Lost in Translation

I had an unearthing experience this morning. Usually, my little brother speaks as an intermediate with my mom and me since her English is at a insufficient level. So as I came down to eat breakfast with my mom, she was sitting and watching me. She typed a phrase into Google translate, that roughly spit a broken English phrase of “I’m afraid that you disappointed in me.” I was confused and I tried my best to understand. From my earlier language learning days, I knew that Google translate was not the best for direct translation because it often forgets key conjugations. I tried to use my translator to ask what she was afraid of, but her body language motioned that she wasn’t afraid of anything. She then called another host dad who spoke to me on the phone and said that my host mom was sad because she doesn’t know English and felt I wasn’t getting an enriching experience. I assured the other host dad that it was completely ok. After the phone conversation she started to cry. I felt so terrible. I comforted her and told her it was OK (then also, proceeding to cry), but it was still tough to see her in that position. Even without a lack of language, there are many things that the human body can signal to show love and appreciation. Albeit, it has only been two days, I may have fallen short in showing appreciation. My first day was great – I exchanged gifts to all my family members, went on a motorbike with my mom round our town, and ended the day with watching football with the family. The second day I was so beat, I went to my room with the intention of coming down later and completely passed out. Perhaps it was this second day? Rationally thinking, I think that these issues have nothing to do with me but more of my mom’s confidence in her English skills. I hope over the next months, we are able to arrive to a mutual understanding that we can express ourselves in other ways than language. I hope that my family and I can co-exist in a functional fashion and only time will tell.