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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 121 of 154 28 May 2014 at 1:40am | IP Logged |
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I really enjoy your log! It's so positive and optimistic.
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| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5868 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 122 of 154 29 May 2014 at 5:14am | IP Logged |
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Wow i didn't expect to actually read the whole last post but it was really great and i'm glad i did. I lived in a small town in Arizona when i was still actively studying Spanish and it was great being around so many Spanish speakers. I used to hang out with the day laborers and we'd look for work together.
Everyone seemed really proud of the javelinas (the wild pigs), though i never actually saw one while i was there. It's interesting you mentioned them, though. There was also a lot of different plant life, the desert is really beautiful in a really different way. I hope your wife's feeling better now, too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 123 of 154 30 May 2014 at 7:43am | IP Logged |
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Hey Stelle, I’m glad you like my log. I can’t help but to be positive. It’s just who I am. I joke with my wife that it’s a genetic disorder :-) I’m just a sing in the shower type dude.
What’s going Crush? Glad my post made you read all the way to the end. It’s funny that you mention the pride in the Javelinas. One of my coworkers put extra emphasis describing them to me like they must be a really big deal, like 2 levels lower than a unicorn or something. LOL I’m super glad to hear about your experience being around Spanish speakers. Fluency (whatever that means) here I come!! Thanks for asking about my wife. Her post op was today and she got a clean bill of health. I had a meet up this Tuesday and it was awesome. Our group leader wasn’t able to make it but we all just winged it and had an awesome time. One of the things that struck me was how language learning is a barrier breaker. One lady who is English showed up driving a beautiful convertible Mercedes coupe. It was awesome. It’s soo cool that someone like that would show up to this little group to talk Spanish. There was a guy from Guyana, the English lady, my buddy from India, a Mexican guy and a bunch of Americans at the table. We chatted about everything from travels to etiquette. I was laughing so hard to hear that the English lady won’t drink beer from a bottle… Ever. She just can’t because she was brought up to believe that it’s a classless thing to do. Also she explained how in England people kind of say their piece, stop, then the next person speaks. Not like how it’s done is Spanish speaking countries where everyone kind of talks at the same time. The food was good and the owner came out and shook all of our hands before we left. My Spanish was flowing really well and a received a few complements on my skill level, along with people asking me how to say things. That felt pretty good. I’m going to miss them and I think they’ll miss me too. I’m kind of a catalyst that gets the conversation flowing. The plans are set. The “happy promotion/see ya later/ Welcome new guy” party will be Thursday. I said that I would pay for the drinks and a buddy of mine in Mexico warned me. “ You know that we drink a lot.” LOL So it’s a 2 drinks sponsored by Hermon party. I’m just glad they are planning to come out. This is also a good opportunity for the new guy to hang out with his team outside of the office. Since that is kinda business related, maybe the company will sponsor. Who knows, it IS team building. For all the younger people just starting out in their careers, have patience and do a good job, your time will come. I remember feeling so worthless in my early/mid 20s. “Everyone wants experience but I don’t have any.” (I’m gonna eat some worms!) Now that I’m 11 years out of school things are really falling into place for me. I’m on the linked-in website and this past week I’ve had 3 companies ask me to apply for jobs. Of course I turned them down because I have a new gig starting soon, but I did so politely and asked for them to keep me in mind the next time an opportunity arises. One cool thing that happened is that a lady whose title is international executive recruiter wrote to me about a job. I read her profile and saw that’s she’s working out of Mexico City so I decided to write her back in Spanish. The words were just flowing out of my fingers and I a crafted a good email declining to be considered for the position but also explaining some of my medium term goals and asking to be included in her network. I also added a polite correction to some grammatical errors in the job announcement. She accepted my invite, was grateful for the corrections, and I’m sure we will be able to help each other I the future. I’ve lined up my Sunday afternoon in Mexico. A few of us are going to the Cathedral to hang out. Every Sunday there is a big market with vendors selling everything. It should be an awesome time and a great way to talk to some locals and just hang out. It’s great to be able to start a conversation in context instead of just saying, “ Hi, I’m Herm and I’m trying to learn Spanish… Wanna talk?” (Although that has worked in the past) One of my old co-workers who left the company has a restaurant on the side and he’ll probably be a vendor there. It would be great to see him. I used to joke with him and call him King of the Dance. (He didn’t know how to dance) I hope I see him there. He’s also the first Mexican and person from another country to ask me for a reference. It was cool to feel like my words were going to help him get ahead in life. I’m debating whether I should post everyday about the trip or just do a super post at the end of next week. Every day would probably be better because I would be less likely to forget something, but I don’t’ think that will really happen. Chances are that a super post of the universe is brewing. peace Edited by HermonMunster on 30 May 2014 at 7:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 124 of 154 08 June 2014 at 1:30am | IP Logged |
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Hey Everyone,
I got back from my trip late last night. It was by far the best business trip I’ve had to Mexico. I had really long days so by the time I got back to my room I would just crash and didn’t feel like writing anything. I’ll list out what I can remember happening by the day. Sunday Caught first plane at 5:30 am. Uneventful. Second plane to Phoenix wasn’t too bad and I slept most of the way. I almost missed the only flight in to Mexico because the screens showing arrivals/departures where not working in my area of the airport. There were no agents at the gate and when they showed up I was told the gate had been changed. I ran over to the new gate and the door was already closed. After a few profanities to myself the door opened and an agent told me they are looking for a family and I could board. Phew! Missing that flight would have thrown off the whole trip. It was a smooth and quick flight in and I didn’t have any problems with customs. I chatted with a guard about my job while he checked my bag. The driver was waiting for me and we had a good time catching up. We spoke in Spanish the whole time about our families and work ( he has a side business making chorizo and told me that all the heat makes it almost unbearable) It was 109 degrees on Sunday. I checked into the hotel in Spanish and then went to my room. There was a maid that was cleaning the room across the hallway when I arrived. She told me good morning and asked if I was leaving. I answered her in Spanish and she was really surprise, “ Ohh you speak Spanish.” We made some small talk until her supervisor came out of a nearby room and the maid got back to work. I had lunch in the hotel and ran into one of my buddies on the staff. We had a nice chat, he’s gotten married since the last time I saw him. I went outside at 4pm to get picked up by my friend to go to the festival de Pitic. It’s a big party that the city gives every year with all kinds of food, music, arts/crafts. While I was sitting on the bench I was sweating sooo much. It was dripping off my nose and all down chest. It was so hot that a breeze actually made you hotter. Nothing quite like 110 degrees flying into your face. I sat and waited and waited and waited. At first I was thinking, Well maybe they are coming on Sunday afternoon on Mexican time. After 1.5hr later I said, “forget it,” and went inside to get a drink. I was actually glad they didn’t come because it was way too hot while the sun was up. (on Monday I found out that there was a miscommunication. I agreed on 4pm with one guy but he sent a lady to pick me up at 6pm probably just a few minutes after I left the lobby) The bar tender remembered me and we had a good time talking nonsense. After a few tequilas I went to the room to cool out and let the Sun go down. After sunset I was debating if I should go out or not. It was still in the upper 90s and the bed was feeling mighty comfortable. I forced myself to not be a lame and went down to catch a cab. There were no cabs so I decided to walk in the direction of the party while trying to hail one. I walked about a mile before I found one. The driver told me that he already had someone. I told him I wanted to go to the cathedral and I that was where the passenger was going so he let me get in the front. There was a lady in the back and she was chatting with the driver when I got in. After a few minutes she asked me some questions and then the 3 of us were having a good conversation. When the cabby dropped us off I was getting ready to say, “ nice to meet you, bye,” and the lady explained that she was from Tijuana and didn’t really know anyone so I said that we should take in the festival together. We had a blast! Walked around the whole festival, ate all kinds of Mexican carnival food, saw a dance put on by an indigenous tribe, shopped for presents, and everything. I had a funny misunderstanding. I asked what she did for a living and she said she was a singer (or at least that’s what I thought she said). I was like, “Sweet! Sing something!!!” She cracked up laughing. She’s really an acontadora (accountant) not a contadora (singer). It was a pretty funny mistake. Some of the highlights were seeing a dunk guy dancing his ass off by himself while everyone cheered him on, watching the tribal dance, and negotiating a bit with the venders. It was a really good experience. Ohh yea another cool thing was that the indigenous ladies painted their faces and the paint signified details about their life: If they were married, what tribe they were from, how many kids they had, and how old they were. One kinda creepy thing that happened was that someone had a drone with a video camera and was flying it over the streets. I really didn’t like that. I can’t help be to be weirded out by the fact that someone is recording everyone. I guess it’s their right as I was in a public space, but still, creepy. The worst part was that the propellers make a strange sound. That being said, I think drones will be the wave of the future. Once I pay off some bills I will start saving up to buy one. I think it would be awesome to play with. After about 2hrs I had eaten, drank, and talked my fill and I was ready to go. We share a cab back and said goodbye. I couldn’t believe how awesome of a night I had just by being friendly and being competent with Spanish. Monday I got picked up by the driver a little late. He apologized and told me that he had been with his father in the hospital all night. His dad had back surgery that wasn’t successful. This led to a discussion about surgeries and success rates. I had to ask how to say a bunch of words but the conversation flowed in Spanish pretty easily. We I arrived at the plant I signed in and asked the guard about the current time. She said, “ you know Spanish?!?” and we had a quick chat. Once upstairs I found the room that was having the advanced English class. There were about 8 students and I already knew two of them. It was comical how the class froze when I came in. It was like I was a confidence stealing super villain or something. After about 10mins they warmed up to me and started participating in the class. They were reading short articles and having to answer questions. The teacher had a projector and was using google translate to get translations. When google translate failed to provide the correct meaning ( like it so often does) I would explain the real definition and use it in a different sentence. I asked the class if they had any questions for me and they surprised me by asking me to read to them. For the most part their English is serviceable but they have trouble pronouncing words. Also their teacher knows English well but he’s teaching with a Mexican accent. So I read the whole article to them while they read along. That experience made me remember being a kid and having a teacher read to me. They finished with their work a little early and we had time for more questions. The guy sitting next to me asked, “ Hermon, what does N****r mean. I heard it in songs and I don’t understand.” I wasn’t expecting that question but I’m glad he asked. I gave them a brief rundown of the black experience in American history and then tried to find a parallel derogatory word for Mexicans to compare it against. I think they got the picture, but in my experience, Mexicans tend to have thicker skin when it comes to insults. I’m not sure if I said this on the blog before, but once a Mexican engineer made a huge mistake and was basically getting cursed out on a conference call, “ You are the stupidest, darkest, Indian in the world.... etc.” He just ate the verbal assault like it was breakfast. Here in the states that would definitely be a law suit. ( Typing this just jogged a memory. About 6 years back my wife was working as an ESL teacher and had befriended a Mexican lady who was her student. She invited us to dinner for a double date. Somehow prejudice came up and my wife and I were trying to some of the uglier parts of American history. The husband couldn’t believe it. “No! Not in America!” It was pretty eye opening to see firsthand the power of the idea of America in the eyes of a foreigner.) After the class I went around and greeted all my buddies and got to work. After a few hours passed my replacement and the account manager arrived. Then my buddies presented me with a parting gift. I jokingly call myself “ The King of Wires” in Spanish and one of the guys had twisted a bunch of pieces of copper together so that it had vertical spikes and a circular shape…. “ Hermon, here is your crown!” We all had a great laugh at that and I was actually kinda touched by the gesture. I saved the crown and will put it in my work memories box. For lunch a few of us decided to get seafood taco at an open air restaurant. The food was awesome but it was soooo hot out. I think it’s the first time in my life where I had sweat dripping into my food. We chatted and told jokes. I tried to get the lady team member to speak in English. She is good but she’s very shy. It’s interesting how she’s such a fun and lively person in Spanish and is quiet as a mouse if it’s English time. We worked the rest of the day ate in the hotel and then crashed early because everyone was tired. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 125 of 154 08 June 2014 at 3:15am | IP Logged |
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Tuesday
I had to take a cab to work because the other guys were getting picked up by the driver about 1.5hrs later. There was a cabby out front and I showed him a business card and he knew right were to go. We chatted the whole way to the plant, about 15min ride. I started off by asking if he was born in the city and a conversation was born. He said he could understand everything I was saying. How cool is that! The English class followed the same format and they were reading about Pulsars. The article was pretty inappropriate for the class. There were way too many vocabulary words that they would never use again for the rest of their lives. The funny part was that the teacher didn’t have the answer book so they kind of voted on what was the right answer. A few times the consensus was wrong and I had to overrule them. I did feel a slight bit of pressure to not get an answer wrong. I would have been pretty embarrassed if they knew more English than me. The customer arrived in the morning and then we got down to the meat and potatoes of the visit. It was all about making our process more lean and how that could affect our lead times. It was very informative but going through the whole production process was very tedious. There was one new edition to our team in Mexico and she is very good at her job. The highlight for me was when we needed to talk about an internal policy and instead of getting up and having to go into another room we switched to Spanish (none of the clients spoke it). It was awesome to be apart of the club. That evening we just ate in the hotel and I had to be the dad of the group. I translated the menu for everyone and ordered up our drinks. The food was good as well as the company. It’s always great when a client comes who is just a good person. We all went to bed early. Wednesday I had a different taxi driver and I struck up the same conversation with him. He was a fisherman before buying his cab. I had a whole bunch of fun laughing with him. The day before one of my buddies asked me to come to his Spanish class (intermediate) because it’s a lot of fun. I took him up on the offer and he was telling the truth. The teacher was from East Los Angeles and a really funny guy. He has a free form style to his class so I was able to jump right in whenever I had something to say. I told a few jokes, talked to them about the importance of learning English, and told the story of my car crash that made me start learning. I had a great time. I also wrote my email address on the board and told them to feel free to email me or send an instant message if they want to practice their English. Lastly I encouraged them to be go-getters. There aren’t many Americans who live in the area but between all the plant visits and the internet, they can talk until they get sore. The work day was pretty grueling. I got pulled out of the meeting because of a quality issue. It was a fairly large issue so I had to stay about 2 hours later than the rest of the group. No biggie, I was able to get my steak about 5mins after everyone else. It felt good to be in the meeting and having the plant manager asking my opinion. Being down there helps me remember that I do like engineering and problem solving. Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down with all the day to day paperwork. When people got confused I would switch into Spanish. Dinner was excellent as usual (the steak is awesome!!!) we had fun telling stories and hanging out. Thursday I had a different taxi driver and I chatted him up as well. Class was fun because they had to make up sentences using some words written on the white board. They were robber, break, theif, mugger, and crook. Some of the sentences the class came up with almost had me crying with laughter. The meetings were pretty intense and I was called out again for a different and potentially larger problem. While trouble shooting with the Mexican engineers we spoke mostly in Spanish. I still got lost from time to time but I was able to hop back in pretty easily. The rest of the day progressed pretty smoothly although I was kind of taken aback by a quality engineer’s lack of English skills. I was sitting next to him while he was writing an email to the customer and I had to stop him and rewrite the whole thing. It was so bad that it was borderline incomprehensible. I think part of the problem is that his job is so important that he doesn’t have the time to attend the English classes and private lessons are very expensive. We came back to the hotel and drank together as a group in the lobby. It was a good time and we played a joke on one of the customers. It turned out to be really funny. I had a few drinks with them and I went to my going away party. About 10 people showed up and we ate appetizers, drank, and talked crazy. It was super fun and I felt good knowing that my co-workers wanted to come out and have a good time with me. We stayed about two hours and then I picked up the tab. I was talking with the waiter in private that I wanted to pay for everything (I had promised them that I would only pay for 2 drinks) He told me the amount, including tip, and I paid him. About 5mins later he came back with the equivalent of $30 and said that he did the math wrong. I was really surprised by that! He could have kept the money and I wouldn’t have known any better. It’s nice to know that there are still some honest people in the world. After the bar I went with a few guys to get some Mexican hotdogs. It was great. There were so many toppings that were available. Of course, I put them all on mine and when I took the first bite half of them fell on the ground. After that I collapsed into bed tired and full of a bit too much beer. Friday I packed my bags and took a taxi with the same driver as Thursday. This time the guards gave me some trouble signing in. I think it was because I had a suitcase with me. I explained who I was and that I had been there all week. The guard insisted on escorting me. When I got to the classroom everyone said, “ Herm!” and the guard was like, “ ohh… ok. Bye” I wanted to say, “ See, I told you.” We had fun talking about words with multiple meanings. Some examples were to break up and to hook up. They were complaining about how so many English words have multiple meanings. There’s a huge different to hook up for a cup of coffee, get your cable hooked up, or meeting someone at a bar and hooking up. Last week someone asked what was the word for a prostitute and the teacher asked if they remembered what the word meant. One lady raised her hand an in a heavy accent said, “ Working girl.” It was hilarious. I said my goodbyes to everyone and then I was off to the airport. I checked in with the guys from the customer and then went to the gift store to try to find something for my wife. I tried to get the driver to take us one day but we were just too busy. The gift store that I liked closed down and the other store was selling garbage gifts so I just bumbled around for a while. During my stroll I noticed a lady smiling at me. As I got closer (my eyes aren’t the greatest) I recognized her. She was the lady that I had been talking nonsense with a year ago (saying if I win the lottery I’ll buy you guys villas on the sea and crazy stuff like that). It was too cool that she remembered me. I chatted with her and a man and a lady on her sales team for about 30mins. It was fun. She showed me pictures of her family and everything. I think talking with me really brightened up their day. Their job was to try to get people to sign up for an credit card. Not the most exciting job in the world. Here are some other things that happened while I was there. My replacement and I were inspecting some parts when a guy kind of ran up on us. We were nervous at first, like, “ I was just looking.” But he asked me in English if I would take a picture with a lady who worked on the line. My replacement started cracking up laughing. I obliged. I’m a decent looking guy, but nothing to write home to mom about. Every time I’ve been down there I’ve gotten requests to take pictures with people. It’s just cause I’m exotic down there. That never happens to me in the states. LOL At first it would weird me out a bit and make me worry that I’m being unprofessional, but now I always say yes if I have the time. It’s just a picture, and I do the same thing. At the festival I asked if I could take a picture with a Native woman. She happily obliged. I guess I figure I should pay it forward. My team was very disappointed that my replacement doesn’t speak Spanish. A few of them told me, made sure you give him all your materials so he can learn. I'm getting much faster with my improv talking. A little girl was walking with her mom and she ran over to beg. Without skipping a beat I told her, " I'm sorry but I'm only carrying credit cards." I surprised myself with how smooth it came out. Last time I was down there I was kind of hanging out with a homeless guy in front the hotel that sells art work. When I was walking to catch a cab to the festival he saw me and came up to ask for money and then chat with me. I must be much better with speaking than the last time he saw me. He was shocked. " YOU speak Spanish!" This new position is going to awesome for my career. A buddy of mine who has been an account manager for a while told me today, “ After a couple of years you should start looking. With all of your experience and language skills you will be very valuable to companies.” I spent some time with my new program manager and she was crying the blues. Sometimes people just need to vent. I played it cool and more or less told her that I will find a way to manage the customer. That’s not the easiest thing to do, but it is possible and worth the effort. All of my new team seems really cool and I’m looking forward to working with them. I’m going to be traveling a lot for the new position. Probably Mexico once a month along with a flight to the Midwest every other Month. It works out perfect that my wife is gone now, of course I miss her to death, but I can focus on my new position and travel at a moment’s notice without stealing from our together time. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! -Herm Edited by HermonMunster on 08 June 2014 at 3:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 126 of 154 29 June 2014 at 11:43pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Everyone,
I hope you are doing well. I've been super busy traveling. I had to fly out for a customer 2 weeks ago and last week I was in Mexico again from Sunday-Wednesday. Although I'm not officially starting my new position until Mid-August, I'm already doing the work. This makes for some long nights and weekends, but it's nice to be in demand. I'm still studying my Anki Spanish flash cards and listening to Spanish radio at work and it the car. I'm putting extra effort into doing my self talk in Spanish. It's a great way to keep me thinking in Spanish. I missed the last meet up because of the Mexico trip but I figure 4 days in Mexico is about a bagillion times better than one meet up. Here's what happened on the trip. Sunday Had to be at the airport at 4:20am. I was exhausted and slept all most the whole way. On the flight into Mexico I sat next to a very nice lady who was visiting her boyfriend. We had a pleasant chat (in English) about a wide range of topics. She is a teacher in prisons. Some of the stories she told me blew my mind. It's sad how a cycle of violence, poverty, and drug abuse continues in a family. The flight attendant gave us our customs forms in Spanish by mistake. It was really cool to be able to easily fill it out. When I got to customs the agent saw that my form was in Spanish and asked me if I knew Spanish. I chatted with her for about a minute and went to baggage claim. The baggage guys also wanted to chat about my job so I obliged. The driver was waiting for me and we spoke the whole way to the hotel in Spanish. He was in a fairly bad car accident the last time I was there and had a neck brace. He was healed up and didn't need the brace anymore. He told me that the accident was a hit and run where the other car flipped upside down. The other driver crawled out of the car and came over to make sure that everything was ok. When my buddy said that he was all right, the guy just ran away. Later that day he called the police and reported that his car was stolen. lol The police figured out that he was the driver because it was his birthday and he had been out drinking with his friends. I checked into the hotel all in Spanish and chatted with the staff for a bit. They were new so they were asking me where I learned and I asked the same about their English. I was surprised to hear that they never took classes, just learned on the job. I encouraged one lady to learn how to read English. Being able to write and draw pictures will always ensure that you are understood (I guess as long as the other person can read). I've been to the hotel many times so I spoke with a few of the bell hops and the bartender before going to my room. I had a few hours before the other guys arrived so I watched some tv and worked on a computer I bought down that needed repair ( the business is going well but know I'm so busy that I don't really have time to devote to it). The other two guys arrived and we went to the bar to have a taste before our co-workers came to pick us up for dinner. We watching the world cup and met a really cool guy who lives in Tucson, where I am moving. We had a great time drinking with him and I got his business card. I'm definitely going to look him up when I get there. One of the engineers who came down for the visit tried to close out the tab and said, " the bill" and moved his hand in a circular motion. I guess the bartender was confused because he brought out 4 more beers. We were cracking up and our buddies from the plant showed up just in time to take 2 of them off our hands. Dinner was fantastic. The place had the best tacos I've ever eaten. They were so good that they were always on my mind the following day. We had good conversation in English and I was the dad for the other two guys, explaining what was on the menu. A guy an engineer from the plant just happened to be there and we had a quick chat. I don't work with him but I attended his English class a few times. We all crashed pretty early. Monday I got up early to catch a cab so I could attend the English class. I tried to make conversation with the driver but I think he was still tired. I really need to start paying attention on the way to the plant. For a second I thought we were going the wrong way but I wasn't sure. I got to class about 5 minutes early and most of the class showed up 10mins late so I just had to stand in a short hall way with the lockers of the operators. It was pretty uncomfortable because I was in everyone’s way. After a while the class showed up and the new teacher. He was cool, but not as fun as the original guy. He pretty much just read directly from the book. I had to help him a few times with his pronunciation. I helped for lady who sat next to me. The questions were really difficult and there are some errors in their books that make it confusing at times. After class I walked through the plant and noticed that most people weren't wearing their overcoats. Mexico was playing Croatia in the world cup so the plant manager allowed people to wear soccer jerseys. It was really cool. We had to the normal introductions and got down to business. My new customer is somewhat out of control and their lack of processes is causing both companies trouble. The good thing is that I know what to do to fix the problem. It may take a few years, but I'll get it under control. At lunch we went to a seafood place and it was extremely crowded for the soccer game. We were able to get a seat in a hallway that didn't have a view of the game. The food was excellent and we had good conversation. The rest of the day was pretty normal. In the evening we walked to the steakhouse down the road. During the walk I told the guys about my homeless buddy and the fact that I hadn't seen him yet. Lo and behold he was outside of the steakhouse selling carvings. The steaks were perfect Tuesday I woke up with plenty enough time to catch a cab to the office but I was moving so slow that I just rode in with the rest of the guys. We had an audit of our quality system so it was a bunch of standing around and just being available if a question was asked. I also served as a quasi interpreter. At times there was some Spanglish being spoken and I was able to tell the Americans what our engineer meant to say. I was reading a sign on the wall that mentioned a bonus for people who had perfect attendance for the year. I was thinking how cool it was and while I was walking back a lady asked me if I spoke Spanish. I said yes and ended up chatting with her and her inspection team. Just small talk, where are you from, how long will you be here, how'd you learn Spanish. I like it went people have names that are easy to remember. Alma= soul so that was good and the other was Dora (the explorer). The last one was a name without an English equivalent and I've forgotten it. Something really funny happened while I was looking for a part on the line. We work with wires but it's still an assembly plant so things happen that would never fly in an office setting. I was looking for a specific part on the line and had to go in between two racks and no one could see me. A lady who was only about 5 ft away yelled to her buddies in Spanish, "Did you see the father of my future children!!!!" Normally I play it cool when someone says something like this, but I was so close and it was so unexpected that I burst out laughing and told the lady, " I know Spanish." She about died of embarrassment and the whole section was cracking up. In the afternoon we had to go over to the warehouse to make sure some parts had a much needed modification. We all ride over at the end of the day thinking that it would be a quick visit. Just open a few boxes, verify the changes, and take off. Nope! None of the changes had been made and the boxes were ready to ship. I was furious. If those parts were shipped it would have caused soo much drama. I calmed down immediately when the program manager told me that the lady in charge of the blunder was outside crying. The whole team had been working massive amounts of overtime and she just messed up. After we got the parts fixed we went outside and I saw her sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette. I sat down beside her and put my arm around her. I started to tell her that it's ok and she told me that she didn't know English. I switched to Spanish and told her about my big mistake in the first month at my first job out of college. I broke a $10,000 piece of equipment because I did something very stupid. It was bad and I thought I would get fired, but they just made fun of me and I had to work extra to do the tests in a different way. She kind of cheered up a bit and then I told her that this sort of thing can only happen once. I'm 100% sure she'll never let it happen again. It felt good to be on the other side of that situation. I've matured so much in the last 11 years (as I should have). When we got back to the hotel we had some beers with the director of program management. He was blown away at my Spanish skills and was asking me how I learned. He just purchased Rosetta Stone and I let him down easy because he just spent a bunch of money on it. When I told him that I tried it he asked me what I thought. I said the only positive thing that I could, " They have an excellent marketing department." After the beers we went to a bar/restaurant across the street and ate, partied, and told stories. It was a great time. Somehow we got to talking about how ignorant people are becoming and one guy told a story that sums it all up. A teenage girl was in a summer camp and said that she really wanted to eat some fish. So the group leader went fishing and caught a few. Then he began cleaning them to the girls horror. She said, " I didn't know you have to kill them to get the meat off!!" WOW!? lol Wednesday I took a cab to class and got the same cabby from last trip. He was excited to see me and we chatted the whole ride. The class was fun and they had to read an article about filibustering. They were confused at first but I gave them a few examples and they got it. There was an example of senator Strom Thurmond talking for about 25hrs to try to stop the civil rights act. They asked me what the civil rights act was about and I did my best to summarize it. Again they couldn't believe that Jim Crow laws existed in the US. The rest of the day was pretty hectic because we were leaving at 10:00am and there were many things that needed to be accomplished. When we got to the airport I ran into my buddies who try to sell the credit cards. We had a good time joking and talking. In two weeks my wife and I will fly to Arizona to look for places to live and for me to spend a few days in the office. I'm very excited about the trip and the opportunity to meet co-workers that I've known for 7 years. Cya 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5868 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 127 of 154 01 July 2014 at 12:46am | IP Logged |
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It's funny to hear about the pictures, when i was in China that sort of thing happened all the time. People would be riding a bike down the road, see you, stop and get off the bike, and stare at you as you walked down the road until you turned a corner. It was really weird at first, later i just learned to expect it.
And i didn't mean anything negative before, just that every entry is long and thorough. Normally i'd just skim through and read the most interesting parts, the problem is that nearly the entire thing is interesting and really inspiring to boot. I really enjoy your stories :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 128 of 154 01 July 2014 at 2:56am | IP Logged |
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Ha! I've had that same conversation about filibustering a few times... trying to explain what it means in Spanish. Great trip/post.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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