Precerpt from My 20th Language: Translation vs. Direct Comprehension

For many language learners, translation is the default bridge between unfamiliar words and understanding. But for me, translation has never been the path—I bypass it entirely. I do not translate. I comprehend directly, or I don’t comprehend at all. And when I don’t, I approach the text as I would an esoteric passage in English: through context, inference, and inquiry—not through conversion into my native tongue.

This isn’t a philosophical stance—it’s a practical necessity. With over twenty languages floating around in my head, reaching for a specific one to serve as a translation anchor is not just inefficient—it’s cognitively disruptive. The languages don’t line up neatly. They swirl, overlap, and sometimes compete. In multilingual settings, English is often absent altogether. I’ve been in situations where I’ve acted as a go-between—not from English to another language, but between two foreign languages. These aren’t rare occurrences; they’re woven into the fabric of my professional and personal life.

One recent example: French friends visiting from France joined me for mass at the Mission. Afterward, the Guadalupanos—whose language is Spanish—were selling brunch. I found myself interpreting from Spanish to French and back again, navigating cultural cues and culinary terms without English ever entering the equation. Years earlier, Russian-speaking friends from Canada attended Spanish mass with me, and I interpreted from Spanish to Russian. In Tashkent, I conducted a workshop in Russian for the Ministry of Education, with participants who spoke only Uzbek. I had picked up some Uzbek during my stay, but the Ministry provided an Uzbek-Russian interpreter to assist when needed. Again, English was nowhere in sight.

These experiences have shaped my approach to language learning. I don’t rely on translation into English to comprehend challenging texts. I work toward understanding through the text itself. I treat foreign language texts as I would a dense academic article in English: I look for structure, context, and clues. If I need to research meaning, I do so within the target language or through multilingual comparison—not by retreating to English.

This orientation—direct comprehension over translation—is not just a method. It’s a mindset. It allows me to engage with language as a living system, not a coded message to be decrypted. It’s also why I’m a wickedly poor interpreter. The mental gymnastics required to hold one language in stasis while converting another in real time are antithetical to how I process meaning. I don’t shuttle between languages—I dwell in them.

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