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  • Luis Moreno

Spanglish


Being blessed enough to grow up in a household where not only English, but also “La Lengua de los Cielos” (a.k.a. Spanish) was spoken, there are countless times where a mistranslation or a misread label have been the source of humorous stories.

I remember one story my dad would always tell us from my childhood. There was a guy who worked with my dad named Juan, who had just came from the motherland (Mexico). (Can I get an Amen?) He didn’t know English that well and was shocked by American culture. Coming from a poor part of Mexico to Philadelphia, there were things that amazed him that we take for granted. Day after day, Juan would go on and on about how everything in America was so colorful—so new. “Everyone looks so wealthy,” he would say or, “Everything is so advanced here.”

One day during a break, Juan was thirsty. So, he and his coworkers went off in search of a cold drink. They stumbled upon a vending machine, and Juan decided he wanted a coke.

Back in the day (this is to all the locals reading this who were born post 1999), vending machines didn’t accept cards. They accepted coins only. So, Juan pulled out change from his pocket to try to buy a coke, but he was short a dime. The vending machine attempted to tell him what to put in, so the little LED strip read “dime.” In his mind, he read “DEE-may.” “Dime” in Spanish can be translated as, “Tell me.”

Always the one to be easily impressed, he was shocked that the vending machine was talking to him. “Oye,” he said to my dad. “The vending machine is talking to me?!” He then turned around and said, “Coke” to the vending machine. He waited and waited and waited. Finally, a little louder this time, he said, “CoCA-CoLA.” Still nothing. He then started screaming at the vending machine. “Give me a coke! Give me my Coca-Cola!” By this time, my dad and his co-workers were on the floor dying of laughter. Finally my dad tossed him a dime and told him to put the dime in and press the coke button. Juan proceeded to claim his coke with a proud smile and said, “I got my coke!”

Next time you complain about the broken vending machines in Talge, think about this story. Maybe you’ll laugh a little bit before you go and scream at the desk worker.

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