Communicating with amigos

[slt40]

I do not know spanish, but have a few new guys who do not know english---is there a quicky book or something to help get me started??

[HometownLawn]

vominos..thats all you need to know

[J-Dubb]

If you hear the world MATALO..............run like hell

[WarEagleCRL]

go to amazon.com and get "Spanish phrases for the landscape professional"
Friend of mine got it and said its great, mines coming this week

[Avery]

I have that book. It is decent but not 100% correct. For instance. The word they give for "mulch" does not exist in Mexico. It is a south american/spanish word. My guys that speak english pointed out numerous other mistakes in the book. There are many different dialects in Mexico.

[Dreams To Designs]

Treegator put out a book called "Green Industry pocket Handbook". It is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. It is English to Spanish and flip it over it is Spanish to English. I pay about $4 a piece for them from AM Leonard and share them with all the amigos and landscapers I deal with. All responses have been positive and communications take a large step forward. The different Spanish cultures due use different terms, but with a little time we can come to an understanding. Most amigos want to learn English and this book is easy to understand and cheap enough to give them a chance. Many of the landscapers I deal with have bought copies on their own and keep them in the glove compartments of the truck for casual reading.

Kirk

[topsites]

I have that book. It is decent but not 100% correct. For instance. The word they give for "mulch" does not exist in Mexico. It is a south american/spanish word. My guys that speak english pointed out numerous other mistakes in the book. There are many different dialects in Mexico.

Yes of course, but it's still better than NOTHING thou you should be aware of it as you will get some strange looks and yes you will get laughed at from time to time as well because some of the translations are TOO funny.
Personally I don't believe in employees but it comes in handy for my customer base which just recently picked up a spanish-only couple. Now where's that attitude of 'If they don't speak english they shouldn't be in America' I heard a few years ago when I suggested to a few of our locals they ought to consider taking a spanish course ...

De todas maneras yo hablo español y no me molesta ese problema LOL, diez años de experiencia con la lengua y ya no me trabo.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

[topsites]

Treegator put out a book called "Green Industry pocket Handbook". It is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. It is English to Spanish and flip it over it is Spanish to English. I pay about $4 a piece for them from AM Leonard and share them with all the amigos and landscapers I deal with. All responses have been positive and communications take a large step forward. The different Spanish cultures due use different terms, but with a little time we can come to an understanding. Most amigos want to learn English and this book is easy to understand and cheap enough to give them a chance. Many of the landscapers I deal with have bought copies on their own and keep them in the glove compartments of the truck for casual reading.

Kirk

Best of luck to you, that's the attitude to have!

Communication is key as you will pick up spanish yourself in the process and before you know it, you realize communication involves more than just knowing the language AND you can actually communicate without language but you need to know the mentality which you learn by communicating - Everybody wins, you gotta love it.

[stoneseller]

Yo habla un poco solemente espanola. Tiene muchos employees de latin America.
I have found that knowing how to speak just a small amount of spanish goes a long way. My couple of years of high school spanish classes helps me to communicate with both my latino employees, and more importantly, my many customers who don't speak english.
It seems to me that if I try & talk a little spanish to a customer who "no habla ingles", that person trys a little harder to speak my language.

Buenas dias,

Davido

:blush:

[Frontier-Lawn]

http://babelfish.altavista.com/ try this.