let's hear it for bilingualists! or something like that...

and

so similar, but oh so different.

flashback three years ago. friday night. sometime between september and june. after dinner. picture a room of no less than nine native english speakers trying to convince two native hebrew speakers that it's really not difficult to play taboo in your second language. "it's so easy!" "you know all these words anyway!" "come ON! it's not THAT hard" (that last one was tinged with frustration in case you didn't catch that.)

one was convinced.

one was not. and she did not play the whole night.

the rest of us rolled with laughter at the verbal acrobatics that each one underwent in order to NOT say:

Finance

Plan

Monthly

Annual

Rental

while causing their team to guess BUDGET before the time ran out!!!

honestly, my heart was filled with compassion for the struggling non-native english speakers. it wasn't easy at all. but I sure was having fun! and laughing my head off! and guessing about a MILLION correct answers!

flashback to present day. yesterday, to be exact. saturday night. october 24. after dinner.

picture a postage-stamp sized yard filled with no less than nine native hebrew speakers trying to convince two...wait a sec! it wasn't QUITE like that. i'm a good sport. no convincing was needed.

okay. waaaayyyy more difficult than i could have imagined. "i mean, sure, i can use that word in a sentence, but do i really have a clue what it actually means???" "are you SURE that's a word?" "you're sure now, cause in these last four years i'm certain i have never seen or heard it...EVER!?"

and just try to do that whole "glance-for-1/8-of-a-second-and-read-five-words-at-once-thing". not gonna' work here friend. i had to actually read each word, and that takes waaaayyyy longer. and all the while the little grains of sand are falling falling falling at an alarmingly fast pace in that little egg timer! hurry! hurry!!! HURRY!!!!!

it was fun.

and my compassion deepened for all second language speakers.

on a different yet related note: i think that this sweeping statement may just be correct. spanish speakers are not afraid to step out on a limb and communicate, even if they make mistakes. hiLARious mistakes. and that is a very endearing quality.