I just had a lovely experience.
I had to pick up a Rx so decided, since there's snow in the forecast, to also stock up on cat food. There was a young family in the pet department, and the dad had a tiny puppy snuggled in his coat. Of course, I asked to see it. He showed me but when I said something more, he said, with a thick accent, that he didn't speak English. So, I asked 'Espanol?' and he nodded his head. I drew back on my college Spanish and said that it's such a tiny dog. He got the biggest smile on his face.
I think that's far better than calling ICE, don't you?
= new reply since forum marked as read
it's a great way to keep my geezer mind active 
-- whether their native tongue was German, Italian, Yiddish, etc -- immediately began speaking English as soon as they got off the boat, are kidding themselves. Cities like New York were divided into ethnic neighborhoods, so many immigrants found that there was no need to learn the new language. They would often use their bilingual children as interpreters when they had to deal with government officials.
I, too, took some Spanish in college, Siwsan. But I might accidentally cause an international incident if I tried to dredge it up!
That's the way to do it. Just the smallest of gestures can make someone's day. It takes almost nothing to be kind and it takes so much energy to be mean and hateful.
Thank you for your kindness and thank you for sharing your story. It really made me smile.
Last edited Fri Nov 28, 2025, 05:31 PM - Edit history (1)
tu perro es muy pequeno y tiene un sonrisa grande
(OK I had to look up the word for SMILE) 
muy pequeño
The only way I can type the ñ is to copy-paste it because my keyboard doesn't have one.
That's how I type the German special characters too.
gracias!
a kick to the nuts would be better than calling ICE 
"I think that's far better than calling ICE, don't you?"
