Spending a month in a foreign country, where the spoken language is not your native tongue, is a challenge. When folks say..."Everybody everywhere knows enough English, to communicate.", they are wrong. More correctly....."Most Americans know just enough Spanish, to make them look stupid and get them in trouble." And, I'm absolutely, one of those Americans.
No hablo Espanol. Well, actually, I know a lot of nouns in Spanish. I proudly have the vocabulary of a 2 year-old Spanish speaker. I can read and order most anything, from a restaurant menu. I have a few road signs down pat and most of the time I can tell you what types of stores we are passing by. I can say Hello and Goodbye.
But, I understand very little conversation-wise. The two years of French, that I took in high school, were wasted time and effort. Beyond parlez-vous, francaise...It's all been long forgotten.
My recent time in the Dominican Republic (native language Spanish), and my pitiful attempts to communicate, reminded me of the time, years ago, that I was asked to teach foreign language classes in a Middle School. To my credit, I did okay, while teaching the beginning French classes, but I hit the wall when I tried to teach those wise 7th graders to ask...."How old are you?" in Spanish? Immediately after pronouncing the phrase, in my best fake-Spanish, I was corrected by Jose', who sat in the last row of the classroom. Jose' said, "Teacherlady. You say ass-hole, instead of years."
Well, there you go. Proof of just enough knowledge to get you in trouble.
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Kind and Gracious Lord. Forgive our errors. Lead us "in the path of righteousness". Remind us that we are not all-knowing and humble us enough to make us palatable to others.
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