A few weeks ago I was locating some landscaping at the amenity area in one of our subdivisions. ( it has to be mapped to satisfy the county, crazy I know). When an older man out for his morning walk, stopped and asked in broken english "you are survey?" We were able to carry on a conversation, it was the less common terms he had trouble with. He wanted to watch the robot and walked along with me at a disrance. He worked in surveying 35 years ago (I think running level loops was what he was trying to describe) but went over to the dark side and is now a practicing attorney in Venezuela. He and his wife were here visiting relatives that live in that subdivision when they shut down all the airports in Venezuela due to covid19. They don't anticipate going home until 2021. Never know who you'll meet....
Never know who you'll meet....
Ain't that the truth.?ÿ That is a cool story.
Today I had the pleasure of visiting a fairly large farm near Pocasset, OK.?ÿ It seems as though the folks there are building a rather large indoor cannabis production facility.?ÿ My services were required to describe and obtain the easement necessary to get the 1/4 mile of aerial primary to their 'grow'.
The place was nice, a whole quarter section.?ÿ From everything around the house it appeared as though the original owner was into wheat and cattle.?ÿ But apparently the new owners have different ideas.?ÿ
The name on the work order was Xiong Ming.?ÿ I pulled up and there were at least a dozen hands working on a large metal barn out in the middle of the pasture.?ÿ Every one of them looked as if their name could be Xiong Ming.?ÿ?ÿAnd every one of them gave me their best deer-in-headlight look when I tried to talk with them.?ÿ Finally an Asian lady pulled up and seemed eager to talk...except her English was about as good as my Mandarin.
I told her why we were there and she had a pretty good grip on that deer-in-headlight look also.?ÿ I finished my standard spiel and she said, "You want water?"...offering me a bottled water.
"No, but thank you", I said.?ÿ She didn't hear the word "no"...but she heard the "thank you"..she shoved the bottle of water in my hand and said, "you welcome"..
After a bit I think I got across to her what was going on.?ÿ I explained the co-op's office would get a hold of them with easement documents for a signature and then the construction would be scheduled.?ÿ She heard the word "signature" and quickly dug around in her purse and produced a ball point pen and her passport.?ÿ She waved the pen around in the air and repeated "signature"...
I'm not so patient in my old age.?ÿ It was everything I could do to keep from screaming.?ÿ I finally got finished and left.
As I was headed home I got to thinking I'm glad these folks could make it here to our great country and experience the American dream in our heartland.?ÿ I'm glad they could bring along their dozen or so cousins and nephews to help build their cannabis business.?ÿ I hope they do well.
I also hope they learn some damned English.
?ÿ
"the amenity area"
I'm a hick.?ÿ We ain't got any amenity areas outside of the back row of the church, better known as the Amen Corner.
Reminds me of an encounter I had while looking for a bench mark on a recreation trail that had been a railroad through a town that has one of the largest Hispanic populations in this area.
An old guy ambled along as I was digging for a metal detector hit, and stopped to watch my activity. I told him what I was doing and he shook his head to indicate he didn't understand. I pulled out a scrap of rusty junk and managed "No es lo que quiero."
That was about the extent of our conversation because I couldn't put together enough of my high school Spanish from 50 years back to tell him any more.
He was an exception in that most people I meet not native to the US seem to know at least two languages if not four and have excellent English, even if accented,. I always feel rather humiliated to know only 0.01 of another language and probably only 0.97 of English
I'm an old hick too I guess. Been working in the big city for about six years now. Everyone at the office thinks that because I live back in the woods a mile from anybody else, I am some kind of hick. One can use that to his/her advantage since they usually greatly underestimate one's abilities. It helps if one continue discusses squirrel stew and rabbit mull, etc.
He and his wife were here visiting relatives .. They don't anticipate going home until 2021?ÿ
?ÿ
That should work out.
They are trapped. Their visit was supposed to be for two weeks and they've been here since March. He mentioned he had a ranchero that needed his attention as well as his business.
I also hope they learn some damned English.
I think there's an app for that...
Just speak into your devise and it will translate it for you!
With my luck it would turn out like the Leave It To Beaver episode involving an attempt to speak Spanish.?ÿ Someone gets called a pig instead of beautiful.
I have a knack for understanding languages. For the life of me I can no longer learn to speak any worth a crap. Probably best I skip the ex-pat idea.
Point being, you never know how or why most folks get here. Demanding they do something that may be beyond thier capacity isn't reasonable. That's especially true when you visit them on private property...
I have a knack for understanding languages...
ok smarty pants...tell us what this girl is saying:
@paden-cash I get occasional Voice mails (I don't normally answer numbers I don't know) in, what I believe, is Chinese. Normally from 713 Area Code bit the last from 612. I have no idea what is said.
Andy
there is a pocket translater out there for $100 or less
Google translate works rather well and it is free
@andy-bruner I had one of those this morning from the 213 (los angeles) area code. I understood the beginning: "Ni hao" AKA hello.
