wendyzski: (dice)
wendyzski ([personal profile] wendyzski) wrote2008-12-02 03:32 pm

I has a proud

(and also a forgetful, since I meant to post this last week)

I studied some French in jr high and high school, which has mostly prepared me to misunderstand Canadians and notice when the subtitles of foreign films are wrong.

I also sang classical music for many years, allowing me to sight-sing in languages I don't speak.

I know a fair number of latin root words and some "grocery-store Spanish" (meaning I can understand signs and labels in the grocery store because I've seen them written so often).

Last week I had a double handful of quarters at the laundromat and I dropped a couple of them while setting them on top of the washer. The woman at the next machine offered me her spare plastic grocery bag to put my change in, but I said "No, thank you".

It wasn't until I turned back to loading my machine that I realized that she had spoken in Spanish! With one recognizable word (dinero = money) and her gestures, I had actually understood her without thinking about it. Go me!

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