A parent who contacted me recently lamented that ‘Giftedness is like a whole new language. There is so much to learn, so much I don’t understand yet.’
I knew exactly what she meant!
Recently I spent some time in Europe, in Italy and in Germany this year. While I have been fortunate to spend a month in Italy 3 times in recent years, I am still not able to converse easily. I now understand more of what is being said but mostly don’t think quickly enough to respond in Italian (even despite some language lessons between visits).
But it wasn’t until we arrived in Germany that I appreciated just how much Italian I understood, and how much of it I could read – menus, packets in the supermarket, even some of the newspaper - which meant I was reasonably comfortable despite my limited skills. My language skills in German extend only to basic greetings. While we were there I understood virtually nothing that was written and couldn’t make any sense at all of what people around me were saying. I was grateful to those who were multilingual who could translate and help me make sense of the world.
Although it is a long time since I started out on the journey into gifted land, it is easy to forget how much you pick up along the way, just as I did with my Italian learning. Perhaps it is a bit like not noticing your children growing day to day, then suddenly they are taller than you thought (or taller than you are).
As you read and read about aspects of giftedness, even though you might still feel like you are lost in a new language, you are probably absorbing more than you think. And all of a sudden you will find you are helping someone else with a query about giftedness. Just as we discovered one day when someone mistook us for ‘locals’ in our village, and asked us for directions. And we could help them out. In Italian (even if it was stilted and slow).
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| Commune de Varenna. Photo Derrin Cramer, 2012. |
