Lodge held in a foreign language

Just curious if anyone here has ever attended lodge when it was being conducted in a language you did not speak. I enjoy seeing the similarities and differences of how work is conducted in different places, but I worry that language could limit my travels. For instance, I speak enough German to get by when traveling, but not enough to really hold a conversation and certainly not enough to really understand all of what was being said in lodge. I wonder if it would be a waste of time to try to attend a meeting next time I'm in Germany.

I have attended degrees in Spanish and French. One of the lodges in the same district as my mother lodge is permitted to do them so I traveled with my brothers to some of their degrees. I know enough Spanish to get by when traveling as you report about German. My German is also at a similar rudimentary level.

Knowing the ritual I understood everything that was happening in the Spanish degrees. For me it improved my vocabulary.

In the US there are German speaking lodges in at least California (San Francisco area) and Wisconsin (Milwaukee area) and French speaking lodges at least in California (SF and LA) and Louisiana.

One of the two French speaking lodges in California is a tenant in my mother lodge's building. I have attended their degrees. My French is too rudimentary to ask directions on the street, but I can read a little. I understood enough of the degree to ... improve my Spanish vocabulary a little. ;^)

Hahaha, good info brother. I have heard about the French lodge in LA and have been interested in driving there to see it. Unfortunately, I know virtually no French. The German lodge in SF would be interesting, but too far to do solely for that purpose. Maybe I'll get lucky and have a business trip up that way.

Bulgarian, Romanian, Italian, French, Utahn

Utahn....hah....please elaborate brother

Glen Cook said:

Utahn

Click to expand...

Lol!

When I was WM in England, the candidate couldn't understand my American accent. He didn't speak Utahn, it seems

Bwhahaha

Not myself, but I do have an anecdote that you may like.
A FM that I know went to the UK with some brothers. They visited Rosslyn Chapel with a local FM as guide. Somewhere in the trip they were in Wales. They conversed with the people there in 'normal English', but the Rite proved to be in Welch and he couldn't understand a word they said. He did enjoy it though, since he got to focus more on the symbolism rather than what was being said and, as DFreybur says, you know what is going on regardless if you understand the words.

I speak only rudimentary caveman German, and yet have attended Lodge in German four times now. Those four times have been some of the most moving experiences I've had in my Masonic career. Did I understand every word? Heck no, probably not even 25%. But I knew what was going on and I could follow along. Germans, incidentally, in my experience, have been extremely welcoming and even tolerant of Brethren who don't speak their language well. Your mileage may vary, of course.

More a study circle than a lodge, but we have this group studying Dutch Ritual in Victoria Australia

http://www.lodgedevotion.net/devotionnews/education-editorial-articles/dutch-masonry-in-australia

I am Dutch, i didnt know about it. Nice find!