Dad is learning Spanish
July 17, 2017
Dad promised mom that he would make a real effort to learn Spanish when we were in Mexico this time. He agreed that the trip would be long enough so he couldn't use the shortness of the trip as an excuse. I thought this was really good for dad. He could say sweet nothings to mom in Spanish and who knows what could happen. Perhaps a baby sister? While I thought it was a great idea, mom not so much.
When she was feeding me yesterday, she told me that dad was butchering the language. Apparently he asked one of the workers in the kitchen at my great grandmother's resturant, "Tienes olla?" Dad was in the kitchen helping with the cooking and wanted to know if she had garlic. She looked at him bewildered, went a way and returned with a pot.
My dad shook his head and asked again. "Tienes ojos?" The woman stared at my dad totally preplexed and answered, "Si tengo ojos." The workers in the kitchen, all women, laughed aloud. Dad was not one to give up so he tried again. The head chef who had been listening said, "El quiere ajo."
"Si." (a word dad had down pat) confimed.
I wondered though if this was why I had trouble understanding dad. Was it a question of him butchering everything he said? Most of what he said to me was total gibberish. He always looked at me like I should understand. I was in the practise of giving him back much the same sounding gibberish as he threw at me. Though, I must confess, there was one word that we both understood only too well, and probably for very different reasons. He would often say to me, "gibberish, gibberish, chichi." and I always found we were talking about the same thing when I would end up in my mom's arms having my next meal.
