A woman brought her two Pomeranians to a barbecue I recently attended. I had never met her before, but overhearing her give the dogs commands in Norwegian, Italian, and English sparked a conversation between us and another guest.

Hamburger in hand, the other barbecue-goer explained why he’s always had trouble learning a language other than English.

“I want there to be a word-for-word translation and get stuck because it doesn’t work like that,” he said.

I resonated with that experience and thought about where that outlook might pop up in other aspects of life and business:

There’s a reasonable question virtually everyone asks …read more