{"id":497,"date":"2019-05-15T07:18:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T14:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/?p=497"},"modified":"2020-08-14T10:32:06","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T17:32:06","slug":"difficult-conversations-working-in-a-second-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"Difficult conversations &#8211; Working in a second language"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/COLOURBOX35601417-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-571\" width=\"413\" height=\"275\"\/><figcaption>It can be difficult to get you point across in your second language.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>I have mused before about <a href=\"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/?s=working+in+three\">working in three languages,<\/a> but I was reminded last week about the less glamorous side of speaking more than one language well: not speaking the language of a particular conversation as well as one would like. I was having a conversation in German describing my research, which I do primarily in English. I had the distinct impression that my conversation partner wasn&#8217;t being won over by my argument, but what frustrated me most was feeling like I didn&#8217;t express myself well enough. There are so many subtleties that I know, just know, I am not expressing because I often pick verbs that are too general. Then, when I do use a precise verb, I can tell by someone&#8217;s reaction that I picked the wrong one. Now I am being too precise and have inadvertently focused the conversation on another matter than I had intended. Ladled on that are the differences in research or classroom culture where you want to say &#8220;So macht man das nicht!&#8221; (We don&#8217;t do it that way\/That would never work).<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, deciding to continue to work in another language means a combination of giving up some pride in one&#8217;s ability to express a specific point and determining anew to learn more of that language, especially as it pertains to the particular domain you want to talk about, in this case, classroom research. I am also reminded that I have some of the same problems in conversation interactions where I am doing something new like going to the gym to workout (I asked for a locker instead of a lock!). I tell myself we all need to have some self-compassion in these difficult interactions, which in turn should lead to compassion for others in similar situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have mused before about working in three languages, but I was reminded last week about the less glamorous side of speaking more than one language well: not speaking the language of a particular conversation as well as one would like. I was having a conversation in German describing my research, which I do primarily &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/?p=497\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Difficult conversations &#8211; Working in a second language&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roswitadressler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}