Last night was the ol' annual Back to School night for our small Social Justice charter school heavily populated by families who will most likely never taste the likes of any sort of justice, social or otherwise. Ah, irony.
The parents of my "advisory" (homeroom) students were to come to my room first so I could give them their child's schedule for the night. I also introduced them to the night and told them about the purpose of advisory (which I'm still figuring out. I admit I'm not the biggest advocate of tacking on an extra 45 useless minutes to my day). How many of the parents in that advisory group spoke passable English? None!
However, one of my 6th grade advisees, ill-suitedly named Jesus, told his mom that I was pregnant. She was very excited about this fact, and asked "How many month?" Now, I'm not fluent in Espanol, but since I've lived in L.A. my whole life, I've learned to get by with a few phrases. I've also taken a page out of my mom's book by crossing over what I learned in French and adding an "o" or "a" to everything (Note: "Spaghetti'Os was the originator). But I know my numbers between 0 and 11 and that the booze-guzzling holiday Cinco de Mayo stands for the 5th of May, so I replied "Cinco!" She then spouted off something under her breath, but I managed to catch "solo cinco" and "muy grande".
My first reaction was to think - 'Wait! I'm five months! Didn't I say five?' and then went through all the translations in a split second in my brain: one-uno, two-dos, three-tres, four-quadricep, five-cinco de mayo. I'm right - why is she saying I'm mui grande?? Then I noticed she was skinny. The little....piece of work. I was gonna make her whole boca muy grande if she kept that up...
So what did I learn? These damn parents are just as rude as their damn kids. And I'm not wearing that outfit again until I really am grande.
*Ted's addition after he read this post: "You should have asked her how long she'd been in the US. When she replied cinco yearo, you could have said something like, "You've been here 5 years and you still can't speak any English?!?!?!?!? So stupido!! Your IQ must be cinco too!"
This is only one of the many reasons I love my husband who loves his chubby wife.
6 comments:
Argh! Some people!! You should've told her she has cinco secondos to get the hell outta your room. :-) PS - You are NOT muy grande. You are muy pregnanto bonita!!! (Wow, living in Southern CA is really paying off! I'm practically fluent.)
Not to take any wind out from under your sails, BUT...In that culture it's a HUGE compliment to say you're GRANDE. Or gorda. Or any other Rubens-esque term you can come up with for curvaceous. When I was a missionary, they'd always say "Tu eres muy flaca" (you're very skinny) and when I'd say thank you they'd laugh and laugh...because I had no idea they meant it as a cut.
So while, to quote my mom, "it's not my favorite compliment" they don't mean it as an insult either.
Just make it your new mantra: Grande is good. Grande is good. And leave it at that.
That little bitch...sorry, but I had to get that out...funny story, and it's "muy" not "mui" just in case you need to write a nasty letter to a parent! I think you look hot! See you tomorrow night Senora Cinco!
Dear Allison, not all of us are fortunate enough to look like your Mom. I love every inch of your 'grande' baby body! Besides, it will all come off after the baby is born...or so they say.
quit giving me crap about my doughnut fetish, little miss muy grande!
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