Habits - even in Spanish - are hard to break…
November 24th, 2007 by Arp
Today’s my first day back at work and I hit a deli for some breakfast. All the deli guys are Latino and I’ve never spoken a word of Spanish to them before, and had no intention of doing so this time either. Apparently, my habit of ordering food with limited Spanish is hard to break - I got 6 words in English in before Spanish took over:
Me: I’d like an omelette with bacon y tomates.
Deli guy: Home fries?
Me: Si, todos.
Deli guy: Solo bacon y tomates?
Me: Si… Perdon - cebolla tambien.
Deli guy: Cebolla? OK.
Me: Gracias.
I didn’t realize what happened until the guy asked me the question in Spanish. I’m pleasantly surprised and kinda proud. Now I think I’ll look for other places I can practice my Spanish too.
Your easy success with Spanish makes my pitiful stumblings seem depressing. I’ve really got to work a bit harder.
My Spanish is not that much better than yours - you did fine when you spoke. I didn’t mention all the times I said something wrong or used French and people still managed to understand me.
Really good and really interesting post. I expect (and other readers maybe :)) new useful posts from you!
Good luck and successes in blogging!