Dear Prudie

loveshine1

Q. Bilingual Co-Workers: I eat lunch with four of my colleagues at the school where I work. We all share the same lunch time, and our lunch times are assigned, so we can't change them. We get along really well and look forward to eating lunch together to talk about the day so far. The problem is that three of them are bilingual. They are fluent in both English and Spanish, but they prefer to have their conversations (or pieces of conversations) in Spanish. The fourth colleague is fluent in English, but knows enough Spanish to not be totally left out of the conversation. Occasionally, he'll ask about a word that he doesn't recognize. Then there is me, who understands very little Spanish. So usually, I feel totally left out when the three of them are going on and on in Spanish. I feel like it might be rude to ask them to translate into English, and I also wonder (this sounds totally paranoid) if they are doing it to intentionally keep me in the dark. We have a good working relationship, so that doesn't seem to make sense. What can I do when this happens so I'm not left to sitting at the table eating my lunch in silence?

TheDuckis

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_dear-prudie-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:122a9f2a-c4cd-483f-ba74-e584848da738Post:1efae19d-f749-4f1e-847a-f63f13d371ca">Re: Dear Prudie</a>:
[QUOTE]Get a book and learn some Spanish. I am sure they do not do this to keep you in the dark it is most likely easier to converse that way. Just ask them what they are saying and remind them you can't understand them with a laugh. They probably aren't even realizing they are doing it. But seriously it is great to learn a second language!
Posted by spikeinc[/QUOTE]

::snort::