The day that I heard the translator say ‘y tú apellido’ and understood that it means 'and your last name’- a whole new wave of confidence in my ability to do my job washed over me and I added the phrase to my personal vocabulary forever.
I suck at language. I’d taken Spanish for like 4 years in school and it never stuck. Verb conjugation is hard and I’ve been so very attacked by false cognates.
The spanish that I use is a clumsy assortment of vocabulary that gets the point across enough to get what I need and it is not by any means perfect. But its what’s easy for me to remember and it’s better than nothing.
Heres the stock conversation I use as a school photographer:
“Como te llamas?” (What is your name?)
“Gracias, y tú apellido?” (Thank you, and your last name?)
“Gracias, sientete por favor.” (Thank you, please sit down.)
“Pies aquí” (feet here) -i point to the arrows on the floor-
“Manos aquí.” (Hands here) -i put my hands in my lap-
“Mira aquí.” (Look here) -i point to the camera-
“Y sonrisa!” (And smile!) -take photo-
“Uno mas” (one more)
“Muchas gracias.” (Thank you very much)
If someone asks if I speak Spanish, I say “pequeño” (little). Most people can tell I dont speak much spanish right off the bat, but if someone assumes I know more I say 'lo siento- habla pequeño español.’ (I’m sorry, I speak little Spanish.)
Which feels a bit like that Family Guy bit where hes like 'you know english?’ 'No, just that one sentence and this one explaining it’s but it’s like that sometimes.
I probably messed some of that up and if someone wants to correct me I’ll try to fix it for next time. But so far this has gone well for me as a script for my specific job and everyone is really pleased that the company has a 'Spanish speaker’ even if I only know like a handful of words to do my job.
 |
