Regardless of what it seems or feels like, we all have the power to change how we react in certain situations and towards the events happening in our lives. It may take time, but as we become wiser and smarter, as we gain more knowledge and skills, and more importantly with self-awareness, we feel the urgency to adopt a positive attitude. Over time we will feel the surge of that power.

Languages have a dynamic with certain words that have more than one contextual meaning. Such dynamic can be both a source of frustration and an unlimited fun for a multilingual. For example, I speak Creole, French and English. It is not always as easy or as quick as a blink of an eye for my brain to keep these languages separate when I am speaking (lol). Often times it fails to elegantly distinguish which language I am speaking and consequently fails to stick with it for the duration of the conversation.

“At such times, it can feel awkward, annoying, amusing or funny. But me, depending on the situation I choose to stick with funny and have a good laugh!“

1-  Sending a meme in the wrong language to a friend.

One day, I was scrolling through Facebook, I found this hilarious meme that got me tickled. And a friend of mine who happened to be my coworker was the first person that came to my mind as I read it. With excitement, I quickly sent it to her via text. Soon after, she looked at me with a puzzled smile and asked “What does it mean?”. I was baffled. My face went from that big contained smile awaiting to burst out laughing with her into some perplexed eyes and eyebrows raising as I replied, “ huh?”. She said, “ Yes, what does it mean? I don’t understand it. It looks like it is in French and looks funny but I don’t understand it”. Imagine my stupor! I felt so bad and quickly went back to my messages  to verify my mistake as she quickly walked toward me to show me. I could not believe my eyes and we started laughing so hard at my mistake as she said “ Yep bilingual struggle, I don’t have to do all that processing ”. My brain  for a second did not process the relationship between the language being read and my recipient’s language. We had a really good laugh that day, not just at the meaning of the meme after I translated it but more so to the incident itself and still joke about it until this day. This moment became a core memory for the both of us.

2- Answering or interjecting in a different language: Quoi? Kisa? Rete?! ¿Qué?

When a story or a good joke hits the right buttons, we all have our own ways of reacting verbally or physically. Me, I have a panoply of words to interject or just express my feelings as I actively listen. A lot of time, I would say something and the storyteller would have no idea about I said nor how to react to it. Although, I don’t let the word out of my mouth as often as I used to, I still think about it and it never fails to bring a smile on my face as I catch myself. I remember talking to a friend over the phone whom was telling me about something that had really upset her and I interjected “Kisa?” which really means “what?” in Creole to show my disbelief and how upset I was too. She heard me and asked “What?…” as I started laughing for catching myself saying that. Through my laughter, I answered “ I just said something in creole, sorry ” and it was really hard to stop laughing . Luckily, we both went on laughing wholeheartedly as she explained how she could relate for being bilingual. 

Countless time, I have witnessed my husband naturally calling someone in a different language such as “Granmoun” (adult) or saying “sa kap fet?” (what’s going on) or “Merci” ( Thank you) and I just have to look at him straight in the eyes and gently nudge him to catch himself as we are trying not to laugh (at his mistake and the expression of the English speaker being addressed).

3- The joy and the excitement of hearing forgotten words

During a Thanksgiving gathering with a few friends, we decided to play the “Heads up” game. We started having a really good time, laughing at the crazy acting and clues. The real fun begun when it was my husband’s turn, he robbed his hands, winked at me and said “let’s do this!” . He put the phone on his forehead and started giving getting those answers like a pro until the word that came up was “Rope”. We started giving him the clues and he could not get it right until he yelled “Corde” ( Rope in French). As he got it, I scream yes! Our friends were still giving him new clues as they did not know what he meant. It took me a second to realize what happened and said “translate it babe!” But as the time went up he kept repeating “corde”, it is “corde”. I was on floor laughing, holding my belly, by the time I caught my breath his time was up lol. Our friends perplexed was waiting to catch up on the joke as well and we all we laughing at my husband’s expense.

4-  Forgetting words in your native language

I am fortunate to count my high school and college friends on my current list of friends after all those years ( please do not guess how old I am lol). Most of them do not live in the United States but we talk very often. Nothing embarrasses or makes me feel guilty more than when I forget a creole or French word in the midst of a conversation. Although, not speaking those languages as frequently as before would explain my dilemma, my heart still struggles to accept it. It does not matter that my memory lapse did not affect the conversation because they understood me, it is just unacceptable for me. What I do now, I consciously take a pause hoping they will chime in or to quickly find a synonym (I probably should not put my technic out like that, they might leave me hanging now lol). On a serious and quite emotional note, this particularly makes me very appreciative of them and our friendship which help me more than they know, my parents (included).

Either you are bilingual, multilingual or not, you might have found yourself in one or two of those situations below on either end. Tell me, How did you react? How did you feel?

Remember whether it is one of the above situations or any other arguably embarrassing ones it’s not what happens that matters, its how you react to it. Choose your reaction!

Stay tuned for “Part 2” coming soon!

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