Better results for the Spanish

I attended a meeting lately about a particular bird of conservation concern to see what could be done to protect it. This bird has been the subject of several studies in Europe, so the particular experts were flown in to the conference to attend. The world authority appears to be a Spanish lady, who told us all about her work on the species over the last 30 years or so. She gave a very scientific talk in a language that was not her first. Yet she spoke clearly and fluently, even using phrases like ‘all was not rosy’ during the 30-40 minutes she was talking. Indeed she spoke better than most of the gathered English experts. And since she is Spanish, she spoke very quickly, which means her brain must be working even faster to decide what it wants to say, translate it, and deliver it. What a very impressive woman!