RSteve
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
- Messages
- 2,482
- Reaction score
- 528
I stopped at a small shop today where the cashier was wearing a name badge with an obvious Hispanic name. The customer directly before me began to talk to her in Spanish to which she replied, "I'm Minnesota born with Mexican parents, but I don't know Spanish." The guy just shook his head and remarked in accented English that he was disappointed and surprised.
It brought to mind a situation that occurred shortly before I was married to my first wife. We were traveling in the Southwest; at the time this happened in Taos, New Mexico. The girlfriend had studied Spanish four years in high school and had lived in Mexico City during each summer following her 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. In college, she minored in Spanish. Her parents were of German and Norwegian descent, not a speck of Spanish heritage. The GF was extremely beautiful and had been on billboards around St. Paul-Minneapolis extolling the virtues of Sealy Posturepedic mattresses. She was about 5'5" maybe 125 lbs, very blonde and nicely proportioned.
In Taos, we got dressed up and went to a fine dining Mexican themed restaurant. After we were seated, a young female server along with what appeared to be her assistant or busboy came to the table. In English, the young woman warmly greeted us and went over recommended items on the menu. As we selected menu items, she feigned relating them in Spanish to the assistant, who wrote them down. After the two left our table, my girlfriend said that the couple taking our orders were totally screwing around. What the waitress said in Spanish to the young man had nothing to do with our order.
The meal and service were great. Our server and her assistant brought the check and asked if we enjoyed the meal. My girlfriend responded in perfect Spanish, "My tits are real. We do have sex like minks and you should be ashamed at your poor command of Spanish." The waitress immediately turned and ran to the kitchen. The young man who accompanied her begged me not to report their actions to management. "We're students, just getting by. Please...please, if we get fired we may have to drop out of school." I ranted a bit at both of their stupidity. "Never assume that people know or don't know a particular language.
It brought to mind a situation that occurred shortly before I was married to my first wife. We were traveling in the Southwest; at the time this happened in Taos, New Mexico. The girlfriend had studied Spanish four years in high school and had lived in Mexico City during each summer following her 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. In college, she minored in Spanish. Her parents were of German and Norwegian descent, not a speck of Spanish heritage. The GF was extremely beautiful and had been on billboards around St. Paul-Minneapolis extolling the virtues of Sealy Posturepedic mattresses. She was about 5'5" maybe 125 lbs, very blonde and nicely proportioned.
In Taos, we got dressed up and went to a fine dining Mexican themed restaurant. After we were seated, a young female server along with what appeared to be her assistant or busboy came to the table. In English, the young woman warmly greeted us and went over recommended items on the menu. As we selected menu items, she feigned relating them in Spanish to the assistant, who wrote them down. After the two left our table, my girlfriend said that the couple taking our orders were totally screwing around. What the waitress said in Spanish to the young man had nothing to do with our order.
The meal and service were great. Our server and her assistant brought the check and asked if we enjoyed the meal. My girlfriend responded in perfect Spanish, "My tits are real. We do have sex like minks and you should be ashamed at your poor command of Spanish." The waitress immediately turned and ran to the kitchen. The young man who accompanied her begged me not to report their actions to management. "We're students, just getting by. Please...please, if we get fired we may have to drop out of school." I ranted a bit at both of their stupidity. "Never assume that people know or don't know a particular language.