My Girlfriend's Mom in 4 Languages: A Translation Adventure
I've always been fascinated by the complexity of human communication. With so many languages spoken around the world, it's no wonder that language barriers can sometimes get in the way of understanding one another. That's why I decided to embark on a translation adventure with my girlfriend's mom - to explore four different languages and their meanings.
First up was Chinese, which is her native tongue. My girlfriend's mom taught me how to say "hello" in Mandarin (你好) and Cantonese (你好), as well as other basic phrases like "thank you" (谢谢) and "how are you?" (你怎麼樣?). It was amazing to see how these simple words could bring us closer together, even though we were speaking different languages.
Next, we ventured into Spanish. My girlfriend's mom has a friend who speaks fluent Spanish, so she kindly offered to teach me some basic phrases like "hola" (hello), "gracias" (thank you), and "¿cómo estás?" (how are you?). It was fascinating to learn about the similarities between Spanish and English, such as cognates like "information" in both languages.
We then moved on to French, which is another language that my girlfriend's mom knows quite well. She taught me how to say "bonjour" (hello), "merci" (thank you), and "" ("comment vas-tu?" or how are you?"). I found it interesting that there are certain words in French that have similar meanings but different pronunciations compared to English.
Last but not least, we explored Arabic - a language that my girlfriend has studied for years. Her mother shared some basic phrases with me like "" ("مرحبًا", hello) and "" ("شكراً", thank you). It was mind-boggling seeing how Arabic script differed from our familiar Latin alphabet.
Through this journey of learning four new languages with my girlfriend's mom, I realized just how much more there is beyond what meets the eye when communicating with others across cultures. Language barriers may exist but they shouldn't stop us from understanding each other better - after all isn't love supposed be universal?
