Thursday, December 01, 2005

Fooling the natives

Guess where I stopped after work yesterday? Home Depot. If you didn't get that right, then you haven't been paying attention. Try to keep up. And if I ask you to guess where I was, always go with Home Depot as your first guess.

Anyway, as I was wheeling my cart toward check-out (more tiles and a bathroom sink - we've decided to nix the premade vanity top we bought and fashion a tile countertop instead), I headed down an aisle occupied by an older couple. They were blocking my way, but they weren't paying attention to me because they were engrossed in looking at something on a high shelf and speaking to each other in something other than English.

The man saw me and alerted his wife to my presence so she could move their cart to the side of the aisle. I thanked the woman as I passed, and she said "you're welcome." When I passed the man, I thanked him as well, but instead of "you're welcome," he said "hello."

You might think that he was just saying hello, but I think I caught him off guard and he said the first English word that popped into his head. I did this constantly when we were in Costa Rica. I studied Spanish on tape before we went, and as a result, I have rudimentary Spanish skills. I can do the important stuff - ask for directions, order food, get a hotel room, find the bathroom. Conversation eludes me.

When a local would say something to me I wasn't ready for, I would invariably just say the first thing I thought of, usually si (yes). I'm a good listener in English, but I panic a little in Spanish. I think one salesperson asked me if I spoke English (I assumed she was asking if I spoke Spanish - that was more common). So I said, in Spanish, "a little." Then she started speaking very slow and enunciated English, which makes me think I fooled her into thinking I was challenged in English. I continued the conversation with a series of si's and a parting gracias, and high tailed it out of there as soon as I could.

Needless to say, I didn't buy her wares.

No comments: