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Readers who write to me often share these traits. One, their
English is good. Two, they are successful. Three, they have problems. Is
there a link?
Dear Sir:
"I passed Grade
Eight in English proficiency back in college, the highest possible exam to
pass for anyone. Naturally I had been feeling good about my English. But
two years into my career (as a translator), I found my English to be
inadequate. I find myself failing at seemingly simple words and
expressions. One example is the phrase "double take" - I come across it
more than once but don't understand what it means exactly. Neither can I
find it in a dictionary. I'm frustrated. Please explain. Give examples (I
like the examples you give).
- Lee
Dear Lee:
At the risk of overstating it, let me say this upfront:
Your success at school is perhaps your unmaking at present. Nothing fails
like success.
Passing Grade Eight must have done you wonders. It was a great
achievement, not a doubt. It must have been very soothing and
ego-massaging. It might have in its day helped you get girlfriends (or
boyfriends as the case may be) and so forth. In short it felt good, and
rightfully so.
Problem is, achievements are invariably past achievements. Success
fleets. Achievements are something that comes and goes, something you
cannot really hang on to. You cannot accept the fact that simple words
like "double" and "take" are making your frustrated. You can not accept it
because you have been dwelling on your past successes at school.
Obviously you were able to pass exams. You were able to do it time and
again. It might have become a habit. You became so used to doing well in
English that you no longer foresaw problems. You see, success at school
gave you a false sense of security, that you could do it, that you could
always do it.
But it should not have been a problem if you had had less success, and
what a terrible thing to say that is, I know. I can even go on to advocate
failing itself but I won't do that. The art of failing takes an
understanding that goes very deep, too deep for successful graduates. So
I'll focus on success, even though I know there's really no great
contradiction between the duo - success and failure.
Anyway, had you been used to small failures like feeling frustrated
when you encounter a new word or phrase, you would have been able to deal
with the likes of the "double-take" setback more easily. Instead of
questioning your ability, you'd simply look it up in a dictionary if you
couldn't guess its meaning - often you could. I don't know what
dictionaries you looked up but "double take" is in the dictionary. It is
in some dictionaries (at my argumentative best, I can dispute everything
you say - I am not trying to win an argument, though, as hopefully you can
tell).
Probably you never learned "double take" in school. It is hence natural
that you don't recognize it the first time you see it. So relax. Chill. Be
cool.
What I'm saying is, you should forget about your past success at school
and move on, face new problems like you faced what were once new problems
back in school and keep conquering them. Keep achieving new success and
keep remembering not to take success too seriously - Don't dwell on them.
Don't sit on your laurels, as they say. Move on.
That's my take on success. What's your take?
A double take, by the way, refers to a situation where you react to
something after a short delay because you're surprised, you couldn't
believe your eyes, or ears.
Here's an example. In the news, I read back in October that Frank
Hughes, who covers the NBA basketball team Seattle SuperSonics for The
News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington State, said he saw something at the
team's practice that he had "never seen in 12 years covering the NBA."
He went on: "At the end of practice. Mickael Gelabale (a rookie, who is
in his first year in the NBA) ran toward the basket, jumped up and
head-butted the backboard. And not the bottom of the backboard. Like,
about a foot up.
"I had to do a double-take at the time."
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