In most novels or movies...
When the hero or heroine...
Are just about to be overwhelmed…
The 'good guy' comes to the rescue.
Well, last week my friend from Ohio...
Who happens to be a designer…
Came to my rescue.
I'm at a critical stage of my house being built...
And can't afford a costly mistake.
(you can’t always trust builders to know everything)
So after many hours of planning and designing...
Off we went to stores and suppliers.
Unfortunately…
Most every place we went to...
Our experiences...
Were like an episode of I Love Lucy...
With us being Lucy and Ethel...
And trying to communicate with the store salespeople…
Went something like this:
“Hola, we’re here to look at some tile.” (or whatever)
“Lo siento. Hablo no English.”
“Ah, lo siento. Hablo Espanol un poco.”
Trust me…
Broken Spanish and hand gestures…
Do not a conversation make.
But wait!
Google Translate to the rescue!
What a fantastic program!
We muddled through a few stores…
Typing a sentence in English on their computer...
Which was then was translated to Spanish.
But still…
When it came to crunching the numbers…
Figuring pesos to dollars and meters to inches...
I had to be rescued yet again...
By my bi-lingual builder..
After all...
While Google Translate can translate words...
It doesn't know how to negotiate.
So?
Ever had the occasion to use Google Translate?
Or had to hand gesture your way through a conversation?
Or had someone rescue you?
Always, Em-musing
P.S. I took my friend to Tulum, and after
MUCH convincing, she got naked and
let Don Aurileo's hands work magic
on her sore hip.
9 comments:
Glad Google Translate helped. I'll have to remember it.
what a great program! And what a brave friend :)
I love those internet translators!
Wow! What an experience. Daring for sure...
Hmmm. I had no idea you didn't speak Spanish. As for myself, I don't think I'd live someplace where I couldn't speak the native tongue. I think that's important on my list. I'm glad though that things are at least starting to work out. Yay for google.
i've used those translators before and they're great... only problem is when i use them for writing (a foreign character ro whatever) i never know if what i wrote was accurate or not!
Ha ha, I use google translator all the time for my writing but never when shopping around!
I worked a job where the majority of workers were non English speaking. I carried my netbook w/ google translator for that very purpose.
Thank goodness I read the previous post because that P.S. had me flummoxed.
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