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> I've not been able to communicate what I mean

As a native Chinese speaker that's always my confusion when communicate in English as I would feel that the word/phrasing can not express the meaning in my heart.



That's beautiful. E.g., I have Chinese coworkers and now I realize what they meant with "that's not wrong". I felt those expressions like humbleness, but now I realize they were trying to keep their authenticity. Mind blowing.


Just want to add more context here:

For me personally, it's the uncertainty dealing with non native languages. I can see that for my own language it is so hard to take full control of all cases for even a simple word, that gives me nerve to think before I say anything non native, as I learn, there are more complex cases that makes a single word fitting to more and more scenarios. Although I totally understand that the native speakers will definitely understand even if I do it wrong, but still, I feel that nerve every time.




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