All of the stories that follow are true. The were relayed to me by
personal friends who had the experiences I am going to describe. I
hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
A friend of mine, named Wilson, owns a large van which he drives
down to Mazatlan every winter from Minneapolis. One winter he came
down, and the handle that rolls down his window broke off. When he
got to Mazatlan, he decided to take it to a car shop and have it
replaced. He was told that they didn't have the part, and he would
have to take it to the dealer. He took it to the dealer, and was
told that they would have to order the part, could he come back in
two weeks. Two weeks later he returned, and again explained that he
want a window handle for the drivers side on his van. They said
leave the car overnight, which he did. He returned the next day and
found that they had put a window handle on the drivers side, but the
problem was they used the window handle from the passengers side to
do it. He had, if not a cow, at least a very large calf. The
manager said, calm down, I'll take care of it right away. He went
over to another van that was in the shop for repair, calmly removed
the window handle from it, and put in into Wilson's van. Wilson
watched in astonishment, but drove off the lot a happy man.
My friend, Ron, is very particular about how he wants his eggs
cooked. To that end, he travels with an egg timer wherever he
goes. One morning he ate at a local restaurant, and carefully
explained to the waiter how he wants his eggs cooked, and insisting
that the cook use the egg timer to get them precisely how he wants
them. No problem, says the waiter. One two and a half minute egg
coming right up. (Or something to that effect in Spanish.) Ron
sits back and starts reading the newspaper. Twenty minutes pass,
and no food arrives. Another fives minutes goes by, and Ron
decides to go to the kitchen and check things out. When he arrives
he sees the cook staring at a pot of boiling water. He goes over to
the pot, and there is his egg and his egg timer, bobbing up and down
in the water.
Many verbs in Spanish have what is known as the reflexive case,
where you attach an "se" to the end of the verb and then the verb
reflects back to the speaker. This can be very confusing for a
novice Spanish student. My friend Paul was learning Spanish, and
was quite proud of his progress. One day, while he was staying in a
hotel, he found the maid in his room cleaning up. He was on his way
out, and in the best Spanish he could muster, he told the maid to
clean up the room, and he would be back in an hour. While driving
to his meeting, he realized that he had unintentionally used the
reflexive case while talking to the maid. To his horror he
realized that what he actually said was: Clean yourself up, I'll be
back in an hour.
