You Try Talking on the Phone in Spanish Sometime
Posted by Cracker on November 17th, 2009I did it! I had a successful telephone conversation in Spanish!
To most of you, that might not seem like such a big deal, but for me, it’s huge. First, I’m terrible at Spanish. And second, apparently I’m a lip and body language reader, because once I get on the phone it’s like all the Spanish I know escapes me and my in-laws are like the teacher from Charlie Brown.
The only way a telephone will ever look attractive to me
It all started with a text from Mamá, my mother-in-law from Venezuela. With the help of Google Translate, I thought I was able to answer her without sounding like a total idiot, but I could be wrong, because then Papá called.
Me: This is Cracker. How can I help you? (I answer my phone all business like, since I uh… run a business.)
Papá: Hola!
Me: Uh… Hola?
Papá: Esta Papá!
Me: (silently) OMG. Okay, don’t panic. Say what you know. Um… cómo estás?
And then we talked! I understood him! Though I thought for a minute that he said something about menstruation (he didn’t, geez) and that Señor’s little brother was on the streets (I don’t think he meant homeless, but who knows?)
I was able to ask if they needed me to wake Senor up, if it was an emergency, how everybody was, to give everyone big hugs and kisses, and just generally communicate in español via the telephone without any visual cues to help me.
…And then it turns out that Señor had been awake the whole time and was listening in to me. Way to help a sister out, Señor. My consolation prize was his confession that it took him years to talk on the phone in English. So yeah!!!! Point 1 for me in the language battle!
Tags: Cracker FTW, Spanish Language
