"Wayne Boatwright" <wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote in message
28.19...
>
> Where I live, in central Arizona, there are countless Mexican shops where
> enough English is spoken and understood that shopping there requires no
> unusal effort. I have learned the product names in Spanish of things that
> interest me. I have neither need nor desire to banter in Spanish or any
> other language for the purpose of shopping.

There's a little shop that I go to where they make tortillas and sell
Mexican groceries. Not a big store, but the tortillas are good, the cilantro
is always fresh, and the avocados are better than the supermarkets, and
usually cheaper, too.

One fellow usually waits on me; I have a feeling his English is better that
some of the others in the store. But it's not like we have big
conversations. Usually they just ring up the purchases, tell me how much it
is, count back the change, and say "thank you."

But now and then I ask for something, and the only time he didn't understand
what I wanted was when I asked for corn husks for tamales. I didn't know the
Spanish word, and he didn't know the English, but when I explained it, he
had someone go in the back and get a bag of husks for me, no problem.

Considering how good his English is, generally, I was surprised that he
didn't understand me, but then again, he probably doesn't get many
non-Mexicans coming in and asking for corn husks.

Donna