Free Chicken?
We recently drove to Sam’s Club, me with shopping list in hand. We’d previously spotted the pork ribs displayed at the meat counter and decided this will be the day we bring some home for dinner. I’d been daydreaming of the wonderful aroma and flavour of freshly BBQ’d ribs. Oh no, the stars are not aligned, there are no ribs for sale today. We needed plenty of other things so continued with our shopping. Without ribs, though, I still had to figure out tonight’s dinner. We toured the store, adding necessary (and unnecessary) items to our cart, including potatoes. That particular day I had a hankering for comfort food. Mmmm, potatoes. Cooked any which way, always delish! (We dab on fat free greek yogurt and pretend it’s sour cream). As our merchandise passed over the barcode reader, the cashier was smiling and animatedly chattering away to us in Spanish.
Of course, we looked at her with mild concern, a little tilt to our heads, like we don’t have a clue what she’s saying – ‘cause we don’t.
I apologized in Spanish, “Doscientos. No hablo Español”. She holds up a pointer finger (international language) and leaves for what seemed like quite a few Mexican moments. The customers in line behind us were not impressed, having to wait. Haven’t you always been that shopper? The one who inevitably waits in the wrong, long line? After a while the cashier returned with a roasted chicken. Umm, we’re confused. Through her hand signals we came to understand that the case of Coca-Cola we bought comes with a free roasted chicken.
Tada! Dinner was decided on the spot…cold chicken with potato salad!
Speaking of apologizing in Spanish, have you tried the language learning app, “Duolingo?” I’ve been using the app to practice Spanish, on and off for some time.
I can’t say I’m a fast learner. I’m still limited to restaurant spanglish, oh, and, “Donde esta el bano?”
We get a kick out of ordering our meal completely in Spanish, feeling proud of our second language accomplishment. Then the server will reply, “Would you like your eggs over easy? Or medium?”
Difficult to practice when there’s so many English speaking people.
Anyway, one thing I’ve straightened out is my misuse of the word “doscientos”. (see above). For the longest time I thought that meant, “I’m sorry”, used when you accidentally bump into someone in a crowded market…or when you apologize to the cashier because you (still) do not speak the language. I’ve since learned doscientos, translated to English, means “two hundred”. When bumping into people in a crowd, the correct apology is “lo siento”. All this time I’ve been asking forgiveness by saying, “two hundred, two hundred”. Now I understand the strange glances I received, so unusual from such a friendly populace.
