Getting lost in translation: 11 struggles all bilingual people experience

Around the world, more than half of all people — estimates vary from 60 to 75 per cent — speak at least two languages. As someone who speaks several languages I can tell you that speaking several tongues (or at least more than one) is AMAZING!

Speaking another languages opens your eyes, widens your horizons and helps you truly understand another culture. It shows you another way of thinking and I’d go as far as to say, a whole other world. This being said, there are certain struggles that come with speaking multiple tongues that monos (monolinguals) just don’t get to experience. Here are 11 weird things all bilinguals experience:

A visual representation of what it feels like to think of a word in all the wrong languages but not the one you need

1. Forgetting a word — You know how annoying it is when your mind just goes blank and you can’t remember a word? You’re mid-sentences and you go all: ‘that thing, the thing that you use for that other thing’… The struggle is real. Now imagine remembering the word in another language, or two, or three. Why the hell does my brain refuse to play ball and give me the correct word in the correct language when I need it! Argh!
2. Speaking the wrong language — It’s happened more than once that someone asks me a question and I automatically answer in a different language. Usually happens when you’re not paying attention, when you’re tired or sleepy. A few months ago I went to visit my cousins who now live in Germany. I was so tired after the flight, that on more than one occasion I automatically spoke to them in the wrong language. Oops.
3. Jokes are never funny when you translate them- You want to tell a super funny story; you know, one of those that are so good you start giggling while you’re telling it. You get to the end, ready for everyone to erupt laughing only they are just sitting there confused. ‘What?’, ‘That didn’t make sense.’, ‘I don’t get it’. So you start explaining, but you’re slowly dying inside because you know very well that the minute you start explaining a joke it just isn’t funny anymore. Note to self, humour doesn’t translate!
4. Trying to speak a language you haven’t used in a while (yes, even your mother tongue) — Before I left my family home to live in another country, my dad always used to joke ‘Make sure you don’t forget how to speak your mother tongue!’. ‘Of course I won’t’, or so I thought. You don’t actually forget the language, you just forget a lot of words so you resolve to describing things as opposed to calling them by their names. That thing you iron clothes on (ironing board), the tool to open the bottle of wine (corkscrew), the gizmo for the TV to change the channel (the remote). Its equal parts silly and sad. You never expect you’d forget your first language, but you do. :-/
5. Trying to write in a language you haven’t used in a while — These days, the only times I have to write in Bulgarian (my mother tongue) is when I’m writing Christmas and Birthday cards for my family, and dear Lord is it a struggle! How did you spell that word? Do you use ‘u’ or ‘ou’? It’s frustrating and time consuming. Next year I’ll just give them a call.
6. Accents and always sounding foreign — Unless you’ve spoken a language for a very long time or you’ve paid for an vocal coach or elocution lessons, you always have an accent and you always sound foreign. Not necessarily a bad thing, personally I just find it annoying. No matter how hard you try, your tongue and lips naturally position themselves in a way that makes sounds come out wrong.
7. Slang — They just don’t teach you that shizz in school. It takes a while to get used to it and it makes you feel super conscious the first time you decide to use a slang word or phrase. ‘I’ll just slide it in the sentence and see if they’ll notice.’, ‘I hope I just used that correctly’. It’s nerve-wracking.

8. Watching a film, understanding the audio, reading the subtitles and seeing how horribly wrong they get it- I don’t know about other bilingual people, but when I watch a film even if I understand what they are saying perfectly well, I always read the subtitles. It’s something that happens automatically and it’s rather annoying as you end up focusing on the language as opposed to what’s actually happening on the screen. ‘No, that’s not what she just said!’, ‘You could have phrased that better’, ‘You just lost the joke because you didn’t translate that properly’.

9. Being the family translator — When you speak a language your family doesn’t understand, you automatically become the go-to person for anything and everything relating to that language. My Bulgarian family doesn’t speak English so every time I visit them there’s a lot of ‘What does it say here, on the back of my hand cream?’, ‘I can’t do something on the laptop, come here and tell me what it says’, ‘Help your nephew with his English homework, we need a 2000 word essay and it’s due in tomorrow’.

10. Intoxicated brain — You know how tricky it is to structure a proper sentences after one too many drinks? Now imagine having to speak another language! I’ve had this discussion with many friends over the years: ‘You think you’re drunk? I’ve drunk as much as you have and I have to speak another language! I’m a legend! Another vodka and coke s’il vous plait! Grazie!’

11. Personality metamorphosis — A little known fact is that your personality changes invariably when you speak another language. The way you express yourself, your sense of humour, how you convey ideas etc. They all vary from language to language, and if you’re truly immersed and fluent in several tongues, you’re not really the same person when you switch between them. I spend most of my time in England, which means that when I travel back to visit family in Bulgaria I feel a bit loopy having to not only speak a different language, but express myself differently. It leaves you feeling misunderstood, but you get used to it after a few days.

So there you have it! 11 real life struggles of people who speak multiple languages. Yes, you end up in annoying and embarrassing situations; yes it’s frustrating when your brain and mouth don’t coordinate. But let me tell you this, you’re awesome, and speaking another language is a gift!

Gracias for reading!