Do you speak Spanish?

My wife speaks a small amount of Spanish, along with a few other languages. I speak a few words in a lot of languages, but nothing too useful other than being polite.

She was out doing errands earlier today, over on the predominantly Hispanic side of Nashville. She got rear-ended by a pickup truck in a car park at Lowes, no biggie although she thought it was initially.

But the other driver spoke no English, none at all. My wife managed to understand that he had a license, no insurance and is illegal, but most of the rest was unintelligible. The few words she knew in Spanish to say to him were basically - "Not my car, work's car, problem for me."

Anyway, they resolved the issue, once he reversed and the bumper popped back out there was no damage at all, plastic bumpers are designed for low speed hits. She let him go (hmmm...) and that was that.

Except, what if it was an attack, what if it was a robbery? Speaking Spanish would give you a tactical advantage, close those seconds of miscomprehension, possibly even thwart an attack if you heard a group planning to attack you. Or you had to give commands, instructions to flee...

I know the Police will speak Spanish when they come in to clean up, so we probably don't need to learn it for traffic accidents, that's not my point. I think we do need to learn some basics to add to our tactical arsenal.

Gun, knife, flashlight, phone, ability to communicate in both dominant languages.

Sure, English is the dominant language, but Spanish is spoken in probably every county in the country now.

Time to learn a bit of Spanish?

Pete did she call the police? From what I gathered that they were illegals in a company truck. If that is so, then their boss needs to be arrested and the illegals sent back. Thats a few less we have to worry about.

I speak spanish, and can hold my own with it but im not fluent. My first language was spanish but growing up in the USA and my parents trying very hard to learn english and only use english in the house made it go away. I try to practice it as much as possible but i realized how bad my spanish actualy is when i went to argentina and uruguay, try holding a intelligent conversation when you don't know how to say something.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ben Hennessy

Pete did she call the police? From what I gathered that they were illegals in a company truck. If that is so, then their boss needs to be arrested and the illegals sent back. Thats a few less we have to worry about.

---

No and yes, her first action was to call the non-emergency number upon seeing the damage. Then when it transpired that the bumper popped out and there wasn't any damage she called them back to cancel, they appreciated that as most people just drive off in those circumstances.

He was illegal. It was his own vehicle, my wife was in her company car. My wife disagrees vehemently with illegal immigration, I am a legal immigrant who became a citizen, we don't tolerate those who break that law. I don't know for sure why she didn't pursue that, possibly as the Police wouldn't do anything.


Anyway.

If anyone reading this wants to add a list of useful Spanish words and phrases I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm just guessing Pete because its hard for some one to get another in trouble. It would be hard for me to do also. People think its a victimless crime. But thats not so. You are the victim, I am the victim and so is everyone else. I'm glad she didn't get hurt Pete.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ben Hennessy

I'm glad she didn't get hurt Pete.

---

Thanks, me too. Just stepping out of the vehicle to inspect the damage could've been the start of an abduction, it's happened before that way.

Scary days we live in.

You might want to have the bumper inspected, even if it's a company car. I think modern plastic bumpers have a collapsible core that only absorbs one impact.

The plastic bumper cover will pop back out, but that's only for looks.

BTW, isn't that a whole category of car-jacking, the "bump your car and then steal it when you get out to look?"

I know enough to get by and know what they are saying, I if I do not like what I hear I can also swear very nicely their language. One more thing, in our state no insurance is a automatic impound.

I'm an officer, but I refuse to speak spanish. I understand a great deal and can speak a little but I wont do it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SIXTO

I'm an officer, but I refuse to speak spanish. I understand a great deal and can speak a little but I wont do it.

---

I'm bilingual, learned spanish many years ago.
I play dumb until I need to drop the hammer on a suspect.:image035:

Pete, your wife got touched by one of the biggest unpublicized problem in our country right now. Illegal aliens driving and having no insurance. They comprise a great number of the motor vehicle accidents in this country every year and many result in the death or permanent injury of citizens of this country. Most times, when they kill or main someone, they drive off or run and within a day or two are back home in Mexico.

You will not find many people who hate illegal aliens more than I do. There are a group of them living in a house just down the street from me. I have been trying to get emigration officials to do something about it for over a year. They really are not interested in hearing about them.

Step on SoapBox:

Don't know it -- refuse to learn it. No disrespect to any with Hispanic ancestry, but if you're going to live in this country, you should learn English and USE IT.

Never knew my paternal grandparents as they were both deceased before I was old enough to remember anything, but they both immigrated to America as children. However, I was well into my teens before my maternal grandparents passed away. Both immigrated as small children. My grandmother from France -- my grandfather from Austria. I remember both talking about how once they arrived in this country, their parents were extremely strict about not speaking anything but English in the house. Both said their parents drove home the idea that they were no longer French or Austrian, they were Americans. That's what's missing today. Too many hyphenated Americans and not enough plain old Americans.

Step off SoapBox.

Hoss

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pete

Time to learn a bit of Spanish?

---

Time to make english the official language if not no reason other than protection from lawsuits. Not having an official language opens everyone (doctors, EMT's, police, etc...) to being sued for not speaking another language. To top that off, teaching them some spanish opens the door for every other culture suing for not learning their language and there is no way they can be taught every language.

Make an official language before it gets out of hand. English makes the most sense since it's the most predominant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ron8903

I'm bilingual, learned spanish many years ago.
I play dumb until I need to drop the hammer on a suspect.:image035:

---

I've been known to do that too :wink:

/ominous voice from stage left...

"Sixto, Ron - this is your Captain, share the Spanish slang with the lay folk..."

Not sure what that was, but maybe you should do what he said.