Let's Say "Challenging" Instead of "Difficult"

This is a story when I was in Vancouver.

It was a cold day and almost 6 months have been about to pass since I had come to Canada. 

Living in a new place is a series of unexpected things, but it's so attractive and mesmerizing in front of a young girl's eyes.

But what was more attractive for me shivering on that day was a cup of hot chocolate! I ran into "Tim Hortons" after work, which is a doughnut franchise cafe in Canada, and ordered hot chocolate with a doughnut. The cafe was a bit hectic as it was Friday evening. Getting things I ordered and took a seat at a bar table by the window facing to a street.

As a student in a college studying translation and interpreting, I had a translation assignment. It was tricky enough to make my brain stop working. Then suddenly I heard a voice saying "Excuse me?" behind me. I turned around and saw a black man wearing a checkered shirt and a navy tie nicely. "Excuse me ma'am, would you please keep the seat here for me?" he asked. there were little vacant seats in the hall, so I replied "Sure, take your time to get your coffee!"

After a while, he came back to the seat saying thank you and seemed to find out that I am an international student. 

"What are you studying?" The man asked.

"I study translation and interpreting in a college and this is an assignment."

"So you are an international student? Where are you from?"

"Japan. Oh there is a difficult passage in this assignment! Will you help me with that?"

"Well you kept this seat for me. I can't say no."
He laughed and took the paper.

After a while, he seemed pretty confused, gave me it back. Slowly he started to address his interpretation. In short, we didn't figure out the writer's real intention but his attitude was very sincerely and he told me,

"This is so hard even for a native speaker. But here's a tip for you living alone overseas. You are courageous. I like your attitude that trying to figure out the way through out problems. That will help you in life. There'll be a lot of harder nuts to crack in the future, so let's say challenging instead of difficult when you face to them."

He kindly smiled and continued,

"Words will affect the way you feel. Words are important. Don't you think challenging feels more positive than difficult? When you take something as a difficult matter, you will have a negative impression toward the thing and which will take you down. Oh by the way, my name is Charlie. nice to meet you and thank you for keeping me a seat!"

to be continued...