What Motivated Me to Become Bilingual: The Story That Changed the Course of My Life
Today I will share a personal story with you. A story that brings back lots of memories and one that changed the course of my life. This is the story of what motivated me to become bilingual.
First of all, let me share with you that when I was in high school, I was totally certain that knowing Spanish was good enough for me, and that I didn’t have to learn English to be successful. But my life took a different path when reality struck one Wednesday afternoon.
While finishing up my Associate degree with a concentration in advertising in Puerto Rico, I did an internship at a large advertising agency on the island. It was during my last semester.
From day one, I liked the people at the advertising agency and felt welcomed by everyone. I asked to be in the creative department of the agency because I wanted to write commercials, which is called ‘copywriter’ in the advertising industry.
One of the senior copywriters at the agency was Ms. Perez. She was creative and had earned the respect of everyone in the creative department. Ms. Perez was also bilingual… and I guess that she didn’t think much of people who were not.
Over the course of my internship, I participated in many creative projects and felt comfortable with my writing, with my ideas, and with what I was learning at the advertising agency. One of the things I noticed was that the copywriters had to translate their ads into English because most of the clients were American and only spoke English.
In the process, I kept joking with myself and everyone in the department about not knowing much English, and about being glad that I didn’t have to translate anything for the clients. However, after three months of the internship, I got a harsh reality check one afternoon.
This particular day, Ms. Perez told me that to complete my internship, I had to translate a Kraft Cheese commercial from Spanish into English. She said: “You keep saying that you don’t know English, and I want to test you to see just ‘how bad’ your English really is.” I laughed and replied: “You will find out.”
I went to a desk and started the translation. Soon thereafter, I realized that I hardly knew any of the words. Once I finished the Kraft Cheese translation of the print advertisement, I couldn’t help but notice that 90% of the words were blank. I simply didn’t know the words. I reviewed the ad one more time, and was still teasing myself, like “you see. I’m really bad. I don’t know much English.” Well, what happened next is what changed the course of my life.
Ms. Perez asked me to come in into her office. I gave her the piece of paper, the translated Kraft commercial… which had little lines across each row, which represented the words I didn’t know. Ms. Perez looked at the paper, and noticed the blank lines, and then looked at me in disbelief. She stared at the piece of paper, for what seemed like an hour to me. She finally looked up at me. Her face got red. Her eyes got big. And she said (I really should say ‘yelled’ here): “My son, who is four years old, knows more English than you do.” And then she threw the piece of paper across her desk, in what seemed to me like a state of fury. The jovial Mylene couldn’t believe what just happened. I didn’t know what to say or what to do next. She said it loud enough for everyone in the creative department to hear it. I was embarrassed, hurt, and shocked. I waited a few seconds (again, it seemed like an hour to me) and then I picked up my stuff and left Ms. Perez’s office. This was a Wednesday and I only had two more days to complete my internship.
My drive home was a very emotional one, to say the least. I had so many tears in my eyes that I could not see. Ms. Perez had just embarrassed me, but she had also told me the truth. A child who was four years old knew more English than me. I was quiet and subdued for the next few days.
Two weeks later, I announced to my parents, and to my sister & brother, over dinner: “I’m going to move to the States and learn English.” My Mother’s quick response was: “Yeah and we just hit the lottery jackpot last night.”
Over the next few weeks, my parents realized that I was not joking, that I was going to learn English, and that I was moving to the states. The family got behind my new dreams and we made plans for my big move to the US.
Initially, I thought that Ms. Perez had ruined my life, with her tough words. But soon after that rough afternoon, I realized that she was right; that I couldn’t make it in the advertising world without speaking English and becoming bilingual.
After the college internship, I moved to New York City and enrolled in an intensive English course. My fellow students were from all over the world. Our common thread was that we had just arrived in the US and we all wanted to learn English.
After the intensive English course, I continued on to get a BS Degree with an advertising major at Syracuse University. With only one semester left, guess what I did? I called Ms. Perez up and set up an appointment with her, while on a Christmas break in Puerto Rico. She was nice to me when I called her. I went to see her at the advertising agency. I took a piece of paper and imitated what she did to me, and I used the same words she used with me. She felt bad for what she had said. I told her that this was not my intention, to make her feel bad, but instead, that I wanted to thank her because if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have had the desire or the courage to become bilingual. We had a great meeting, and she realized that I was thankful for her frankness, and for what she had done for my life.
This story serves to show all of us; life can make you bitter or can make you better. I chose the latter. I became bilingual, worked in the radio market in Virginia (in English), and later on, formed my bilingual advertising company and the Bilingual Job Fair, where we connect employers and bilingual candidates.
Thank you Ms. Perez. You truly changed the course of my life… and made me better prepared for the world.
Today I’m fully bilingual. I went through five steps to become bilingual, which I shared in this post. Also, if you want to learn more about the advantages of being bilingual, you can read more here.
1 Comment September 3, 2009
