Lost in Translation

“Please hand me the carpet,” he said, directing the request to me with an open palm, during the routine English Area meeting. We were sitting at a desk surrounded by hardwood floors, no fiber-covered floor in sight. 

Now, some people speak English as a foreign language as if it doesn’t fit in their mouth. It’s too big and their cheeks puff out like kids who became overly excited and shoved too much birthday cake in there. Or their lower jaw just doesn’t stretch the way English sounds require. Or like it tastes bad and they have the constant urge to spit it out, sometimes spraying the listener with a mixture of words and saliva. 

But this particular teacher has better than average pronunciation and this statement was as clear as a freshly cleaned fishbowl, which is what tends to make mistakes all the more uncomfortable. For me. 

My mind and hands scramble around trying to locate anything that looks like a rug or a carpet on the desk, anything that resembles protection for a floor from feet, failing miserably. 

The teacher becomes distracted by someone else and turns his head away but his hand remains open, waiting, silently pleading for this mysterious, magic carpet. As usual, I am fighting the internal good fight between correcting/questioning people and encouraging them to practice speaking their second language, all the while, staring at his empty, expectant hand. This particular teacher also has a bit of an ego, rarely speaks to me in English, and highly dislikes public correction. I can’t possibly blurt out a “what are you talking about?!” so instead, I’m searching, when suddenly the small, Spanish-speaking side of my brain clicks! “Carpeta” in Spanish = Folder in English.

Oh.

I hand him the unassuming, green folder and mumble under my breath “ohthefolder youwanted… the folder” but he doesn’t hear me. I silently write it down on my list of “common errors” to bring up anonymously during our next tutoring session. I sigh as everyone returns to arguing in Spanish about decorations for the upcoming Open House, and I think “Yes, I will attempt to fix that another day” … again.