Life At Slow-Mo

When I was in school, English was my favorite subject. I think it’s the only subject that I consistently managed to get good grades, from middle school to college. I could non fiction books from cover to cover, and I could watch a movie without the help of subtitles. I could write decently, and I could hold basic conversations. I considered myself as having intermediate skills in the language.

My first trip to America was a big language shock for me. Americans spoke so fast and they pronounced some words differently I could barely understand what they say. They could have spoken German and I wouldn’t have known the difference.

During the trip, I attended a workshop to discuss some updates in the latest upgrade of an admin software that my company was using. The young woman leading the workshop said one word that mystified me. She said what sounded to me like “inernet.” Inernet? What is that, I frowned. Is it inert net? Some sort of interconnected computers that are super slow? In Ernet? Being within a mysterious place called Ernet? After some hard listening, I discovered that she meant “internet” where the first ‘t’ sort of dissolved into the ‘n’.

The most memorable experience was when I went to buy lunch at a shopping mall near the hotel. I wanted to try one of those foot-long sandwiches. There was a counter at the food court that sold them. The tall, white, heavy set, curly guy who took my order me began asking questions to help me customize my meal. What kind of bread would you like? Do you want onions? Extra cheese? Do you want it split in two? Nothing complicated in his enquiries. Some simple “wheat”, “no”, “yes”, “please” would be sufficient as responses.

But he spoke so fast. It was like the words had barely touch his lips before they where thrown across to me.  His tone was urgent and demanding. I guess most of his customers were folks who had half an hour to get lunch before having to go back to work.

My brain froze as the words pummeled my ears. I kept apologizing and asking him to repeat his questions. At first, he was willing to entertain my request. Unfortunately, he repeated the question with the same speed. So, I repeated my request. Every time he had to repeat himself, he got a little more frustrated. Finally, he stopped and asked me, “¿Habla Español?”

For the life of me, I could not figure out how he assumed that I could understand Spanish better than I could English. My first thought was, “Wow, he must think I look like a Latino! Cool!”

I suppose the guy just wanted to help me get the sub that I wanted. Thinking that I had difficulties in understanding English, and I looked like a tourist, he tried one foreign language that he knew. Anyway, the problem was not with the sandwich guy. It was with my English.

I learned some wisdom from that experience. One, school can only teach you what is generally accepted as correct. You won’t learn that in some communities, hard consonants can become silent so a word can be said faster and easier. School won’t teach you that English is spoken differently in different countries. They only teach you a certain way to speak a language so you can get some idea what was going on. The rest is up to you to adapt what you know to your experience. That is why you must listen closely.

Two, people perceive you with what they know. If they have previous experience with a Spanish speaking customer, they might guess that you also be speaking Spanish. For them, it’s their way to get them moving in the world, where there are billions of things they don’t understand. You must hazard a guess when you come in contact with something you don’t know. If you’re right, you’re good. If you’re wrong, you’re learning something new.

Once he saw the blank look on my face, he understood that Spanish was beyond me. So he drew a deep breath and kept at it. All’s well that ends well, I suppose. I ended up leaving happily with two packs of 6-inch sandwiches that I want, and he moved on to his next customers. I ate one, with the intention to keep one for dinner because (1) it was good and (2) I wanted to save myself the trouble of having to make another server rolled his eyes and thought, “Why me?” But as soon as the first sandwich was gone, I knew the second one wouldn’t last until dinner.

That brings us to the lesson Three that I learned that day. Good things are given to you to enjoy. If you have a delicious sandwich and you’re hungry, eat it up!

Featured Image: A Foot Long Banh Mi. Photo: Stephen Siregar (2019). All Rights Reserved