Huevos

The other day I was in the Bogotá airport waiting for a flight to Miami. I went to a burger place to get something to eat ("Corral", I think it was called). After ordering my food, I noticed a gringo couple approach. Here is the exchange as best as I can recall:

Empleada (smiling): "Buenos días."

Gringo (looking stupid, confused, and totally surprised to hear the Spanish language being spoken in Bogotá): "HUEVOS!"

Empleada: "Bueno, señor, huevos revueltos, una omelet, o...?"

Gringo: "Huevos, huevos..."

Gringa: "Oh, yes, revolto, yes. And PAN, you have PAN??"

Empleada: "Pan...?"

Gringa: "TOSTADAS. TOSTADAS. PAN TOSTADAS."

Gringo: "Coke. Yeah, Coke."

Now, these gringos appeared to me to be normal, middle-class folks who probably would be pretty nice people in other circumstances, but, totally confused and intimidated by their own lack of Spanish skills, were loud, rude, and unfriendly and appeared very put out by having to dig down into their memories for a few words from 9th grade Spanish class.

What's really funny to me is that I can easily imagine the gringa back in the states telling her friends, "Oh, well, we had no problem, because I do speak some Spanish."

Gringos, before you travel to Colombia, do yourselves a big, big favor: Learn at least how to handle greetings. Greetings are so much more important in Latin America than they are in the US. A simple "buenas" will suffice for the afternoon and evening. Hell, it would even work in the morning if you can't manage "buenos días". Or just learn "hola", but use it! Don't leave people hanging when they greet you!! If they are in positions where they have to serve you, they will, but they're going to resent you not responding to a greeting.

If you don't have time or can't be bothered to learn at least some very basic Spanish, at least be humble and apologetic, and don't act totally surprised when people in Colombia speak to you in Spanish!!

By DiegoDelNorte on Nov 8, 2004, 08:26 in Friendly Talkzone.

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