CHRISTY FLEMING (journalism student) writes:
For the duration of my stay in Mexico, I have felt that I can get by with my broken Spanish and a little help from my friends. Today I experienced what a true language barrier was really like.
This afternoon Amanda and I went into a fabric store to find some buttons, needles, and thread for my broken messenger bag. I approached a counter where I saw a variety of buttons under glass. I decided on the buttons I wanted and waited patiently.
Asking for the buttons wasn’t the hard part. I had time to practice exactly what I was going to say.
“Quiero cuatro de los botones grandes por favor,” I kept saying in my head.
I picked everything out, the woman wrote me a receipt, said something to me that very well could have been gibberish and pointed behind me.
As soon as she saw my deer-in-headlights face, she knew that my Spanish wasn’t as good as I made it seem. She repeated herself slowly and pointed again. The store was so loud and busy that I just nodded and walked away. I didn’t want to keep anyone behind me waiting.
Amanda and I went to a counter where we saw customers handing employees receipts. We waited in line for about two minutes and then it was my turn. I smiled as I handed my receipt over and was quickly disappointed when she handed it back pointed in a different direction and said something that I could not understand.
As Amanda and I wondered through the maze of shelves, fabric, and people, we finally found a counter with a register. Once I knew I was in the right place I felt my tense shoulder and neck muscles relax.
Okay, so now I paid for my things…where do I pick up my stuff? We walked back to the first counter where we saw the woman helping me with another customer. I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to go back to the first spot. I circled around for a couple seconds and found a counter with bags of merchandise everywhere.
“I bet that’s where I get it,” I thought to myself, finally being able to put two and two together.
My journey in the fabric store was over. I picked up my buttons and was glad to finally step out of the stuffy and crowded fabric store into the fresh air again. Who knew it would take almost a half hour to buy buttons?
I haven't in Mexico since I came to Chicago three years ago. But I been in fabric stores with my mom in the past.They are really boring and crowded and if you are a kid, those places can be a living hell. I used to make all kinds of excuses just to skip the trip to the fabric store but none of them worked.
I would like to read more of your journals, they are really good. I wrote short stories about folkloric legends in Mexico but I haven't found anyone that would like to read them. I would really like to share them with somebody else.
Posted by: Manuel N. (L) at August 22, 2007 8:29 PM
