“IT TOOK ME FOUR YEARS TO PAINT LIKE RAPHAEL, BUT A LIFETIME TO PAINT LIKE A CHILD - PABLO PICASSO”

Have you ever been lost in translation? Really, really lost in translation?

I guess not so many times.

If you can read this, you can speak English. If you can speak English, you can communicate more or less anywhere you go. If only to have some basic interaction. However it is still (very) possible to find yourself totally at loss out there. I have. Several times. And it can be daring.

Happened to me in a bunch of countries and remote areas (Russia, Laos, Japan, Burma, etc.) and it can be really frustrating sometimes. Particularly when you are not just a tourist in search of the next story to impress people back home during cocktail hour. Things are a lot harder and a lot more real when you are a new resident in a country and you have to find a place to stay, a job and a social life. That's when you can feel scared, lost and oh so stupid.

I remember how dumb I felt during my first weeks in the Czech Republic. We stayed in a cheap motel in a rundown neighborhood far from the center. Very few people spoke English. We couldn't understand a word or how anything worked. We had no friends. No jobs and very, very little money. It was hard. We were hungry most of the time at the beginning.

Czech people are great when you figure them out but (God bless their hearts) they can also be incredibly ruthless to strangers. I just can't count the times somebody would yell at us at the supermarket, metro or Government office because we made some kind of mistake we could not really understand. And when I say yelling I mean "tear-off-your-clothes-and-throw-your-arms-up-in-the-air'' kind of yelling. Bad I tell you.

So yeah. Being lost in translation sucks. You feel weak and vulnerable. You feel like a child.

We all come into this world vulnerable, naked and lost in translation. I could talk to you for hours about those first years and how we learn to speak. First of all because I have witnessed myself how my little boy became fluent in both Spanish and English. Secondly because I have read several books about how children get to be such perfect learning machines when it comes to language. It's some pretty awesome stuff.

Dr. Barbara Zuer Pearson writes: "Few people appreciate how difficult it is to learn a language-how much more difficult than anything else we do. (However) Children learn a language before they learn to tie their shoes. Without instruction, they learn what the most powerful computers in the world have not been able to master''.

Isn't it cool when you think about it?

First, kids are born with a brain mechanism called LAD (Language Acquisition Device) which is basically the most perfect brain wiring you could imagine specifically designed to learn a language. Our brain, for the first few years, is biologically ready and eager to learn how to speak. The process is so amazing that we don't even fully understand it.

And then the magic goes away.

(And that is when you hire me).

The second great thing kids have going is that they couldn't care less about mistakes. On the contrary. They feed on them. You can not explain grammar to a small child. They figure it out through constant, never ending, trial and error. They decode. They find patterns. That is all they do. And since they never feel ridiculous or stupid they keep trying and trying. Always listening. Always confident. Never giving a crap.

And then I guess this magic goes away there too.

Learning a language (as adults) can make us feel weak and vulnerable. We need to start from scratch. We make mistakes. We depend on someone else (me!) to tell us what to do. We are constantly corrected. It is not the kind of thing we are used to.

I get all kinds of students when it comes to dealing with this. Some are so scared of making a mistake that they are almost paralyzed. They are carrying such a heavy load, they can barely move. Half of their brain cells are wasted with the thought "DO NOT SOUND STUPID!". Ironically the more they worry, the more mistakes they make. The more mistakes they make, the more they worry.

Then I have some students who deal very well with mistakes. They accept them and laugh about them. They honestly could not care less. Almost like a child. Those are the students who tend to do better and become fluent quicker. The less they care, the less they fail.

And between those two extremes, I get every possible type of student.

I guess it is a personality thing. Which is something you will always have no matter what your level might be. My English is very good but I still make mistakes and feel terrible about it sometimes. So I am in the same boat here.

However I know it is worth trying to learn to speak like a child. Make mistakes. Relax and enjoy the ride. It worked for Picasso and his paintings and I promise it will work for you and me too. Even if it takes a lifetime to think like a child. Just do it.

How do you feel about making mistakes when you speak? Is there anything else you can learn from this post? Is there anything else that you would like to tell me? Get in touch. I am always here to listen and to help.

One of my students (thank you Phyllis!) sent me this link to the New York Times. Read it. It talks about a movie where someone is lost in translation. An Asian girl starting a new life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here is the trailer. If you have a chance go and watch this movie and tell me about it...

And an interview with the director