Sure, I can translate that

One time I was called over from my office to another one of our facilities, one of my graduate assistances couldn't understand a student athlete. The student athlete was trying hard to be understood, and the GA was trying hard to understand, but there was just nothing that was being conveyed on either end.

One time I was told "Cate for the first year I was here in the states, you were the only person who I ever really thought understood what I was saying."

One time I was handed the phone and told "translate"
Translate? Okay? I didn't know what to expect from the other end.
I found an English speaker, but not a native English speaker.

The other day I was spending time with a group of athletes I work with who speak Portuguese as their first language. One of them has been teaching me for several months. I can say exciting things like "hello how are you" and name parts of the body, and different articles of clothing. He even taught me "it's too hard." But fluent I am not.
So I was standing there with two of them, and watching as their teammate yelled at himself in Portuguese. And after every statement he made, I would give my translation.
"HIT THE BALL"
"HIS SERVE IS HORRIBLE"
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME"

The young man on the left was astonished. "Cate your Portuguese is so good! I can't believe it"

The one on the right was laughing so hard I think he was about to pee his pants "Dude she doesn't speak Portuguese, I swear." He is the one who has been teaching me, he knows the truth.

It became a joke, and so now every time I am out watching a match, they will say "Cate what did he just say?" and I will give my translation. Most of the time I am pretty accurate. On Sunday one of them said something to the other and I said "Let's go get some Quiznos." They started laughing, it's what they do.
"NO Cate, I said "let's go get our stuff""
I told him that I was close enough. Sandwiches from Quiznos, stuff, same difference.

The thing that has really struck me about it though, is that it's not that hard. For one, just look at the context. Look at the body language, body language is a large part of communication.

Sometimes when I am watching television, I find it very funny that they will put captions with a person who is not a native English speaker, I think to myself "Really? Is it that hard to understand him."

Sometimes when I am at a restaurant, and I hear someone trying to order in English, when they would much rather speak Urdu or Arabic or French, and the waitress is being impatient, I get frustrated. I want to get up and go over and say "seriously, it's not that hard, listen carefully and watch what she is saying. Quit being so lazy, and be a better communicator, they are trying really hard, they aren't the problem here."

I have even noticed lately that when I am around internationals, I change the way I speak. I slow way down, and I enunciate, and sometimes I add a bit of an accent. I don't really even realize I am doing it, it just happens.

I have had to recognize that from a young age, my ear has been trained to listen harder, to understand English with all sorts of different accents. Your average american has not had this experience, and I need to be patient with them.

So in the mean time, while they learn to listen better, I'd be happy to translate, your English into English.