The Wall Falls / Caída del Muro - Your thoughts, experiences?
Suddenly, The Berlin Wall Falls!
The suddenness of the event amazed the world! People around the world watched on television. In Berlin thousands celebrated noisily. The barrier between East and West had been removed. It was November 9, 1989.
Caída repentina del muro de Berlín.
El mundo se asombró por lo inesperado que fue el suceso. Gente de todas partes lo siguió por televisión. En Berlín, miles de personas lo celebraron ruidosamente. Se había eliminado la barrera que separaba el Este del Oeste. Era el día 9 de noviembre de 1989.
This week marks the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Twenty years ago, a barrier that had stood for twenty-five years, both literally and figuratively, was gone.
Esta semana se está conmemorando el aniversario de la caída del muro de Berlín. Hace veinte años, una barrera que había existido por veinticinco años, literal y figurativamente, desapareció.
This made me think of how language can be a barrier to communication and understanding. For me, learning another language has both broken down barriers and at the same time made me more aware of the existence of such barriers.
Esto me hizo pensar en como puede ser una barrera el idioma y dificultar la comunicación y el entendimiento. Para mi, aprender otro idioma ha roto barreras pero al mismo tiempo me ha hecho más consciente de que existe dichas barreras.
I am curious to know what you’re experience has been in this regard.
Siento curiosidad por saber qué has experimentado al respecto.
2 Answers
Para mi, los muros son los esos dentro de mi cabeza.
I've probably said that all wrong, but it's the best I can do as yet in Spanish!
For me, the walls have been those inside my head.
What I mean is that learning a new language seems to be opening up my mind and my memory in other ways as well. For years, I've lived well within my comfort zone - I knew exactly what I was doing at all times, and although I worked hard, there was no intellectual challenge - I'd done it all before.
Now, I'm moving out (slowly) in all sorts of ways. I do believe that the effort made to master (very imperfectly as yet) a new language has improved my ability to work and communicate in my day to day life. And being a beginner in something again, rather than the "expert", has certainly made me more sympathetic towards the occasional mistakes that other people make!
I hope the lengthy prologue to my question didn't frighten people away. 
My intention was only to ask what experiences or thoughts you have regarding the barrier that can exist between people of differing languages. I'm not interested in political views related to what the fall of the Berlin Wall means. The anniversary just what made me think along those lines.
Sheila's comment was both not something I had thought of and at the same time just what I was looking for. 
Any other thoughts? Or suggestions on my translation efforts?
