Ella trabaja fuerte para el dinero

The strangest thing happened: I survived my first week of work in Spain. Let’s talk about the differences between my job here and all of my jobs in the U.S. The biggest difference is obviously the language. I have discovered that it’s not my looks that make me charming – it’s my witty, but polite conversation. I can usually win over anyone at a new job because I’m fast on my feet, interested in other people and nice. In Spanish, I’m awkward, slow and probably rude.

During the first few days of any new job in the U.S., the new hire always gets a warm welcome from everyone and you are the center of benign curiosity for a while. Then, it’s up to you whether you get on everyone’s nerves or totally screw up. At my job in Sevilla, all I got this week were wary glances from the employees. The 2 or 3 people to whom I was introduced acted almost surly. Overall, I feel in the way and out of the loop. I also feel excluded because I may be the only person there who is not part of the big family that owns the business.

Every time I start a new job, there’s a lot to learn – how to operate their software systems, what the company does, what is my role in the company, who I answer to, etc. At this job, all of the learning takes place in Spanish! Even the buttons on Microsoft Word are in Spanish. I spent 20 minutes figuring out where the all-caps key was on the keyboard! I’m so clueless. Sometimes the dueña (propieter), who’s the main boss and the mom, gives me a serious task and then walks away to sew a ruffle onto a dress or something. I know the task is serious because she had a serious face when she told me what to do, but I only followed about ¼ of what she said. So scary!

So far, I’ve mostly been translating emails from Spanish to English and vice versa. Unfortunately their business Spanish is extremely deferential, polite and technical . . . phrases like, “it would nice if you could contact us about our catalog and designs at your earliest convenience in order to help us better serve you and your company.” In class, I’m still learning, “I went to the park yesterday.” One day, I translated an email from the U.S. into Spanish. I gave it to Estrella to read – so that she could understand the questions in it and tell me how to respond. She pointed out a million mistakes in my Spanish. Then, she took the translation into the other room (the sewing room) and I heard her mocking my Spanish to her mom and all the girls in there. Everyone was howling with laughter.

If my quick wit can’t make people at work laugh, at least my stupidity can.