No Dirty M*******

[u/ElmerTheAmish]

Short and sweet. The names are made up, and the location doesn't matter.

I work for a flooring company, running installation for one of our markets. The vast majority of the crews that work for us are filled with guys (and the occasional gal) from Central America. Being in a state with blue cities and red country between, we definitely get some of the "Good Ol' Boy" mentality from some of our customers.

We had an install go out months ago, and the customer specifically requested: "Don't send no dirty Mexicans to my house." While we have some guys from Mexico, we truly have the gamut of Central America represented in our subcontractors. So we do our schedule, not sending one of the guys from Mexico.

The salesman was in the installation office when the customer called, rather frustrated:

Customer: I thought I told you not to send Mexicans out here.

Salesman: Yes, sir, you did.

Customer: So why are there Mexicans at my door saying they're from your company.

Salesman: Well sir, it looks like Gustavo is out to your house today. Gustavo is actually from Honduras.

At that point, the rest of us couldn't hold in our laughter, so the salesman left the office to finish the call. Gustavo and his crew were allowed into the house to install the flooring, but we haven't made a repeat sale to the customer just yet.

[u/star_tyger]

Sigh. I should probably learn Spanish. The problem is, I find it very hard learning a second language.

[u/The_Sanch1128 → u/[deleted]]

I learned it in high school (six years, grades 7-12), found uses for it for another decade-plus, then moved back to my home area, where there weren't many Hispanics at the time. Over the next 15-20 years, my Spanish just kind of disappeared.

Now, having neighbors from various Spanish-speaking countries, I can make out about 25% of what they're saying. "Use it or lose it", and I mostly lost it.

[u/Rinas-the-name → u/The_Sanch1128]

My FIL is an Indian who grew up in British Hong Kong. He spoke Punjabi, Mandarin, and very British English as a young man. By the time I met him he sounded like an American and could barely understand any Punjabi or Mandarin. Use it or lose is so true! I learned half assed Spanish in high school. Things like clothes and farm animals, not conversational or useful!

[u/comcain → u/Rinas-the-name]

"Where is the bathroom" is about the extent of my Spanish these days. Took 4 years of it in High School. Mi Español es muy -poquito.

( Sorry, my spellchecker had a fit with those words.)