Living in Puerto Penasco with out speaking Spanish By on April 18th, 2015 When we first started coming to Mexico, I promised myself I would learn Spanish. After all, I had plenty of open road driving to learn with CD’s. Sadly, I have spent “mucho dinero” on tapes, Cd’s and books. All of our native friends learned much better English from us, but I didn’t grasp a whole lot in return. I can get by if I have to. I learned a smile goes a long way in Mexico when you are looking for something and I have become quite good at drawing pictures of what I need. One of the local hardware stores actually lets me go behind the counter and pick out what I need. In my early days in Rocky Point, I decided to be creative with some tile, so I went to the tile store and in my best Spanish said “si hable Espanol”, to which the polite young man said, “ I had better”. A Canadian neighbor told me that we lived by the “luz” meaning light. When I would tell people where we lived, they would just look at me andsay mucho luz total ciudad. What I meant to say is we live by the “Faro” a light beacon. So live and learn. My doctor has a TransDoc on his computer, so no problem communicating there. When Sam’s Club opened up in Rocky Point, they had and really still have no American speaking clerks. A great deal of the customers are English only speaking, so sometime it is difficult. On one outing, I was trying to explain that we wanted a pork butt for smoking. Well, you can only imagine how that went. With some pointing and laughing, he got the message! I am now covered by IMSS, Mexican Social Security, as I work here. Tuesday morning I went to the IMSS office only to find I had to go to the main hospital on the north end of the city. Arriving there was no problem, finding a parking spot a different story. I go into where I am suppose to go and give the lady my papers. She points to the window and now I get in line behind 10 people in my line. After 45 minutes of standing, it is now “show time” andI am up. I give the nice man my papers and my Immagrado (permanent residency) card and he pecks away at the computer. He asks if I speak Spanish and I say poquito (meaning a little)and I ask if he speaks English and he says nada (Nothing). By now the people behind me are getting amused so I turned and said “Lo siento por mi Español” meaning I am sorry for my Spanish and they all laughed. Things were still running pretty well until he asked me “direccion” which after he called a friend who spoke English, meant my address. I thought that was what he was asking but did not want to make a mistake. When it got to my phone number I was all ready. At any rate I am done except taking my picture back out there on Monday. Should be another fun morning. When I go for coffee my coffee guys laugh and speak in both languages and then will ask me something and I say I don’t understand. What really gets them is I understand more than I want to speak. It’s more fun for them to realize I know what theyare talking about so they have to watch what they say! I must say, I am a believer in children learning a second language when they are young and are like little sponges. I grew up in Wisconsin and who would have ever thought I would have needed Spanish. At any rate, I am still trying to learn. The people of are so patient when they know you are trying to speak their language. As always I say, come visit my home Rocky Point, Mexico and enjoy the people, the food and the views. We are the safest place to visit. Beverly Arrowood About Puerto Penasco resident full time since 2004. A Wisconsin transplanted to Phoenix in 1973 and then Mexico. Married to Bill, 2 children, 3 grand children, 2 great grand babies and 2 German Shepherds share my life. Love to walk to beach and go shelling and traveling in the motorhome to wineries. Share this: Related posts:
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