Bom Dia!
Like many New Yawkers, we employ a woman who cleans our house once a week. (There, I said it, I confessed – I am the most spoiled human being alive. Actually, the Boy employs her, and since he’s the SAH-spouse, I think technically he’s the most spoiled human being alive. But I digress…) She is pleasant, good at her job, and kind enough to my dog that Nellie will follow her from room to room hoping for a kind look. But she speaks – well, almost no English that I can tell. Which is understandable, since she was born in Brazil and works for a Brazilian-owned cleaning company. She & I usually manage to say good morning in the other’s language, and then I get out of her way if I happen to be home. And three hours later our toilets are clean, our oven is sparkly, and I am grateful to have a clean home that I did not have to clean.
Tomorrow, however, I will not be home. I’ll be having blood drawn, and then visiting Mo for a hot chocolate fix. My husband will be at a meeting. Nothing world-shattering there, except – all of next month’s meds are being delivered tomorrow – for which a signature is required. With my fabled delivery luck, they will be delivered in the wee hours of the morning, before I – or my husband – have returned from scary scary Manhattan.
Now, if I were going to be here when she arrives, I’d do my world-famous “librarian pretending to be Marcel Marceau” imitation by which I have instructed hundreds of non-English speaking children as to the meanings of their randomly assigned vocabulary words. (Seriously – ever try to act out the word “slink” to a seven year old kid who only speaks Arabic? Harder than it sounds.) But I’ll be gone by the time she arrives – as will the Boy. And I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read any more English than she speaks.
What’s a girl to do?
GOOGLE TRANSLATE TO THE RESCUE!!!
Bom Dia! Eu estou esperando 2 pacotes importantes (medicina) estanho pelo correio. Se o carterio toca a campainha, por favor responda a pora e assinar por qualquer pacote. Obrigado!
By damn, I love the internet. I love the fact that I can punch in text, and get back an approximation (a decent one, if the OTHER online translation service I employed to doublecheck is any indication) of the Portuguese translation. It is, at least, good enough to assure me that she’ll understand that I’d really appreciate it if she’d answer the door and sign for the packages if they arrive while I’m away. Or so I hope. Otherwise, tomorrow’s going to turn into a long, long day of tracking down FedEx & UPS shipping centers in the darkest reaches of Queens somewhere.
Modern technology quite simply ROCKS.
Come on, join in the fun – anyone want to say something in Turkish? Latvian? Swahili?
I love the note!… I don´t speak portuguese but my native language is pretty similar and I could understand it pretty well, so I am sure she will too!
The theory about girls producing higher HCG levels was right for me, at 13DPO my level was 297 and at 15DPO it was 897. Crossing toes, arms, legs and fingers so this is right for you too
I have a funny google translator story. An old friend is Austrian so I decided to use G translator to correspond with him in German. Except that now he thinks my German is so good that he wants to meet up for a beer the next time he’s in the States and speak German! What have I done? Anyway best wishes to you and GL on the b/w and cocoa!
Susan Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Yeah, I got a note back from her that I sent through, um, Google translate to read. I just know she’s going to be cranky when I don’t say more than Good Morning to her next week!
I agree! It’s awesome!
Here’s to the Internet, fabulous house cleaners (mine comes every other Friday…when I come home at the end of a long week and see that telltale garbage bag outside signaling she’s been here, I’m the happiest girl on earth) and solid beta increases!
You so don’t need to justify the housekeeper to me… here in not-really-all-that-scary manhattan, I’ve got one too, and she is coming tomorrow! Yippee! She’s been my Boy’s housekeeper for about 11 years, and I’m pretty sure that I am the “other woman” in their relationship.
And seriously, have I told you yet how excited I am for this to work for you? Because I am.
I just want to thank you for your support on my blog. I have been reading your blog for a while, and I SO admire your strength. You are a beautiful person and a beautiful writer. When you came to visit my blog, I felt like a celebrity was visiting me!
Thank you for your kind words on my blog. I went back and reread your posts from your last miscarriage, and it gave me strength to see how you pulled out of it.
You are doing so well and you are in such a wonderful place, and it gives me hope. I pray that you will be having a fat baby in 8 months. I can’t wait to follow your journey.
I wish I knew just a little Swahili! My high school Spanish teacher, when asked if she wanted us to read in Spanish, would always answer, ‘O Swahili.’ I SO wanted to be able to say something in Swahili – just once! My SIL is a native Swahili speaker, but it’s a bit too late.
Please translate that message to English and I shall translate it to Romanian. Hehe.
Please forgive me for my bad commenting before. I was a bad blogger/commenter.
Susan Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
You are SO allowed to be a bad commenter! You’ve totally got the best excuse ever… Shall have to pop over there right now & see how you’re doing.
I remember back in the day when the first language translator showed up on the internet. Altavista’s babelfish. I loved that they chose “babelfish” in honor of the fabulous Mr. Douglas Adams but also that it worked when I was reading french newspapers during the beginning of the war in Iraq for a different perspective. Totally dig the internet.
Technology ROCKS! (Except when my laptop is in need of a new hard drive and most fun things are blocked on my work PC)
I’ve always been partial to Swedish…
Jag hoppas att dina paket kommer fram säkert. Lycka till!
haha, I found a cake for your future baby shower. 5th cake down? Made me laugh.
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Susan Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Oh god, that is just SO disturbing.
And yeah, I want one.
No Portuguese, but Spanish is close and my guess is she will understand the meaning of your note. Way to go! My college boyfriend was Indian and spoke Tamil. I can say “I want a dog”, spelled phonetically, “Ne ketta ni.” Funny the things that stick in our brains