14 Everyday Struggles of Bilingual Latinas

Updated on 6/16/2018 at 11:20 PM

I speak 2.5 languages. I'm fluent in Spanish (my birth language) and English, and I know enough Italian to help a lost tourist on the subway. Though being able to communicate in more than one tongue has its serious benefits — there are more jobs available to me, I have an easier time when traveling abroad, some studies even say we're smarter (tooting my own horn here) — there are struggles. Boy, are there struggles.

More than once, I have spoken Spanish to someone who has no idea what I'm saying, and words have come out of my mouth in a total jumble of Spanglish that not even I understand. Minor issues, sure, but if you're bilingual, you know it doesn't end there. Keep reading for a list of the everyday situations you probably also face — bilinguals, unite!

When You Change Languages Mid-Sentence Without Noticing

I don't try to speak in Spanglish; I just do sometimes.

When There's a Word For Something in One Language but Not the Other

Sobremesa. Empalagarse. Why, oh why?!

When You Have Trouble Spelling a Word

All the languages are just jumbled in my head!

When You Accidentally Make Up a Word

It made sense in the other language, OK?

When People Ask You to Help Them With Their School Paper/Homework/Email to a Foreign Friend

Sure. Yep. Sure.

When Your Phone Just Doesn't Freaking Get It

No, autocorrect, I did not mean to say "Ayudan was" (what even is that?). I meant to say ayudame, and now I'm hurt because of you!

When You Try to Translate a Funny Story From One Language to the Other and It Flops

Nevermind.

When It Takes You a Second to Figure Out Someone Is Speaking to You Not in English

Why does that make no sense? Oh, you're speaking Spanish to me! OK, flipping the mental switch.

When You're Speaking Your Second Language on the Phone and Everyone Around You Is Not

I can't concentrate! STOP!

When Someone Tries to Test You to See If You're Really Bilingual

Eye-rolling so hard my head hurts.

When Your Friend Who Took One High School Semester of a Foreign Language Claims to Be Bilingual

Hmmm . . . OK!

When Someone You Just Met Says They Also Speak Your Second Language and Then They Totally Don't

That was not Spanish at all, sir, but I will be polite and keep quiet.

When You Read Subtitles in a Movie or Show and They're Terrible

What? Who did this? That's not what Jon Snow said AT ALL!

When Your Accents Get All Mixed Up and What You Say Makes Zero Sense

Sometimes I say English words with Spanish pronunciation and Spanish words with English pronunciation. So sue me.