Gracias, de nada, burrito

When my son was in middle school, he took a semester of Spanish. Basic beginner stuff. Colors, numbers, simple phrases. One evening, he came home and explained what he'd been working on. "Gracias" means thank you, and the typical answer isn't you're welcome, but "de nada" (it was nothing). So the next time I said "Gracias," he said "de nada" in such a way that I thought I missed what I was supposed to say next. I looked at him and said "Burrito." "Gracias, de nada, burrito" has been an inside joke for years. But I admit, the rest of my Spanish is pretty nada.

Working in a Wal-Mart store in Arizona is like a Spanish language immersion program. Unless you consciously avoid doing so, you pick up a little of the language. Most of the time that's helpful. Forgive me in advance, there are no little squiggly things to put over n's to make them sound like y's.

Si, no, si y no -- Yes, no, yes and no.

Muy bueno -- Very good!

Huevos -- those are eggs. A helpful phrase to know when handing a customer a sack. I always prefer to scramble eggs for breakfast by my stove, not at register 9. I think that's a universal thought. Of course, huevos can have another meaning, but I don't think a cashier's going to refer to a guy's huevos as they hand over a grocery sack.

Bano -- The little boys and little girls rooms.

Ninos and Ninas -- male and female rugrats that often need the banos.

Dinero -- money.

Targeta -- card, like a gift card or credit card.

Uno, dos, tres... -- counting up to 15 is helpful, and thanks to Sesame Street, I actually could do this pre-Wal-Mart.

Hola, gracias, por favor, adios, buenos dias... -- social graces go a long way.

Abierto, cerrado -- open and closed.

Of course, many common items need no translation. Tortillas, jalapenos, chiles, we're good.

This is a shared thought among many cashiers. Sundays are fine. The store is crammed, but time passes quickly if you're on a regular register because of the two- and three-cart orders from the Hispanic families. Usually one adult will be filling the belt and the husband or an older son will be filling the carts. I don't have to stop, load six bags of groceries and go back to scanning.

OK, sometimes the language barrier does give us problems. One night I rang up about $125 of groceries for a Hispanic group. Two adult women and one adult man. They dug around frantically for money. The man, speaking the most English, said "We only have 19 dollars."

"Nineteen?" (OK, so why did you bring up $125 in groceries).

"Yes"

"Nineteen dollars?" I wanted to make sure before I took the next action.

"Yes. Sorry."

He starts handing stuff back to me to void from the order. I figured, don't bother. I'll just abort the transaction and start over. Once I do this, my station pages a customer service manager. As a cashier, I can't act like I'm ringing your groceries, hand you the slip and abort the transaction so you don't have to pay. I'm sure people have tried that, but not possible. Fortunately, coding various actions to the CSM's is simple, as they carry this Palm Pilot-like device.

"What did you need?" my CSM asks.

"The customer said they only have $19."

"Nineteen?" she asks.

"Yes." And this time, he hands her the bills, upside down, and I see a $20 bill. Something's definitely not right. And I feel very stupid.

"You don't speak very good English, sir, and you meant NINETY, right?" Really frustrated man nods.

She is able to clear my abort action and I take a dozen items off the order. They pay, and they're on their way. While our Spanish-speaking customers sometimes create issues, they pay with American currency. I wish some of them would attempt more of our language, now that they're here, as I try to make customer service happen in a language I don't speak.