On language misunderstandings and police stations

The process of learning a new language is a bit of a roller coaster. One day you understand nearly everything that is being said to you, giving you this massive high and sense of achievement, and the next day you understand nothing, and come crashing down. Then there are the times where the language barrier and misunderstandings leave you in weird and wonderful (or just downright strange as well as terrifying) situations.

Like on Friday.

I’m in the process of applying for my work visa (which I’ve been trying to do since I got here but my documents from SA took nearly 4 months to get here with the Diplomatic bag, proving that sometimes the free option is not the best one); part of the process is being issued a Certificado Domicilio (basically a certificate confirming that you live where you say you live). To get one, you go to your nearest police station, give them address and they come by a day or two later and check that you live there and give you the certificate. Nice and easy.

So there I was in the police station, giving my details to the lady, when the police officer who had shown me in came up to the table and starts asking me something in Spanish. I’m concentrating super hard to try and understand but I really have no clue, so I’m just smiling and nodding, saying Sí, sí to whatever she is asking me. She leaves, I finish the form and arrange a time for them to come around, and then she returns. I understand enough to get that I’m supposed to go with her. Since I have no idea what is going on, and my instinct is to obey the uniformed police officer, plus she seems really sweet and kind and is evidently asking me nicely if I’ll go with her, I follow her. At this point I’m presuming there is some additional thing I need to do to get my certificate.

Next thing I know, we are going down stairs to some kind of basement area, 2 stories underground, it’s starting to look dodgy and I realise we’re heading to the cells. I’m thinking to myself, what have I got myself into?! I have my laptop with me, plus a bunch of cash, my passport and ID, I’ve heard enough stories about police corruption, I’ve not understand anything this officer has said to me, so who knows what I’ve agreed to. I start feeling a bit vulnerable and very apprehensive.

My anxiety is not eased when we end up in a holding area, where a criminal (well, to be a bit more PC, someone who has spent some time in a police cell, and looks fairly dodgy) has just been released from handcuffs and whose lawyer is being read some kind of release conditions (I presume, I’m still not understanding any of the Spanish at this point, since learning vocabulary related to crime and law aren’t high up on the priority list of necessary Spanish). The officer filling out the form now asks for my name and details, and the officer who brought me down here tells him I’m foreign. At which point he, to my massive relief, switches into English and asks for some kind of identification so that he can write down my details. I hand over a copy of my passport, still confused as hell, now thinking that he’s filling in a form related to my Certificate of Residence. Then I see the lawyer is signing a document that has my name on it and I’m being asked to sign. I have a moment of momentary panic, wondering if I’ve admitted to aiding a criminal or am being implicated in something. Finally it dawns on me that I’m simply being added as a witness, and I finally get out of my bewildered haze and ask the police officer who speaks English if that’s what I’m doing.

Hallelujah, that’s what it is. All I’ve been asked to do is sign as witness, given that the police officers cannot, and I’m the only other non-police-employed person in the station at the time. I turn to the friendly female police officer with a smile of relief and tell her aaah, entiendo! I finally understand what she was asking of me. I get thanked profusely and then I’m finally free to go.

I am, of course, hugely relieved at this point, and feeling a bit silly about my momentary panic. Of all random situations I’ve ended up in because of communication misunderstandings, this one was by far the strangest and most bewildering.

But hey, I can now cross “witness the release of a prisoner in a foreign country” off my bucket list.