Wednesday, June 15
It's kind of funny how all my posts end up being about language or culture, one or the other. Or both.
Highlight embarrassing moment of the day, and quite possibly, of the week:
Due to a mix-up, one of my superiors asked me to call the mayor of Madrid today in order to confirm/reaffirm certain details. Last week, I had to call in order to confirm the office's address. Because the mayor's office number is not readily accessible, I had to call the administrative office of Madrid and talk through different people in order to obtain the information I needed. Last time I called, the first thing I asked was, "¿hay alguien que hable inglés?" Eventually, I did manage to get through to someone who spoke English, and he walked me through the spelling of ayuntamiento letter by letter, "a for apple.... y for you..." etc.etc. Today, I had to call the administrative office again, but this time in order to get the phone number for the alcalde's own office. So, I went through the whole process again... except that this time, there was nobody who spoke English readily available. So, I confessed in my halting, bumbling Spanish that I could understand Spanish if the operator spoke slowly and clearly to me, and managed to obtain the phone number for the mayor's office. Fortunately, the operator gave me the direct line to the personal secretary of the mayor. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure, and couldn't understand the secretary when she picked up. "Digame," she said, after something which was probably something like "office of the mayor of Madrid...", and I had no idea what she was asking for. After about 2 minutes of awkwardness, when I was like, "tell you what?", she finally asked, "English?" and switched to English. Long story short, I hung up on her accidentally twice (stupid phone.), and eventually got the information I needed, while making myself look like a complete idiot on the phone in the process. At least nobody else in my office speaks Spanish.
It's kind of funny how all my posts end up being about language or culture, one or the other. Or both.
Highlight embarrassing moment of the day, and quite possibly, of the week:
Due to a mix-up, one of my superiors asked me to call the mayor of Madrid today in order to confirm/reaffirm certain details. Last week, I had to call in order to confirm the office's address. Because the mayor's office number is not readily accessible, I had to call the administrative office of Madrid and talk through different people in order to obtain the information I needed. Last time I called, the first thing I asked was, "¿hay alguien que hable inglés?" Eventually, I did manage to get through to someone who spoke English, and he walked me through the spelling of ayuntamiento letter by letter, "a for apple.... y for you..." etc.etc. Today, I had to call the administrative office again, but this time in order to get the phone number for the alcalde's own office. So, I went through the whole process again... except that this time, there was nobody who spoke English readily available. So, I confessed in my halting, bumbling Spanish that I could understand Spanish if the operator spoke slowly and clearly to me, and managed to obtain the phone number for the mayor's office. Fortunately, the operator gave me the direct line to the personal secretary of the mayor. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure, and couldn't understand the secretary when she picked up. "Digame," she said, after something which was probably something like "office of the mayor of Madrid...", and I had no idea what she was asking for. After about 2 minutes of awkwardness, when I was like, "tell you what?", she finally asked, "English?" and switched to English. Long story short, I hung up on her accidentally twice (stupid phone.), and eventually got the information I needed, while making myself look like a complete idiot on the phone in the process. At least nobody else in my office speaks Spanish.
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