Uhhh... apparently not anymore. Once upon a time, I spoke French okay, Italian well enough to play translator for a day, and Spanish fluently -- as long as I kept to mostly gospel and common topics. Now? Now, when I try to speak a foreign language, it's usually some hodge-podge mixture of the three above. Yet another example of "if you don't use it, you lose it."
Today, Michael was out with the Elder's Quorum helping a friend lay sod. When they finished his house, they went next door and helped his neighbor lay his sod. There were about 10 men, so they completed both yards within 1 1/2 hours. Then, Michael and his friend saw a Hispanic gentleman a few houses down with 5-6 pallets of sod that he was laying all by himself. They thought they would offer their help to get the job done quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't speak Spanish, so Michael called me on his cell phone to translate.
When he handed the phone to the man, I said (in Spanish) "Hi. I don't speak Spanish very well. My husband wanted me to ask if he could help you put grass in the earth." The man replied very quickly something about his daughter. I said "I'm sorry. Can you repeat (totally slaughtered the word for repeat) that slowly?" He said he was waiting for his daughter and I couldn't really understand the rest very well. I thought he said he would have her translate for them. So I said okay and he handed the phone to Michael while saying (in English), "My daughter is coming to translate."
They decided to help the man while they waited for the daughter to arrive. They got about half the yard covered with sod. Just before the daughter got there, they began to wonder if that wasn't the man's house. Perhaps he was hired to do the job and they were taking his work from him? Sure enough, when the daughter got there, they found out that this was indeed the case. They apologized profusely for helping, and left feeling a little embarrassed. Hopefully, the guy didn't mind too much that his work day was cut a little short. It's supposed to be 101 degrees today. Already it's in the mid-nineties. I need to hit the Spanish books so next time I get a phone call like that, we won't be lost in translation!
Today, Michael was out with the Elder's Quorum helping a friend lay sod. When they finished his house, they went next door and helped his neighbor lay his sod. There were about 10 men, so they completed both yards within 1 1/2 hours. Then, Michael and his friend saw a Hispanic gentleman a few houses down with 5-6 pallets of sod that he was laying all by himself. They thought they would offer their help to get the job done quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't speak Spanish, so Michael called me on his cell phone to translate.
When he handed the phone to the man, I said (in Spanish) "Hi. I don't speak Spanish very well. My husband wanted me to ask if he could help you put grass in the earth." The man replied very quickly something about his daughter. I said "I'm sorry. Can you repeat (totally slaughtered the word for repeat) that slowly?" He said he was waiting for his daughter and I couldn't really understand the rest very well. I thought he said he would have her translate for them. So I said okay and he handed the phone to Michael while saying (in English), "My daughter is coming to translate."
They decided to help the man while they waited for the daughter to arrive. They got about half the yard covered with sod. Just before the daughter got there, they began to wonder if that wasn't the man's house. Perhaps he was hired to do the job and they were taking his work from him? Sure enough, when the daughter got there, they found out that this was indeed the case. They apologized profusely for helping, and left feeling a little embarrassed. Hopefully, the guy didn't mind too much that his work day was cut a little short. It's supposed to be 101 degrees today. Already it's in the mid-nineties. I need to hit the Spanish books so next time I get a phone call like that, we won't be lost in translation!
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