Some things are learned the hard way…
There are a few people in the group that very good, conversational Spanish. I personally have some passable conversational Spanish. On the first night however, most of our Spanish still hadn’t been brushed up on. I was still very rusty since taking Spanish my junior year of high school. We went to a Mexican restaurant, and we wanted to look at prices, so we were struggling to find the words to looks at the menu. We sloppily put together the phrase, Quiero look at un … menu por favor. The host responded with, “I speak English.’’ We were so embarrassed for how bad our Spanish was, and not thinking to politely ask if they spoke English first. Most people in Ecuador have good English, and can at least help get the point across, if you can’t.
Most of the new phrases that our group has had to learn have been about food. It’s been a little difficult finding out how to order exactly what you want, especially if you are allergic to something or vegetarian. There is also some confusion when you pay the bill, because tip and tax are sometimes included into the price, and sometimes they aren’t but still need to be paid. When you tell the waiter you need change, you have to say something like Necisitio cambio, which translates to I need change. If you want to take something home, or you want to order something for later you have to say Yo quiero [what you are ordering] para llevar. This means I want blank to go. These are small phrases that make ordering much easier when you want something done a certain way, and can’t just point to what you want on the menu. The cautionary tale and tips will hopefully help in making sure your Ecuadorian dinner experience goes much smoother than some of ours have.
