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Can someone give me a less literal translation of this saying?
Se quede solo y todo se le hace un mundo
I’m having a hard time wording this where native English speakers understand better.
They’re talking about why an employee they feel is too green (not experienced enough) shouldn’t be left alone in charge.
Would this fit the American saying to make a mountain out of a molehill ?
«Todo se le hace un mundo» literally means "everything becomes a world to him". The reference is to the size (and complexity) of the world. In Spanish there's at least one more expression where un mundo "a world" refers to something too complex or difficult: «Cada familia es (como) un mundo», "Every family is (like) a world".
A world is something too big to grasp or manage. This new employee is getting a world of difficulty from simple things; every new thing in his new job comes to him at once and overwhelms him. Note that the Spanish sentence places no responsibility for this on the employee. He's not "making a mountain out of a molehill" (willingly), he's not doing anything, but things are becoming too much around/for him.
A nice translation that keeps the reference to the world as a scary new place could be: "Everything around him is like a new world"; or maybe "He finds himself in a place that is like an alien world".
I am not sure whether providing English translation is strictly on topic here but I would have said
When he is left alone he is out of his depth
or
When he is left alone everything gets on top of him
They are not quite exchangeable so more context would help as requested in comments to the question.
As far I can see, you already understood the saying since you did mention:
They are talking about why a 'too green' employee should not be left alone.
Which is true, but the thing is that in Spanish, the same words can mean different things depending on context.
So, with this, a relative translation to English, using the context you used (a new or unexperienced employee at his job) would be:
He can't do it by himself yet. He sees everything as the most difficult thing ever.
He as no experience, therefore he can't do it himself.
He's not able to do anything by himself right now. It's hard for him.
Hope this helps you, and about your comment I'm not pretty sure that if it's related, since the saying itself is like a description of a person not being able to do something due to his lack of experience and this causing him to see every labour too difficult. Greetings!
