that I can carry out basic tasks such as introducing myself, ordering at restaurants, and giving directions to a furgon driver. Anything more complicated than that is trouble, especially if it’s a subject I’m not familiar with. As is the case with all languages I’ve learned, my strongest skill is pronunciation, and I’ve picked up most of the non-verbal communication common amongst Albanians (shaking your head while someone…