Mistakes

Everyone is their own toughest critic. As Derek mentioned in his blog, learning a new language is not an easy task to take on. Despite the amount of compliments I do get from my nice Ecuadorian friends, my never ending mistakes tell me that my Spanish needs great improvement. There must be nothing more embarrassing than a language error while speaking. Saying the wrong word can turn a very serious conversation, into an instant joke. Laughing is fantastic, however when people are laughing at you, the blushing ... oh the blushing.

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance."
-Alan Watts 

Not knowing much Spanish, has never stopped me from trying to speak. Though it has been a few years since my first spanish class, in the beginning, as horrible as I was, I attempted speak just as much as I do now. And through corrections, and constant reminders, I learned more and more. Being afraid to make a fool of myself had to be out of the question, because it was simply ineviteble. However, to be completely honest with you, being a tall clumsy person, kind of helps me get that fear. One of the things that I love most about learning new languages, is the fact that it takes you off of your pedistool and reminds you what it feels like to speak like a small child, even your higher education, and endless experiences can`t make you look any more intelligent nor superior than any native speaker that you meet.

"True nobility is being superior to your former self" - El Alquimista 

Spanish is not my first language, in fact it isn’t my second or third one either. Spanish is my fourth language after French, Lingala and English (in that order).  A famous expression comes to mind here, “the more the merrier”, when it comes to languages, that saying should be transformed to “the more, the more complicated.” That being said, I find there are common words within all of the different languages which gets confusing for example, “gato” in Spanish means cat, however, Gateau in french  means cake. They are both pronounced in the exact same way too! So when I hear people things like “He slept beside the “gato” all night. .. “ My French brain thinks “He slept beside the cake? What? Why?” Another good example, “Complicado” in Spanish means exactly what you think it means in English, complicated. On the other hand, there are words like “embarazada” pronounced “embarrasada”, where you assume it means what it sounds like, embarrassed, however it means pregnant something completely different. Many times I´ve accidentally told people I was pregnant, instead of embarrassed which is “avergonzada” in Spanish. . . Talk about adding to the embarrassment right?  My favorite example is after an artist drew a picture of my face, “Cara” in Spanish, a while back. I tried telling people about it, but I kept saying “cama” which means bed. “He drew my bed guys! Look how good the picture of my bed looks!” Everytime they see my face, they died of laughter, and realize that I've made a mistake. There is an endless amount of other examples I can share, but I think you get the point.

"Mistakes happen and theres nothing that you can do about it. Try laughing at yourself, that may help" Brandon Claussen 

Every single day, I find it just a little easier to address people in Spanish, I`m even beginning to think in Spanish now! The setting is also a big thing for me, when I am with friends eating, or having coffee somewhere, I don’t even think about it, I feel relaxed and  I understand and speak with ease. However, a few days ago, when my boss at work asked me to be an interpreter for a group of biologist that were coming to Cerro Blanco for a Biodiversity workshop. . . I pinched myself thinking “This has got to be a bad dream!”  I feel comfortable speaking Spanish around friends in a casual setting, but in front of big crowds, my palms begin to sweat, my heart races and my brain can`t seem to focus on anything for more than just a moment. The worse part of it, they weren’t just any crowd of people, this was a crowd of educated biologists. I wouldn’t even be able to understand some of the scientific terms in plain English, let alone my fourth language!

I had two nights to prepare, and I received a PowerPoint to translate. The next two nights, my Spanish/English dictionary and I were inseparable, it was practically glued to my hand. I barely slept because I didn’t want to fail miserably. And two days seemed to go by in 2 hours, because suddenly it was show time. 

Translation in progress

We began with the introductions and refreshments, and then we had 3 presentations. I don’t exactly remember how they went, I feel like I blacked out, and regained consciousness after it was finished. But apparently I did okay, I got many thank yous from the English visitors, and my fellow employees also congratulated me as well. They even and made jokes about me staying longer than my internship term to work for them as their interpreter and translator.

This whole event just goes to show, despite my many many mistakes, the Spanish language is slowly but surely becoming a thing of comfort for me. If I gave up, when I was struggling with it in the beginning, I wouldn’t even be in Ecuador right now. Nothing comes easy, but with a  bit of work, lots of mistakes and a sprinkle of drive and dedication, I strongly believe anything can be achieved. Now if only I could understand Spanish humor, then I would be golden. :)

Biologists getting a tour of Cerro Blanco