[PRCo] Answer to Fred III's post on bilingual drivers

[Herb Brannon]

I was able to really send "shock waves", albeit good shock waves, through some Hispanic drivers a few years ago when I lived in Austin, TX and worked for Capital Metro. We were all sitting in the operators lounge, playing some silly game which required that scores be kept for each player. I was the only "Anglo" in the group. Bear in mind, however, all these guys were my good work buddies. They would switch from English to Spanish, and back and forth. At one point, one guy told a joke, in Spanish. When the punch line came I laughed along with them. (The punch line was, "And look, Henry has the pen.") So, thinking quickly, I figured I better say the punch line to prove that I understood what was said, and not just laughing along with them. So I said, "Si, la pluma es con Enrique", or Yes, the pen is with Henry. I never saw four chins drop to the floor so fast and such a look of surprise come over four people at the same time. It was really priceless...........I wish I would
 have had a camera to record the moment. At that time I then knew that those years of taking Spanish were really worth it.  ;-)
   

Herb Brannon