I Can Eat Prawns, But Not Langostinos.

After reading the title of this post, you are probably wondering, "What's a langostino?" 

A langostino is the name of a prawn in Spanish. So, why can't I eat it? Ah, that's the interesting part. The part where I want to explain how sometimes my brain or the brain of a bilingual person works.

If you read my About Me page, you will see that I am not a big fan of seafood, even when I grew up in a city where the typical food is... Seafood. I can eat shrimp, and probably two or three dishes with fish in them but that's about it. I wish I could explain why I don't like langostinos but, I just don't. Or at least, that's what I thought.

Two nights ago when my husband and I went out for dinner, my mind played some tricks on me. That night I ordered grilled prawns because they looked very tasty on the menu and because they looked like shrimp. I NEVER stopped to think that, what I was about to eat, was something I had avoided almost my entire life: Langostinos, I mean prawns!

I was almost done with my dinner when I realized what was happening, and I stopped. I set my silverware aside, and I told my husband: "You know, this reinforces why it is so important for our Latino community to receive messages in our native language too. I am eating something that if I had read the name of it in Spanish, I would not have ordered it."

Granted, it was a good thing that I didn't translate the word into Spanish because I am finally eating something I was reluctant to try before but, this also proves why, even when we are bilingual, if we see or hear a message in our native language the impact is bigger; it's stronger, it makes us pay more attention to it.