Thursday, March 22, 2012

Working in a Foreign Language

Source
I truly have a love/hate relationship with working in Spanish as a native English speaker.  There are still lots of times when I fumble, like when someone is walking out of my office and I blurt out the English word "Wait!" and they only wait because they have no idea what I just said, but then there are other times that I'm impressed because I've just spewed out some information or a random order at the speed of a Dominican girl with an attitude.

At some points, like this afternoon, I feel entirely overwhelmed.  Maybe it was the extra long hours I worked today, or maybe because I spent a lot of time on the phone, but when it was time to write a company Memo (in Spanish!) I nearly had a panic attack.  

"Failure to wear the proper uniform will result in a write-up that will be sent to the Secretary of Labor." 

Will "RESULT IN"?!?!  How on earth do I put these words in Spanish?!?!  
I think the look on my face must have cued my coworkers to help me ASAP.

But what I know deep down, past the daily frustrations, past all the grammatically incorrect questions I know I ask while giving interviews, and past all the times I say mid sentence "I don't know the word in Spanish but..", is that even though I don't notice my improvements on a day to day {or even month to month} basis, I know that I'm on my way to becoming perfectly bilingual.  And that makes it all worthwhile.

Source

4 comments:

  1. Regardless of what you say, you are fluent in Spanish! And I am totally jealous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I understand that love/hate feeling, I experience it everyday with my German!!! But those days you feel frustrated, just try to look back at the days when you were unable to say 2 words together in Spanish...it will help you realize how much you have learnt! we have to skype i want to hear your dominican accent! hehehe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful skill to have! I grew up around grandparents and aunts/uncles speaking Spanish, German, and Italian. I know good bits of each but I only wish I could say I was bilingual. I'm determined one of these days to just immerse myself in it and really perfect my Italian. I'm sure it's such a rewarding feeling to look back and see how far you've come:) I hope that's me some day. xx Marisa

    ReplyDelete
  4. Foreign languages are our greatest value, that's what I think.

    ReplyDelete