My career got started in the border town of San Diego, where I provided a court interpreting service for farm workers and the labor market. I thought I was a grammatical genius in Spanish and English because I had studied in both Spain and the United States, but unfortunately, my schooling didn’t teach me “border town” Spanish–something I learned the hard way.

More commonly known as “Spanglish”, border town Spanish was the fusion of the two languages – with all the linguistic idiosyncrasies that come along for the ride. I was just starting out and didn’t have the experience to realize that, although many living in San Diego are of Hispanic origin, a pure version of Spanish is hardly spoken. As writer, Mariana Ashley notes, “Borders cannot stop the rejoicing of two languages made one: Spanglish.”

Of course, the theory didn’t matter to me so much as the practice – I needed the job!

Day in and day out people would glare at me when I used words like “compañia de seguros” (insurance company). I realized that traditional Spanish would get me fired, so I had a real problem.

I needed a solution, so I started making a change to adapt to this new language environment I was around. What was the fix? Surprisingly simple: I started to talk to people for fifteen minutes to understand their lingo and how they used it, so that I could use it in a courtroom for my job. It worked: the glares stopped, business improved, and I was set on the path to running Local Concept.

So, while neither Spanish nor English conform to every grammatical or linguistic rule I learned in school, that is okay. After all, language is intended to communicate – which “Spanglish” does eloquently! The hard-won lesson from this experience that I’ve carried with me through 37 years of experience at the helm of Local Concept is this:

There really is no better way to learn specialized terminology than to dive into it.

If you can’t dive in yourself, a close second is to get in touch with our specialists – soon you may have three terminology lists: Spanish, English and a well-used hybrid version of both – and a team dedicated to meeting your needs.