.... in a language that is not your first language.
Is it really just culture? Are all idioms and regional phrases equally understood even within the same language? I can think of only a handful of American idioms / phrases that really don't translate in other English-speaking countries and vice versa. There is usually some other very similar phrase.
Trying to remember what it was like learning Spanish and German (in two wholly different time periods of my life, not together!!) I knew of regional phrases only because of friends and colleagues had explained them in my first language, the so-called mother tongue, of English, whereas English is more likely than not, their 2nd or even 3rd language! No wonder they have problems understanding American idioms. Ha!
What if you don't have that benefit? Say your first language is Swahili, you may be fluent in Parisian French, and all your friends and colleagues are French, but if you come across a Frenchism, it still may be strange with the explanation in French seeming unsatisfactory. No one however, can explain it to you in Swahili, even second-hand Swahili. Perhaps if this hypothetical person grew up with a "pure French" culture (does this exist in France? Maybe in Paris only), rather than a mixed Rwandan/French culture, they would use and understand "high French" idioms more. Is that really important?
What's worse is for those new "ex-pats" that seem to allow themselves to be isolated, for whatever reason. Then they don't even get the second-hand second-language explanation. They just muddle on, unsatisfactorily, never really integrating, never really wanting to. Ah, but that's a horse of a different color. Idioms. They are not really that useful, are they?
Language. It's amazing, yet, it's the internal perception that we can't get at, we have to vocalize using this tool. And it's a poor tool, a poor substitute for what goes on in the human mind, in my opinion. This gap between what we perceive and what we can communicate verbally is, in my opinion, huge. Maybe that's the beauty of the Vulcan Mind Meld, and why it's so overwhelming.
Yes, language is important. But communication of our version of the Truth, is even more important. The gap can only be lessened by using positive dialogue/feedback, ideation and action. We can't always be just "talk, talk, talk" though, as then we fall into the traps of idioms and catch phrases that in the end, mean nothing.
Choose your words carefully, so that they have impact. But choose them quickly, as sometimes life is shorter than it seems. This balance is tricky -- getting it right reduces misunderstandings, but remember it doesn't completely eliminate them -- either for the sender or receiver. Bottom line, we have to let go of what we can't understand, even if it is a simple idiom in a foreign language.
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