Handling the language barrier between residents
Why I won't stop sending emails in English, Spanish and Amharic
“Why do you keep translating your emails?” the owner asked. “You send them in Spanish and some other gibberish I don’t even understand.”
I understand why he asked me this. To him, translating meeting minutes and other condo board emails is the responsibility of the recipient. But for me, it is deeper than that.
I’d taken eight years of Spanish from elementary school, high school and college. I’d fumbled my way through conversations with peers and friends who were Mexican, Guatemalan, Dominican and Puerto Rican. They kept their feet on my neck when I needed them to: My co-workers in a retail photo department would purposely call me over to talk to customers who wanted to buy photo equipment. They’d listen quietly as I dusted off all of my Spanish vocabulary to answer questions about lighting, lenses and prices.
In undergrad, I’d log onto my computer and see an instant message from a couple of college friends. I’d respond back in English only for them to insist they didn’t understand me. (They are bilingual and lying through their teeth.) There were days when I spent an hour typing away in Spanish, holding a conversation that both of us could’ve easily had in English because they wanted me to get better at speaking Spanish.
Recommended Read: “Social media: The pen pals we’re using wrong ~ An argument for why teachers should let students use their smartphones more — and wiser”
And the whole time they were doing this, I kept thinking of a Guatemalan friend I had in high school who told me he “forgot” Spanish. I thought that was such a peculiar statement to make. How do you forget a language you’re pretty much fluent in? He explained that when you don’t use it, you lose it. So my co-workers and college buddies were helping to keep my Spanish conversational even when I wanted to tap out. It was annoying at the time, but I appreciated them for it later.
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Is translating condo board business in other languages necessary?
If I lived in any of these 29 Latin American countries, I’m not going to be fluent. I’d hope someone who speaks English could help me out until I could fend for self. And arguably, I could say the same thing about owners who lived here before me and are not bilingual. I could. I just won’t.