cantseetheforrest.com

As a Canby Cougar I studied French for three years. I chose French over Spanish because some of my friends were already taking it, and thought it would be a useful tool in my desire to woo women. I have worked in Mexico for the last 17 years and am still waiting to meet a French speaking Mexican so I can dazzle her with my command of the French language that I had perfected as a high schooler more than 20 years previously.

As you can probably guess, my choice of studying French has not served me all that well. I have slowly and painfully been learning Spanish by trail and error, relying on the teaching of kids in the colonias.  Some mistakes have been made. When ordering a sandwich, jamón (ham) can not be interchanged with jabón (soap).

A scary thing about relying on kids and teenagers as teachers is you are never quite sure what they are teaching you. This, however, is a two way street.

Matt and I worked together in Juarez during the summer of 1996. At times, we noticed the local teenage boys trying to work their newest pickup lines on the high school girls in our work groups. The girls were mildly interested and this only encouraged the boys to keep trying and the girls to lose focus on the job at hand. Matt and I figured how to solve the problem and  began to teach the boys english. The boys wanted to learn how to translate simple things like, “Como te llamas” (what is your name), and “Cuántos años tiene” (how old are you). This was fine and we obliged. It was when it went further and became distractive that we stepped in.  When they wanted to say things like “Usted es bonita” (you are pretty) and “Bèseme” (kiss me), we may have slightly twisted the translation. Phrases like “Usted es bonita” in spanish became “I have a rash” in english. Nothing puts the brakes on a be budding international relationship faster than this announcement from a would be Romeo. “I have a rash” is much easier to teach (and less cruel) than the originally desired phrase of “I am the product of inbreeding”, which proved to be to difficult for the Romeo’s to learn.

Matt now works for Cup of Hope teaching about simple bio sand water filters that can provide clean drinking water for those in need. He recently was in San Diego to present to us and help us dream of the possibilities.

It’s probably a good thing that Matt and I never chose to follow the career path of english teachers.