Spanish in Unfamiliar Places

Agua Prieta, Son., Mexico-a place where I thought my Spanish would have come in handy.  Boy was I mistaken.

Driving over to the other side of the Mexican border as a reporter has come with a lot more baggage than expected.  On top of having to anticipate who to talk to, what story angles to cover, what photo and video shots would be best, my nerves were running high just thinking about whether I’d even be able to communicate.

I’ve taken five semesters of Spanish in high school, six in college, and studied abroad in Spain for a summer. I am now a Spanish minor, even.   Let me just tell you that Spanish in Spain is a lot different than Spanish in Mexico, contrary to my previous beliefs.

At this health clinic, I attempted to interview a patient named Denise.  She lined up her four children in front of my video camera, while I struggled to fit them all in the frame.  The baby wrapped himself in his mother’s arms at her adult height, and the children stood next to her only three feet off the ground.  The awkward camera angles only led to awkward conversation.

As a reporter, my first question to my interviewee is usually “how do you spell your name?”  I blanked out when I realized I had no idea how to ask that, but an interpreter saw me struggling and came over to help me try.

“In Spanish, they don’t ever spell their names,” he explained.  “Denise is just Denise.”

Good to know, now.  That would have saved me a lot of stress off the bat.  From that initial trouble, though, my conversational skills actually improved.

I continued to interview her at different times throughout her three-hour experience at the health clinic run by the Flying Samaritans.  What I understood most from her was that she didn’t get all the medicine the doctor prescribed her because of a lack of supplies from the UA student-run pharmacy.

Still, Denise was very thankful for the free health care, and she told me she would come back because everyone was friendly.

At the end of the day, I’m thankful for finally getting to know this Mexican women a little bit and for her allowing me into her life for half of the day.

~ by nikki1488 on March 16, 2010.