Automotive Espanol

[feerocknok]

So, I started working at Schuck's a couple months back, and our hispanic population is growing intensley in my area. 50%+ are lacking in the English department, and my coworkers get angry when they come in because blah, blah, blah.

 

I want to learn some Spanish so I can get by with these customers. I kind of know my numbers from working with Spanish some years back, but I don't know anything automotive related, like oil filter, spark plugs, sun shade, yadda-yadda.

 

Is there any good resource to learn this sort of stuff or audio tracks?

I'm pretty fluent in Italian, but it turns out that most people from Mexico don't know Italian. The basics of the language though seem to be on the same level.

 

TIA on this one!

[86FUBAR]

:headpop: learn their lingo u got to be kiding me , they migrated here let them learn to speak english and if they don't like it THEY CAN LEAVE .

 

My wife works at a bank and they are forbiden to speak anything but english there , its great , i wish every store around hear would do that instead of catering to their needs its B/S!!! :headpop:

[feerocknok]

:headpop: learn their lingo u got to be kiding me , they migrated here let them learn to speak english and if they don't like it THEY CAN LEAVE .

 

My wife works at a bank and they are forbiden to speak anything but english there , its great , i wish every store around hear would do that instead of catering to their needs its B/S!!! :headpop:

But, you see, this is what my coworkers think as well. However, these particular people are a large portion of our business, and without them, I wouldn't have a job.

Opinions on if they should learn English or not won't effect if they will or won't. Someone at our store must know the language.

 

I respect your opinion, but I don't want this thread to turn political. I just need help.

[86FUBAR]

who said anything about an opinion but ok enuf is enuf

[Pete M]

I keep seeing comercials on TV about the "Rosetta Stone" CDs for learning a new language. Might wanna look into them.

www.rosettastone.com

[jeepdoggydogB]

I had the same problem as you, and I didn't want to spend a lot of time or money. I frequented free tutotials like this one,

 

http://www.spanishprograms.com/learn_spanish.htm

 

Then made a cheat sheet of common verbs ,nouns, and sentences you can find them on-line like this one.

 

http://www.buildersshow.com/Documents/e ... 0Pinch.pdf

 

It is an embarrassing situation for me as I am a fourth generation mexican/spanish mix so those guys would look at me me expecting me to understand them and I couldn't. I live out in Northern California and my family is in the auto industry, and in our parts department or sales department if you can have a basic converation in Spanish you increase your sales and bonus' substantially. I am not here to advocate what is right or wrong just to communicate to get the job done.

[Mitch]

As a Vet - I too share the opinion of learn our language....

 

BUT I can see where you are coming from, so while it takes a while to learn the language of jumpers, if you have access to a computer you can have them type what they need and have it translate for you.

 

http://www.freetranslation.com/

 

I have been told the translations arent perfect, but maybe it will help.

[pingpong]

:headpop: learn their lingo u got to be kiding me , they migrated here let them learn to speak english and if they don't like it THEY CAN LEAVE .

 

My wife works at a bank and they are forbiden to speak anything but english there , its great , i wish every store around hear would do that instead of catering to their needs its B/S!!! :headpop:

 

I hate to tell you but the latin ethnic group is the fastest growing group of ppl in the United States :eek: On top of that they leverage some of the largest market share of disposable income :eek:

 

Also while you bash anothers lack of education did you think that they might not have the "extra" income to take an english class. I applaud this man for trying to learn "their" language so he can better serve them. I am fluent in spanish as I lived In Panama for 3 yrs, and I learned spanish through having to live it, and choosing not to be the "dumb" gringo. This is why you see immigrant groups all settle in one area. Go to a large city that has a large immigrant population and you can go to areas where ppl have lived in the United States for 20+ yrs and never learned the langauge, cause they never left where they lived

[summerinmaine]

I keep seeing comercials on TV about the "Rosetta Stone" CDs for learning a new language. Might wanna look into them.

www.rosettastone.com

 

I'm teaching myself Spanish right now. I go down to Baja a lot, and think that it's only common courtesy to know some of the language.

 

I looked into RS, but it was muy pricey. I got Instant Immesion Spanish Platinum off of eBay, for about 15% of the RS price, and it's working for me. 750 hourse of interactive CD-ROM and 8 vocab CDs.

[86FUBAR]

pong ur right they are the largest growing ethnic group in the us .

 

I'm not tryn to bash anyone for the lack of education, but for the lack of effort. u say u learned "their" language from having to live it , so what would u say their excuse is , they live here why can't they learn a bit to get them by at the parts store and what not? also tell me this how much did it cost u to learn spansh ?

 

and i do live in a big city where a very large portion of the population is hispanic (next time ur at the grocery store look at the lettuce and i about guarente it will say Salinas on the back of the bag) and when uv seen some of the stuff that goes on here u might better understand were I'm coming from .

 

and yes there are areas here were people have lived for 20+ years and don't speak english, my best frends grand parents are a prime example of that.

[jeepdoggydogB]

pong ur right they are the largest growing ethnic group in the us .

 

I'm not tryn to bash anyone for the lack of education, but for the lack of effort. u say u learned "their" language from having to live it , so what would u say their excuse is , they live here why can't they learn a bit to get them by at the parts store and what not? also tell me this how much did it cost u to learn spansh ?

 

and i do live in a big city where a very large portion of the population is hispanic (next time ur at the grocery store look at the lettuce and i about guarente it will say Salinas on the back of the bag) and when uv seen some of the stuff that goes on here u might better understand were I'm coming from .

 

and yes there are areas here were people have lived for 20+ years and don't speak english, my best frends grand parents are a prime example of that.

 

From what I can see they are not only illiterate in english, but also illiterate in spanish. Most of us are fortunate enough to be literate in English so knowing what a verb, noun or a sentence structure is makes it helpful to at least make conversation in another language. I can't imagine the ones I have come in contact with learning english structures to make conversation by googling resources.

 

Most of us have it in our abilities to learn more than one language when we are fluent in another. I come from a few generations of military background, and my father served in the Philippines and as a military brat I picked up the local language Tagolog quite easily.

[mfpdm]

Although I can see both sides of the fence on this topic, if you look at what it takes to become a citizen of the U.S., it clearly states, well you can read it.

 

Naturalization

 

Naturalization is the process by which U.S. citizenship is conferred upon a foreign citizen or national after he or she fulfills the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The general requirements for administrative naturalization include:

 

- a period of continuous residence and physical presence in the United States;

- residence in a particular USCIS District prior to filing;

- an ability to read, write, and speak English;

- a knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and government;

- good moral character;

- attachment to the principles of the U.S. Constitution; and,

favorable disposition toward the United States.

 

I've been in the service for over 20 years and all over the world and have picked up phrases to get what I needed while visiting foriegn lands, but I've never been to one yet were a large portion of the people did not speak english due to the need to communicate i.e. SELL me something.

:cheers:

[whowey]

I manage a group of Hispanics at work. My boss and I had a discussion, that their lack of skills in English was affecting our productivity rates. As they can't read the shipping orders, cartons, or understand my instructions. My goal was to get him to lean on HR to hire people who spoke english.

 

They hired one made him my foreman sent me to a course at the local Community College in Spanish for Supervisors. Company payed my tuition/books. In addition because it was during my off hours, they payed my travel back and forth to the college, and gave me Comp. time hours.

 

 

Suggest to your store manager, they pay your tuition and book fees. You will learn spanish to better service these customers. Helping your store manager's all important bonus.

Then you acquire the skills, the store will see additional revenue. Plus, you keep the MARKETABLE skills when you decide to leave. You end up with the long-term benefit, and the store and specifically the manager receives the shorter term economic advantage. You should NEVER skip an opportunity to gain additional marketing advantage in yourself.

 

This isn't a political comment, or a cop out. I sincerely believe that if the Hispanics are going to come here and expect to benefit from our system, they should at the least put forth the effort to participate in the system and not expect to change it for their laziness.

[feerocknok]

Thank you all for the input.

 

The RS stuff is quite spendy, but I'll look into it a little more, and if it looks promising, I'll see if my manager can hook me up with that or something of the like.

 

summerinmaine, you like IISP? It's very well priced, even off Amazon, for $99.99.

 

jeepdoggydogB, thank you for the link. I'll browse through this, and maybe it'll be enough!

[Eagle]

http://www.babelfish.altavista.com/

 

You can use this to get the basic vocabulary. It is NOT perfect. I used it to translate an e-mail from my wife when she was in Chile taking care of her mother after a stroke. The message translated to give me the impression my wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Turns out she wrote "mama" and the idiot translation routine interpreted that as a reference to the female mammary gland.

 

If you're near a Barnes & Noble book store, they have a section devoted to foreign languages. You can buy a traveler's Spanish phrase book that will handle rudimentary grammar, and use Babelfish for the technical stuff. Keep in mind that South America has more regional accents and dialects of Spanish than we have regional accents and dialects of English in the U.S.

 

Some of it is not intutive. Wrench is "llave" -- which also means "key" for example.

[rockhardzj]

http://google.com/translate_t

[summerinmaine]

summerinmaine, you like IISP? It's very well priced, even off Amazon, for $99.99.

 

Yes, it's a good system. Don't know how it compares to RS, but I paid @ $30 on eBay. Figure that I can learn a fair amount, then pick the rest up just by talking to people.

[pingpong]

For me to learn Spanish it cost Uncle Sam (U.S. Army), 2 weeks of pay while I went to immersion spanish class. Then I went one step further and took Spanish 1 in Panama Canal College on Base.

 

I live in a rural farming and seafood area, where spanish speaking ppl are the norm 9 months out of the year. For the most part they are here working for 1 thing... that is to better them and their family finacially.

 

If we as Americans won't do the work, and won't pay what it cost to have an American do the work we will be reliant on "cheap" Foriegn labor forever. Why do you think it cost 30 grand for a pick up.. it is cause the UAW says everyone who works there is entitled to make 25+ an hour, and is entitled to retire after 20 yrs of service. If farmers and Americans won't pay the same price for labor to pick vegtables the American economy will be forever linked to immigrant labor

 

 

By no means does this represent the views of my fellow jeepers or this site. I am also a proud member of PACE (paper and chemical engineers)

and I have been recently put through diversity training at work :nuts:

[Eagle]

I am also a proud member of PACE (paper and chemical engineers) and I have been recently put through diversity training at work :nuts:

Diversity training?

 

These days they train us for everything except doing the job. When it appeared recently that I was going to be appointed to a position working for a municipality (it later got sabotaged by politics) I was told that I would have to attend a seminar on sexual harrassment. Under the circumstances, I didn't think I should ask (a) why they thought I needed to develop any additional expertise in sexual harrassment, or (B) what the taxpayers would say if they found out the town was training us to sexually harrass our co-workers.

 

The office manager is actually rather attractive. Since I'm sure as a full-time employee she has attended this seminar, I keep waiting for her to try out her training on me but, alas ... it hasn't happened.

[pingpong]

Diversity training is where they sit you and your co-workers in the same rooom, and explain to you the changing face of the work force, and that we are all different for varios reasons.

 

 

Learned some interesting things

 

Only 2% of the worlds population has a college degree

 

9% of the workforce is ghey or lesbian