I was workng at the grocery the other day when two young hispanic women with their children were shopping. I was busy filling the diary case with fresh milk. They paused a foot or so away from me and were talking. Now,I took spanish when I was in high school some forty years ago. My spanish is somewhat lacking and I only recognized a few words. I certainly couldn’t tell the topic of their conversation. I could surmise however,from their body lanuage and their glances in my direction, that I was the topic. Whether it was good or bad I had no idea. All I noticed was a quick glance or two, a comment and some laughter. Like most everyone if you don’t understand the lanuage you tend to be a bit paranoid. It is a natural human reaction.

Having almost completed my task I backed away from the case. One of the young women,with a small child in her cart,came by me. The child looked up at me and smiling said,” Hola.” My lanuage skills sprang into action and I replied, ” Hola, como esta ? ” ” Como se llama ? ” The little boy said a name I didn’t recognize but I just smiled and said, ” adios.” Having now exhausted my supply of conversational spanish I left the scene. What I found most amusing was the look that came over the faces of those two young women. A look of guilt and embarassment ! They believed that I could speak and understand them. Neither one spoke to me, in any lanuage. They just hurried along without even getting their leche !

I guess the moral to the story is never assume anything about anyone. I suspect a lot of people understand other lanuages quite well but don’t let on for various reasons. As I said, I can pick out certain words or phrases but I am hesitiant to try to speak to a native speaker of that tongue. I don’t want to look foolish or take a chance on offending someone by using the wrong word. While I was in the Navy I picked up some phrases of a dubious nature. Best to be quiet. As my Mom always says, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.