Many of my clients learned English after they immigrated here to the United States. Most of them took ESL classes and got good enough to where they could go out and interact with the general public (at work, shopping, etc.) which in turn helped them learn even more English. Some of my foreign-born clients speak English very well and some still struggle with vocabulary, grammar, and of course, with their accents. For several years I taught ESL at CLUES and at Neighborhood House – I know how hard it can be to learn English as an adult.
When I’m talking with someone who learned English as a second (or third or fourth) language I try to make sure I don’t use jargon words or colloquialisms. But inevitably something gets lost in translation. Whenever my client seems confused about something I can usually trace it back to something I said during one of our conversations.
Likewise, when I’m talking with one of my clients who learned English later in life, I’ve learned to listen closely to their words as well as to the context of their statements and questions. But I’ve had to teach myself not to take their words too literally. If I do, I might misinterpret what they are really saying and end up showing them homes they don’t like or not showing them homes they might like. Here’s an example:
The word: Too “Too” is an adverb that typically means in addition (I want the peach pie and the ice cream, too) or excessive (the shelf is too high, I can’t reach it). Sometimes, the word “too” also means “very”, such as “He doesn’t seem too (very) interested in working today.” For some reason, several of my clients use the word “too” to mean “very” even when they really mean to say “a lot” or “extremely” For instance, they might say, “this is too big” when referring to a kitchen that is very big. Now I’m a literalist. When someone says something to me, I take their words at face value. So the first few times I heard my clients say, “This is too big” or “This is too small” or “This is too whatever” I took it to mean that they were telling me the thing in question was excessive. Usually, when we say something is “too – big, small, cold, hot – whatever” we are also implying that we would prefer the opposite. If I say, “The shelf is too high” I’m implying that I’d prefer the shelf to be lower. So when my clients would say, “This is too big” I inferred they wanted something smaller. I was wrong. They were really saying, “This is very big” and they often were quite pleased with that feature. But I didn’t understand that and it was too late. I adjusted what homes I showed them and made sure I didn’t show them any more homes with that excessive feature. Can you see where this little misunderstanding took me in a very wrong direction?
Now when I hear my clients say, “this is too …” I take a second look at them to remind myself where and when they learned English. Then I know if they want less or the opposite, or if they are really excited about what they are seeing! Keeps me on my toes!
The one use of the word “Too” all my clients get right is when they state, “This home costs too much.”
