Native, Not Perfect

“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.” -Robert Benchley.

One of the biggest roadblocks to progressing in language learning is the fear of sounding and looking foolish. I have mentioned this topic in this blog before, time and again, because it is a recurring theme and one that I continue to grapple with every day—ever since I started learning Spanish in school in the seventh grade.

Nobody wants to look foolish. No one wants to stumble through a sentence, misunderstand a speaker, or hear snickers from the listener after trying to say everything just right. And if you’re a type A personality, a perfectionist, a linguistic masochist, in essence, then taking the bumpy path of expression in a non-native language, a path inherently prone to accident and collision, is a terrifying ordeal indeed.

Now, after 15+ years of using Spanish with my patients, and gaining experience in listening comprehension and speaking – not to mention increased vocabulary – I don’t feel the same level of anxiety that I did when I first began. But I still have my good and bad days. These include days when I have to ask the patient to repeat what he said, or days when I hear myself conjugating incorrectly or failing to use the subjunctive when expressing a concern to the patient.

But, it occurred to me the other day, just how many native speakers/writers of English make mistakes daily in their own communications? Many. If you really listen, the mistakes are too numerous to count. I list some examples below of common errors I hear all the time and correct them in parentheses:

“He should have went to the movies.” (He should have gone to the movies)

“I could of gone to the bookstore, but didn’t have enough time.” (I could have gone to the...)

“It is between you and I.” (It is between you and me)

“Don’t worry, I got this.” (Don’t worry, I have this (under control))

“If you’re tired, you can lay down.” (If you’re tired, you can lie down)

“How are you? I’m good.” (How are you? I’m well)

“Can I go outside now?” (May I go outside now?)

These are just the few that I recall hearing most recently. So, I think to myself, if native English speakers don’t always get the grammar right, if they’re making mistakes in their own language, then:

1) I shouldn’t be so hard on myself for slipping up in Spanish grammar either. I’m learning, and mistakes lead to (they should, anyway) more learning.

2) It’s very possible that native Spanish listeners do not even hear or recognize my mistake. Their grammar my not be up to the perfection I think it is. Native doesn’t mean perfect grammar.

So the next time you find yourself speaking a non-native language with native speakers, don’t be intimidated. Your skills are better than you think they are, and their grammar may not be as good as you assume it is. Keep on speaking and listening, reading and writing. And learning.

Skull Rock, Joshua Tree National Park

The Language Connection

There is a conspicuous gap in my blog entries, and there’s no particular reason for it. Well, other than, for the last year I’ve been balancing clinical work with an online English to Spanish translation class. For a while, my schedule got a little hairy: from being on-call after hours and on weekends to writing Spanish essays and translating medico-legal text into Spanish. It was a great learning experience, but I needed a break! So I completed the class, took a week off from work and traveled to California for a vacation.

My husband and I like hiking, so we went off the beaten path and stayed in 29 Palms. From there we hiked all the trails in Joshua Tree National Park. Then we made our way to Death Valley and ultimately Valley of Fire in neighboring Nevada. The last stop was a tech conference in Vegas. He and I especially enjoy the solitude of the trails – of being surrounded by nature. Ending up in Vegas probably wasn’t the best way to conclude the trip. We went from solitude to cigarette smoke. From open spaces to open bars. From quality time to crowded casinos. We did it for the tech conference, but conference or not I think my husband and I can safely say we’ve had our fill of Vegas.

It’s amazing how you can be in a place with so many people, and yet be isolated. People are there for their own agenda. A bachelorette party. Tickets to Zumanity. High school reunion. Tech conference. People are all speaking the same language, but they don’t communicate. They’re planning the next excursion. The next exciting thing! The pool. A new tattoo. A club. Keno. And they walk past each other in halls, but don’t look at each other. Eyes are drawn to the flashing lights, or to the phone. Eyes fixate on objects seeking the ultimate happiness. But it will always be a fool’s journey.

One occurrence, however, brought an instant connection. A snap back to reality. To humanness. In the hotel where we were staying, there was a security measure in place to make sure that only guests of the hotel could take the elevators up to the room floors. That measure included taking the room card, swiping it in a slot in the elevator, which would then allow the person to press the floor number of choice. Anyone without a room card could not activate the floor numbers and the elevator would not travel anywhere.

One evening, my husband and I walked into the elevator bank to find a few young guys trying to communicate with a family standing in an elevator surprised that they could not get it to work. They only spoke Spanish, and the young man helping did not, so he was motioning what to do with the room card.

It felt so good to be able to look at them and say, “ Ponga la tarjeta en la apertura, y oprime el número del piso. Es para la seguridad del hotel”. 

“Gracias”.

All eyes in that elevator fixated on me, and I caught the gaze of an older, grandmotherly woman smiling.

“Disfruten al máximo de su estancia”.

“Gracias”.

And the doors closed and they were gone. The young guys, not understanding the conversation, disappeared behind the closing doors of another elevator.

I felt satisfaction. Not from the simple act of telling the family how to use the elevator, but satisfaction at the connection I was able to make with these people through language. A message I have to anyone out there learning another language: don’t view language learning as something needed to pass a test, or to find the bathroom in a restaurant.  Look at it as a tool for connecting with people in a very personal way. Despite the horror stories we see on the news, of  rouge individuals who take pleasure in killing their fellow man, people, in general, are social beings. They’re gregarious. They don’t want to isolate. They want friendships and relationships with others. The more languages you know, the more expansive your vocabulary, the more people and connections you make. You hold the secret code, the key to familiarity. I wish I could know all languages. But, I’ll settle for knowing a very few very well.

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela

Joshua Tree, 29 Palms, CA