Miracle of modern telecommunications: Spanish translator

[trof]

We have a Mexican contractor doing some remodeling work for us.
Felipe.
"Call me Phil."
He is very well spoken and his English is good.

His helper is a Guatemalan kid named Rio.
As far as I can tell, he speaks NO English.

This morning Phil called to tell me he was going to send Rio over to sand some drywall seams. Fine.
Rio set to work in the garage, which we've converted to a big utility-laundry-sewing-storage room.

About two hours later Phil called again.
"Hey, Mr. trof. Can Rio use your vacuum cleaner to clean up the drywall dust?"
"Sure, I'll get it for him."
I gave it to Rio and he smiled and nodded.

So I gather that Rio called Phil on his cell phone and told him (in Spanish) that he needed the vac and Phil called me with the translated message.
What a hoot.

A while later it was Phil again.
"Hey, Mr. trof, can Rio use your bathroom?"
"Sure. I'll go get him."
Maybe the kid can't speak English but he knows how to get what he needs.

[ThomCat]

1. Cool. Cell phones need to have some socially redeeming

uses. Mostly it seems like they're just used to annoy everyone nearby. :)

[Kerrytravelers]

2. That's great!

Smart kid!

When I use to teach in the classroom, I hold a CLAD, so I can teach kids once their fluency level hits a "3" (it's a way of leveling fluency.) So many people think that because a kid can't communicate in English, they must be dumb, That drives me crazy. English certainly doesn't equal smart, there is proof of that with the rethuglian party.

[trof]

3. I think he's pretty clever. I can hear the conversation.

"Hey, Felipe. Please call the gringo old man and tell him I need the vacuum cleaner."
"OK."
hee