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Bilingual Problems: Google

Over the years, I have mentioned once or twice that I speak more than one language. That's just a circumstance of who my parents are, but it's one of those things that I am quite grateful for. There have been times when I have been able to switch languages in order to communicate with folks, and even times when my use of words in other languages has led to much laughter. All in all, it's a good thing.

Now, there are certain things about switching between languages or being bilingual that bring up unique bits of fun. There's a reason why "Spanglish" is a common enough word that you can find all search of articles and Google hits for it (seriously, try Googling "Spanglish"). Heck, it even has its own Wikipedia page. You know it's a real thing if it's managed to make its way onto Wikipedia and stay there.

This also means that when one of us bilingual folks finds another one, it leads to all sorts of extra hilarity that we can talk about. It's not just that I can throw out jokes in either of the two languages, I can now point out how the intersection of those languages can lead to some goofiness, too.

As it just so happens, I have a coworker in Argentina who speaks pretty good English and is reasonably aware of American culture. The end result is that he and I can have a conversation in either language where we both generally understand the nuance and cultural references. It's kind of fun to be able to do this, so I'm glad we have gotten to know each other a bit over time.

However, he does such a good job with his English that I forget that he isn't actually a native speaker. And since I tend to throw a bunch of slang into my everyday speech, he has confessed that he has had to Google my messages on occasion in order to catch the drift of what I was saying. Most of the time, he can figure it out based on context. Like if I talk about having to "put out a fire," he can basically figure out that I'm talking about solving a problem of some sort. But some sayings aren't as intuitive, so he resorts to searching for the meaning.

We're good enough friends at this point that he can tell me when that happens, but it made me crack up when he first told me, "great, now I have to go Google this again." It also highlighted to me that I have definitely grown up in the U.S., so that my speech now reflects some of the everyday slang and sayings that a native-speaker has. I sort of knew that on an abstract level, but seeing it play out in real life has been really interesting.

Still, the whole thing leads to some laughs, and it highlights one of those things that I have long believed: other languages are all sorts of fun.

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