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

[Ken & Tracie]

My blonde haired, fair-skinned wife speaks Spanish, too. So does one of my 
African-American coworkers.

They see chins drop all the time. :-)

K.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herb Brannon" <hrbran at sbcglobal.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 5:26 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Answer to Fred III's post on bilingual drivers


>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
>
>
>