Tricks of the Tongue

Something about the responsibility of communicating for long stretches of hours, through cross-cultural social situations, in a difficult language that I only have a tentative handle on, with no translator, stresses me out. 

This is a language learning situation in which there is no solid dictionary, its nearly all by rote and intuitive discovery. Since I'm from a society based on written word, seeing a word written helps solidify it in my brain. However, around here, if you can find someone who can write, they usually struggle to write a word down knowing how it is spelled and the next person would quite likely spell it in a different way.  Majority of folks rarely write the Maa language, let alone read it.

I’ve learned some tricks, though. 

Trick #1-Go ahead and try.  Perfectionism and fear of failure is a show stopper in any attempt to learn to speak a new language.

Trick #2- Get good at guessing. Many times I am right. Sometimes I am wrong. Use the context and predictable/repetitive questions from the native speakers as a guide.

Trick #3- Listen carefully (don’t let yourself fade out) and see if you can get the gist of the content. If you don’t have to respond specifically, it doesn’t matter if you get 20% or 100% of the meaning. Don’t waste time on what you didn’t understand. In order to keep the conversation going, pick something that you did understand to respond to.

Trick #4- If you are being asked to reply specifically to a question that you don’t completely understand, try to identify the main word you are not understanding out of the whole question. Repeat the word explaining that you don’t understand that part.  Sometimes the speaker can elaborate using words you are more familiar with and then you can find an answer. 

Trick #5- Sometimes you will understand all the words, but have no clue what the speaker is getting at. This happens because of complex language idioms and cultural understandings that you simply cannot discover unless someone translates for you and explains. Don’t get discouraged. 

Trick #6- Sometimes you simply hit a dead end and have to say, I’m not getting it, sorry. 

Trick #7- Remember that most native speakers love to hear you trying to learn their language and trying to use it so its a gift to them. Even if it seems like they are laughing… Well, “laughter is the best medicine” so you’re promoting health as you go.