As you all should know if you had been reading my articles, you know my family is Hispanic.
Well, the thing is, my parents don’t speak English; they understand something but speaking is not exactly something that comes naturally to them. And, since I came to college, all of my friends only speak English, pretty much non-speak Spanish, and some understand as much Spanish as my parents understand English. With that being said, imagine how it would be if my two best friend — one who understands some Spanish but can’t speak it, and one who can’t speak or understand — go out for dinner with me and my parents to meet them for the first time.
To be honest, when I first asked my friends if they wanted to, I didn’t know what to think since I wasn’t fully convinced myself of the idea, but as soon as I told them, they were so excited that they got me pumped about it. We were all aware there were going to be lots of signals being done in order to get messages across and of me playing google translate to translate from one language to another what was being said. In other words, an absolute and complete chaos.
But, turns out it was nothing like it. It turned out to be the funniest thing ever, everyone loved each other and somehow they were even able to laugh about some of the jokes, of some of the things my parents would say to make fun of me or of the stupid and funny things my friends said.
That dinner was one we are most definitely going to be repeating next semester, we will see if someone knows more of the other language by then—doubted it.
But it feel great to be able for my best friends and my parents to meet each other, even when I know if I wasn’t there to translate they would have had the hardest time understanding each other—really wish I could see them try—because let me tell you, my parents are pretty funny and my friends are insane and they would like me to say they are funny so sure, they are too. And, I have to admit, I’m glad my friends didn’t speak Spanish or they would have probably started to like my parents more than me, even though I like to think I’m pretty funny too.
But, you could now say that we are all one big happy, dysfunctional family.
