Thursday, February 25, 2010

Do the Revenge

For the most part, I work with people who speak English as a second language. It means that some times, we just don't get each other. Sometimes, we all just smile and nod. In a job where conversing clearly is imperative, it's been a bit of stress in learning how to articulate myself and my ideas in simple and complete ways.

That being said, there are still just some funny things that my dear Portuguese co-workers say that catch me off guard EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I work with a Portuguese couple. We spend a lot of time together. If we are at a restaurant and the grown man (40 years old) has to excuse himself, he says, "Excuse me, D'Arcy, I have to go pee-pee." I react on my face EVERY TIME, no matter how many times this grown man says "pee-pee" or other versions of it, I just can't keep from almost laughing. Various ways he's used it:

"D'Arcy, Lana will be late, she's just going pee-pee."
"D'Arcy, where is the place to go pee-pee?"
"D'Arcy, I need to take little Tico (their dog) to pissing, please excuse me."

These are some of the nicest people in the entire world, and yet the words pee-pee and pissing just get thrown around all willy-nilly to a proper girl who NEVER says either. It's been an adjustment.

Great blogging material, yes?

Another thing that I love: When I come over to their flat, I am often greeted by their rather feisty, but tiny, dog. If the dog did a "pissing" or a "pee-pee" in the house (which happens quite often, I guess) then the woman, Lana, so dramatic as all Latinos should be, says, "You see, D'Arcy, he does the REVENGE!" She says it with so much drama and arm movements that I would think little Tico (pronouced, Teeko) is walking around with a kitchen knife ready to attack....all while smoking a cigar. His face DOES look like he has a mischievous mustache. Every time I come over, Tico has just "done the revenge!" Such a calculating little pup. Perhaps they just need to take him outside more. It's hard to think there is so much revenge in one little mammal.



I'm really sorry if you stopped by here for some awesome words of wisdom and all you got was this lousy blog post :)

2 comments:

Nubian said...

Being Portuguese I totally get it... love it!

Michelle said...

ha ha! I loved this story. I get a lot of similar moments in the field of education I'm going into...it's so hard not to just giggle sometimes. Miss you!