Right now I wish 1) I was fluent in Spanish or 2) I didn't know Spanish at all.

We had a Hispanic customer come in with her daughter looking for videos on "take away". My first thought was subtraction, because that's what little kids are sort of told...it's take away. But the Addition and Subtraction video I showed them wasn't it. Until this point the little girl had been talking to me (really, when a kid is looking for something to help them in school, we talk to the kids, because they know exactly what they need). Mom then got into the discussion, and, okay, mom knows about as much English as I know Spanish.

Unfortunately, I know about as much Spanish as she knows English, and she didn't bother to figure that out before starting talking about me.

Honestly, it took me a few minutes to realize, as I'm trying to help them find anything that pertains to "take away" to realize that the asides to her daughter that weren't being translated pertained to me. Hey, they were having discussions about something, and it's not like I needed everything translated. It usually came after something I said. Where I clued in was in relation to the proper tense - third person singular and ella.

Add in the continued use of the same verb over and over again, and I got curious.

Apparently I'm a screw up/annoying? Unless "chingar" means something else that I haven't been able to find.

I wish I was fluent so I could communicate better. Back in high school we had a great teacher who got us thinking in Spanish. My friend Veronica in college worked with me on my Spanish and I with her on her English. But not having much opportunity to use Spanish means losing a lot of knowledge. (And admittedly, when I'm tired and have a migraine - like today - trying to think of English, let alone another language, is really hard.)

Turns out take away IS subtraction. But they want a video that is just subtraction.
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maveness: (Default)
( Jun. 25th, 2005 05:44 pm)
Bubbles update again!

She's now definitely in a room, room 385. It has been witnessed by my own two eyes, so no promises from the hospital of moving her then leaving her in ICU. She is definitely moved.
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