How Speaking a Foreign Language Can Work Against You.

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I distinctly remember a certain night in the summer of 2003 when I was waiting tables at Landry’s Seafood House. I took care of a table that started at disaster and then quickly proceeded further downhill. While I certainly could have avoided my own mistakes, many were honestly outside of my control. However, as any former or current server knows, you should never blame a colleague for your table’s gripes. As a result, my table berated me the entire meal; all to my face…but entirely in Spanish under the assumption that I couldn’t understand them. News Flash: This is Houston. It may not be Miami, but Spanish is pretty integral to getting by here; however cursory the exposure. Spanish is my second language, and I understood everything they said to me that day, but I played ignorant until I picked up the check and then dropped a bit of their native language on them. Nothing foul at all. Just an acknowledgment that I had been privy to their discussion about me and wished them a nice day. I turned a 180 and walked away feeling pretty damn good. So good, in fact, that I went home and proudly told my dad about my linguistic trickeration. I will never forget the disappointment that I saw immediately set into his face. I was deceitful. I was dishonest. And more than anything, I had the gift to fix that problematic table by meeting those people on their level and finding a common bridge through language. But instead, I laid a trap and then seized the opportunity to embarrass them. I felt crushed when I realized this. A decade later I mishandled a very different, but analogous, situation.

Last fall, I was invited to give a presentation at an oil and gas conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Admittedly, I was late in finalizing the material of the talk and hadn’t really given too much thought regarding the translation. I’ve delivered a fair amount of presentations in Spanish in the past, but I had just joined a new business, and many of the new technical terms were unfamiliar to me. Since this was the first time that I had attended this conference, I decided to prepare in both English and Spanish. Upon arrival the morning of my presentation, I noticed that everyone had access to simultaneous translation headphones. The first couple of talks were Americans and Europeans speaking in English while the locals listened to the translation. Naturally, I felt inclined (and much more comfortable) to deliver my talk in English, but I wanted to have a welcoming and differentiating opening. I decided to intro for a few minutes in Spanish, then explain that I wanted to take advantage of the translators to ensure everything was perfectly clear, and then finally switch into English for the last 15 minutes. The talk went well, and the post-presentation questions conveyed real interest. I felt pretty satisfied with everything. We then went into a coffee break, and a stranger from Colombia approached me. In broken English he told me that he really enjoyed my talk but asked why I didn’t complete it in Spanish. Taken aback, I switched to Spanish and reiterated my desire to have absolute clarity in the message. He smiled politely, and then responded to me in Spanish that he understood me perfectly and also that I had missed a real opportunity to win over the crowd (and potential business). By tipping my hand and showing a relative command of the language but then deciding not to make the effort, I was perceived in a worse light than my Texan peers who admitted complete deficiency in the lingua franca. It made me look both lazy and unwilling to adapt to the local language. Anyone who has traveled or worked with me abroad knows this is far from the truth, however I took an easy way out that day. My Colombian friend and I parted ways, and I assured him I wouldn’t handle such situations the same in the future.

I got my chance at redemption the following day when I was hosting a round table session. I also had to present the findings of the exercise to the conference at its conclusion. Each of the other table leaders were gringos who recounted their summaries in English. I was quite tempted to do the same until I saw the aforementioned Colombian in the crowd and quickly decided Spanish was the only reasonable option. The feedback that I received post-speech clearly indicated that it was the correct decision. I even got an approving nod and thumbs up from my Colombian friend as I concluded my remarks.

Foreign languages are a phenomenal asset for business, personal life, and travel. Employing these tools can enhance your experiences so much further than you could ever imagine. But I get it. Speaking another language is intimidating; especially when you’re trying to conduct business. The fact of the matter remains that anyone reading this whose first language is English deals with countless people on a daily basis who have adapted to our language…and it wasn’t easy for them either.

My advice:


• Practice whenever you can. With people preferably.
• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s how you get better.
• Language versatility is not meant to be hid. See Case #1 and Case #2 above.
• My dad was right. Listen to him.

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