I have been translating technical documents for more than two decades. I have been living almost seven years in a country where virtually no one speaks my own language outside my house. Also I am learning three new languages and enjoying it very much. I am not a perfect speaker in any of those languages. But what matters? No one is perfect anyway.
Rather I have lots of fun from all of them. It is fascinating that there are always new things to learn when you are dealing with a language even if it is your mother tongue. Actually I think I might be shy the most in my own language as I feel making mistake is less permissible when using it.
However, it looks like my fellow country people would think quite opposite. They are afraid of making grammatical errors, missing meanings of what they hear and pronouncing in a poor manner in speaking other languages. To err is human. No mistakes, no learning. As a result, I see people from countries around the world here but except one, where I came from.
It is a shame that the concept of expatriate itself carries unwelcome connotations there. I would like to urge the fellow people that your personality would never be lost in translations. You are you wherever you are and would be welcome as long as you are human. Being human would not require heaps of words. Especially in a country like here.
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