CH 12

Juan Guevara
Striving for engaged and effective intercultural communication

Something I have heard many times over is if you speak a second language then learning a third is going to be easier. I have known two languages - Spanish and English - for as long as I can remember. I have tried learning a third, Italian, and I don’t know how it is supposed to be easier. It still seems very difficult. If I have an advantage, I do not see it.

But, whether it is easy or not, I do feel like I have a linguistic knowledge (Martin 2018, pg. 484). Some of the perks that I see are in the language Spanish and English there is a lot of resemblances and between the resemblances, I see them more in other languages such as Italian and even French. It seems difficult to me, then again, I haven’t studied it as much as I want to. Perhaps if I did study longer the pieces would come together easier.

Something that I will also say is my tolerance of ambiguity (Martin 2018, pg. 484) can be pretty high when it comes to practicing Italian. I traveled to Italy and practiced the few sentences I knew. I enjoyed it, a lot. I have met many people who are deathly afraid of embarrassment and would rather lose the Spanish they knew than practice it.

But, I will say when the ambiguity is in a different context, such as delayed plans where I am waiting for others. Then I have zero tolerance; I get frustrated very quickly. I have friends who are terrible at being punctual to events and every time it happens I tend to get “vocal.”

Martin, J. (2018). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.







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