Monday, August 19, 2013

Not Me Monday ~ Espanol

I am extremely outgoing.

Also, languages come very easily for me.
(I don't know WHAT the Uganda's were talking about when they would respond to my broken Lugandan, chuckling, and say "Mama, you need to work of your Lugandan".)

So the fact that I have been trying to cultivate a friendship with another mom at the crosswalk while waiting for our kids to walk down from school, is no biggie.

Happens ALL THE TIME.

And the fact that she knows NO English poses no problem.

Really.

Our relationship, based on a plethora of simple smiles and facial exchanges is enough to blossom any relationship, right?

But, I DID take Spanish in high school, so I've got plenty of espanol under my belt.

But apparently not enough to understand my newest friends' name.
At home I refer to her as Marisol, seeing as it closely resembles those sounds and Josh knows who I'm speaking of when I call her by that name.

Anyway, last year I noticed that Marisol was pregnant.  Since Jude was getting older, and we had a new bed for him, I wanted to see if she needed our pack-n-play as a bed for their new baby.   And since I am so good with languages, specifically Spanish, I would never need to pull together all my best interpretive movement moves to try to communicate this proposition.

Nope.

I mean seriously, who rubs their belly and cradles an air baby and gives the ol' head-laying-on-the-hands-to-sleep motion at a crosswalk?

For some reason she didn't get what I was trying to say.

Hmmm...

So, being the computer savvy, language professional that I am,  I got on the Internet and printed out a translation of what I was trying to tell her with a picture of the bed.

The next day I handed it to her and she was THRILLED!
I was THRILLED!

FIRST REAL COMMUNICATION!
It was exhilarating.

She and her husband came and picked up the bed later that afternoon.
Our friendship began growing stronger.

So, we're best friends now and I tell her "Hola" everyday and she smiles, thrilled that I am trying learning.

She brings her 7-week old little bundle of the-cutest-little-boy-whose-name-I-can't-pronouce-either-so-I'll-call-him-Mike with her to the crosswalk now and we smile, ooh and ahh, "hola", "como esta" and "muy bien" to each other every day.  I'm really getting the hang of it now.

So on one of those days when we were all dripping with sweat standing there waiting for the kids to meet us, I look over at her and pull out one of my trusty Spanish phrases from high school.

Me: "Oooohhh, hace muy caliente!!!"
Marisol: sweetly smiling and exuberated by my knack for the Spanish language, I'm SURE!) she responds, "Oh yes!"

When I got home I was boasting my success to Josh.
I waited for him to lavish his praise on me, but instead I got a husband who laughed out loud and informed me that I had, in fact, communicated to Marisol that it was "very spicy" outside, ha!

But, seeing as I'm so good at Spanish, this type of amateur mistake would NEVER happen to me.

Nope!

But even if it did happen, it wouldn't thwart this relationship that has cultivated over the year(s)!
-------------------------
PS. I did NOT almost trip over my own feet on stage last Sunday which would have resulted in me face planting in front of hundreds of people.  That goes without saying.

Nope, not me!

2 comments:

Josh Via said...

Muy bien mi amor!

Kelly Via said...

Tasha, esta fue una historia muy graciosa. Usted es un buen amigo para tratar de comunicarse con la señora española. Me encanta ver que compartir el amor de Jesús en su propio barrio. Un misionero en su propio patio trasero. Ver, Jesús sabe lo que está haciendo con usted en Rolesville. Muy orgullosos de ustedes!