The point is: Can you understand me? Do you know that I want tacos with chicken? If you get it, great. I’m going to mash the basic words together and it won’t sound pretty. However, in the early stages of learning a language, I have too much going on in my brain to concentrate on being graceful. Yes, I know that when I throw a bunch of foreign words together I sound like a cavewoman. What I wish the guy had said was this: “What would you like?” Though we’ve also got a bunch of frappes to beat the heat, but really it’s up to you…whatever’s you like, cos we pretty much have everything. I even think we might have invented the Cortado, which we now serve with super-skinny-soy if ya like. “We’ve got so many coffees in this place, we’re…like…one of the most popular places around. Sometimes 50 words roll out of your mouth instead of just the five that are needed, So when you’re communicating with someone who doesn’t speak your language, sharpen up your sentences.įor example, I ordered a coffee in Spain and got this: I have the foreign language skills of a pre-schooler. It's no use trying to impress me with your expansive vocabulary.
#Another word for things you want but dont need how to
So, while I do need you to explain how I can get to the toilet, I’m unlikely to need any tips on how to use it or the fact that I need to close the door behind me. I may have the foreign language skills of a two-year old, but I’m a grown-up woman and, in most other contexts, I’m a reasonably intelligent one.
You need to come at it from another angle like a translation app, dictionary (both of which I have) or some visual aid.Like pointing at some mud. I know you need to explain to me that the volcano hike will be muddy, but if I don’t understand the word for mud, simply repeating it over and over isn’t going to make any difference. It’ll just make you look stupid and make me feel more incompetent than I already do. Uttering the same incomprehensible words but louder is not going to make me any more likely to understand. If you possess one of those lovely, quirky regional accents, hit the slow button about ten more times more.
So, how slow should you go with someone who’s learning a language? If you sound a little silly, you’ve probably got it about right. And it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I implore “Can you speak more slowly please.” As soon as the conversation hots up, the snail-paced speak stops. I've lost count of the times, when, after a few slow greetings, the person I'm speaking to hits the fast forward button. But if that’s the case, why don’t more people do it? You might think this is so ridiculously obvious that it doesn’t need saying. And in the spirit of understanding – both linguistic and otherwise – I'm putting out this call to the people whose language I'm butchering: a guide on how to speak to someone who doesn’t speak your language.Īnd for all you native English speakers out there, you might want to take this guide into account next time someone from another country struggles to ask you for directions too. It’s not proven entirely impossible – I certainly know more than when I began – but given the amount of time I’ve spent in the Spanish-speaking world, my lingo skills should be much, much better.īut I'm trying. I have a missing brain cell…actually, there’s discussion between my family and friends that I might be missing more than one, but there’s a particular brain cell I’d like to talk about – the one that covers learning a language.Įver since I first set foot in Spain, then Latin America, I’ve been trying, painfully slowly and with a great deal of difficulty, to learn Spanish.
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