Around the holiday season, I like to declutter and clean in preparation for a new year. Some of this is inspired by a Cuban tradition–for New Year’s, many Cubans mop their houses from top to bottom, and fill up a bucket with the dirty water. Next, they dump this water in the street, as a symbolic gesture to “throw away” all of the bad stuff from this past year and begin anew.

I’m sure this is not limited to Cubans (the Japanese have a similar tradition), but the idea of ‘decluttering’–getting rid of the excess, the superfluous–got me thinking about language. When you are initially learning a new language, you have to pair down your sentences. You can’t always use fancy adjectives or be as precise as you’d like. 

In essence, you have to declutter what you say, get to the meat of your thought, take down the decorations in your mind of how you want to be perceived (e.g., highly educated, relatable, etc.)… and just spit it out. Learning a language is humbling: you become a diamond in the rough, clay not yet molded, marble not fully sculpted. But your moment is coming! So declutter your sentences, and focus on what’s truly important in your message. A word uttered here or there in a language you aren’t expected to speak can make someone’s day.