I've decided that I need to resume my Spanish lessons muy pronto.

A few weeks ago, our administrative assistant here stuck her head in my office doorway.

"You don't know Spanish, do you?"

I rolled my eyes and bit my lip. "Well, kiiiiiinda...I took it for seven years throughout high school and college. Why?"

She said, "There's a guy on hold right now who needs a Spanish speaker. He's got questions about his 401(k) account. Can you help him?"

And that, my friends, is how a can of worms opens. Sure, I'll help him. I love helping people...that's the main reason I work in this field, right?

I picked up the phone and told the man that I haven't spoken Spanish in many years, and asked him to speak slowly. I somehow figured out how to ask him to verify his Social Security Number, address, and date of birth...and that's where things went south.

I don't remember learning in any of the Spanish literature or Latin American culture classes I took in college how to discuss the finer points of company mergers and acquisitions, or how to invest money in your retirement account, or how to explain the tax implications of a distribution from said account. Hell, I didn't even know the Spanish translation of "mutual fund."

Somehow I muddled through it by frantically Googling "English Spanish dictionary" while murmuring "Lo siento, senor, un momento mas," punctuated by a lot of apologetic, nervous laughter. The poor man probably thought I was insane.

But it gets worse: just about an hour ago, our admin assistant again pokes her head into my office and says brightly, "Habla espanol?"

Turns out that I was SO helpful that the man I spoke to a few weeks ago gave my name ("Laura" en espanol) to the rest of his Spanish-speaking coworkers at the company. I believe I'll be hearing from them all in the coming weeks, since the company was bought and is discontinuing the 401(k) plan for its employees, and everyone will be entitled to withdraw their money.

So I need to find out how I can take a business Spanish class. There are lots of community education classes in my area but they are more geared toward conversational Spanish.

Any ideas?

Labels: education, goals, work