The Nest of English Comfort

My husband is currently faced with researching some things for a future business we plan to open. He is Italian and while he may not be fluent in English, he is certainly doing a wonderful job picking up on nuances and vocabularu in the English language. Unfortunately, because of how my job is right now, I will have zero time to make calls or research things, especially since most of this information is easily accessible during business hours (when I'm already working. I'll get back to that later.). So, I had to gently push him out of the nest of English comfort. That being, when your closest personal link in the foreign language that you have taken on nudges you towards the direction of independence. Honestly, I have to admit that my husband has been much better about this than I was. For as fearless as I seem (or at least how I seem or would like to think of myself), I turned into quite the chicken sometimes when we were in Italy and I was faced with doing something where conversing with a stranger in Italian would be necessary. Most of my fears have subsided, but there is a definite period of panic when learning a foreign language. I am mostly considered 100% fluent in Italian. I shouldn't have any problems with trying to ask for assistance in a store or make a telephone call, but I still carry a certain level of nervousness that for whatever reason I won't understand. Take Italy. You have 20 different regions, 190 different provinces and a nearly infinite number of 'fractions' inside those. Each of these groups has their own dialect. Yes, practically a whole different language associated with the geographical area. Then you have to deal with the accents, slang, the elderly who sometimes speak a whole language themselves. It's crazy. While my husband may have a more difficult language to deal with (difficult because none of us speak properly), he at least doesn't have to deal with a billion different dialects and accents. I know we may differ some across the United States in some specific terminology, but as a whole we primarily share the same vocabulary or at least know the proper terms for everything. I think he got the easier language to deal with.... just saying.

Business hours. You know where I stand on working Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. Business hours are just as ridiculous to me. You'd think that people like mechanics, doctors offices, etc. would have figured this out by now. If you made yourselves available after what people think of as traditional business hours, you'd make a killing. But, unfortunately these sectors can rest on the fact that when people need their services, they REALLY need their services and usually can't wait. Something has to give, though. I can't get everything done that I need to if the very services I need are only available when I have to be at work. But, alas. Such is life.