We have been hosting a delegation of archivists from China at work lately, and today, I was part of a presentation we did for them. Now, I don't speak Chinese. I did my undergraduate in Spanish (and it's debatable how fluent I am). And as I was preparing my portion of the presentation, I automatically started translating it into Spanish, as if somehow that would help in communicating with our Chinese delegates. Consciously, I was completely aware of the fact that Spanish is not Chinese. But I still kept trying to translate to Spanish.
This is not the first time I have had this happen. And I'm not the only one who does this. My co-worker, who was also part of the presentation, mentioned having that experience, and I have other friends who have had the same experience. And it isn't just Spanish. One friend spoke Russian. I just think it is so fascinating that my brain says, "Ah! We're not speaking English! Great, then we are speaking the other language I know. Okay, switch gears, speak the other language." I'm sure that there has been research done on it and there are fascinating studies one could read, but I just love observing it in life. And fortunately, I didn't try to give my presentation in Spanish. I think that might have really confused the interpreter.
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