I’ve probably shared this in another thread before, but on our honeymoon, my wife refused to ride ToT. So, I was in line, alone, and ended up behind this woman and her family, and this group of 3 roughly 20-year-olds. They didn’t speak English, at all. Fortunately for them, the woman was from Miama and spoke fluent Spanish. So, she conversed with them the entire time we were in line. Since I had taken 3 years of Spanish in high school, and 1 semester in college, I figured it was as good of time to practice my listening skills. (My Spanish is only good enough to be dangerous!)
Anyhow, I struggled to understand a lot of what they said, but at one point the woman told a joke, and they laughed, and I laughed, because I actually understood it. Big mistake. Because now the woman said to me, “Oh! Do you know Spanish?” To which I shrugged and said, “Un poco.”
“Good! Because I actually don’t plan to ride. I was just in line with my family. But since you can speak Spanish, I’ll step out of line now and let you all talk.”
And so she left me there, facing three native Spanish-speaking guys from somewhere in South America (I think it was Peru, but I’m not 100% sure). Anyhow, over the next 30 minutes, we tried, in vain, to actually have a conversation. I believe all I managed to tell them was that I’m from Michigan, which is north of Florida. Then, like any good Michigander would do, I held up my hand to show our state.
Anyhow, I learned how practically useless all my years of Spanish had been. (We might have done okay if we were communicating in writing.) Still, I was kind of in awe of the bravery that they would have to come to an English-speaking country not able to speak a lick of English like that.
