I had a real conversation with someone who doesn’t speak a word of English. He asked me a question, I understood it and responded and then he said some more stuff that I understood. I am beyond excited. Hey, I have always said I am quite easy to please.
Late this afternoon, Frank called Steve. I always make him call, ever since the incident. Steve wasn’t in his room at the time & then Frank went out to the nursing home.
About an hour later, Steve called. “I only have 4 minutes on the card so you have to call me back.”
“But Dad isn’t here!” You can’t call his room directly. You have to ask for him.
“It’s okay. The guy answering the phone is very nice. You can do it.”
I decided to be brave and so I called the hotel. The man answered and said, “Good evening.” (In Italian, of course, which I understand perfectly well since it’s not all that complicated.
I rattled off my standard sentence, asking to speak to Steve. The man said something that had a number in it so I guessed he was asking about the room number. Again, not a problem because I can count all the way up to 30. Next he asked if I was Steve’s mother. Now naturally I didn’t get anything of what he was saying other than the word ‘mother’ so I was basically guessing that’s what he was asking me. I said, “Yes.” Yep, I know how to say that in Italian, too. Aren’t you all impressed? Of course if he was asking me something else with the word ‘mother’ in it, I was in trouble.
He then started telling me what a nice boy my son is. I think I recall the word ‘bravissimo’ & a bunch of other stuff that I know are good words. Once again, I had my one word ready because I do know how to say ‘thank you’ in Italian. I am just zipping along in learning Italian.
You wouldn’t think someone would be so thrilled to accomplish so little, eh?
