You Will Make Mistakes
My neighbor's mother is in the hospital with pancreatic cancer.
Today I saw her husband and aske how his mother-in-law is doing. He responded that she is very delicate, and they don't know how long she has to live.
I wanted to ask, "Is she awake?" which would be "Está despierta?"
But instead I asked, "Está abierta?" which means "Is she open?"
Oh my gosh. What an embarrassing mistake, right? His mother-in-law is dying and I ask if she's "open." I was trying to be so thoughtful and sincere, and instead I asked a rediculous question.
He looked at me strangly and I knew I had said something wrong, but in the moment I wasn't sure what it was. Then I tried to clarify by asking, "Is she talking and interacting?" He then understood and said that yes, she was, but very little.
We said good-bye and I walked toward my house thinking hard about what I had said. As I reached my house, it finally occured to me that I had asked if she was open instead of if she was awake, and I immediately felt embarrassed. But after a few seconds I told myself it was ok that I made a mistake.
I felt embarrassed, but my neighbor knows I am not a native speaker. He was confused, but with a little extra effort, we were ultimately able to communicate our thoughts.
As language learners, we have to be comfortable with feeling silly. You are absolutely going to make mistakes, even when you know the word. I forget words in English, so I certainly forget them in Spanish sometimes.
Let the language humble you. It's ok to feel silly. It's ok to mess up. Mistakes are part of the process and part of life.
Have you made any embarrassing mistakes in your second language? What were they?