Monday, February 1, 2010

Lost in Translation


What language do you think in? What language do you speak most frequently? Which language are you most comfortable speaking and reading in? It might not seem like a normal question but to many of us in the U.S., English is not our first language. I being born and raised in Puerto Rico, am bi-lingual but can understand about 3 more languages. Funny thing is that English is the language I am most comfortable reading and speaking in. I can not speak it too professionally but you better believe that the slang talk is in tact and it is very colorful. This fact could not be more obvious than this past Friday. I had an opportunity to spend a lovely evening with a Venezuelan/ Colombian Model. Now she is a friend of a friend and this young lady is bad to the BONE! I was not about to miss the opportunity to get to know her. I knew she was bi-lingual but seems that Spanish is the favored language. Now I don't know if it was the drinks or the fact that she had me at ease but I was speaking my native tongue all night. I still found myself having to revert back to English here and there to get certain points across at times pero por la mayoria de la noche hablamos en el lenguage de nosotros. It was afterwords that something became painfully clear. Except for when it is business related, I rarely speak my own language. Of course like my of us I drop a word here and there or a phrase when it expresses how I feel better but how come I don't speak it more? It was the only language I knew from birth til my late adolescent years so why is it not used more? About 70% of whom I deal with on my day to day are Hispanic but it is still rarely used. I think by all of us regardless of where we are from, should not loose that which makes us us. Our culture is important to be preserved in this land and one of those key elements happens to be our language. What are your thoughts on this?

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree with your thought of staying in touch with our native language, whichever this may be.

    I will share this rare fact with you [and don't dare call me weird]: During a Spanish conversation, I translate everything from Spanish to English in my head.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is normal considering that the language we speak most is English. Thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete