Is something amiss here?
By SaintAnne
@SaintAnne (5453)
United States
March 5, 2009 1:00pm CST
I got a letter from the post office yesterday telling me that I don't need to do anything if all the information they listed for me was correct.
After that, they included a short paragraph in Spanish. And I assume that next line is its translation in English.
"(If you do not speak English or you do not understand this letter, please take it with you to your local post office for assistance.)"
So is it just me? Or did I have a valid reason to laugh out loud in confusion?
3 people like this
7 responses
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
5 Mar 09
My PhD is in English, but once when I went to vote, the poll helper decided I was hispanic and tried to push a Spanish ballot on me. Well, since she made such a fuss about it I decided to take it anyway and try to vote in Spanish, as that is one of several languages in which I have a reading knowledge. Well, the ballot was all wrong! It was a really bad translation, but had as you say English underneath and that wasn't exactly right either, but it was possible to vote.
After all, one just checks the names or "yes" or "no" so it is not rocket science. After that I just laughed and took the English version. Sometimes it is good to laugh and keep on going without thinking too hard about these absurdities, eh?
1 person likes this
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
7 Mar 09
So does this mean you kinda sorta look Hispanic, drannhh? I've been mistaken for that as well as some other Asian ethnicity... I laughed out loud the first time I read it and my co-worker must have thought I was going crazy.
1 person likes this
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
8 Mar 09
LOL. That's even worse and more confusing... giving you a ballot because of what the person next to you looked like... oh, what have we come to?
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
5 Mar 09
Well it all depends really! Was the paragraph in Spanish a translation of the original English paragraph or not? If it wasn't, then I agree a good laugh is in order! If it wasn't, then how someone who can't read the original English paragraph is supposed to understand the subsequent English paragraph is beyond me! Damn, now I'm confused myself! Aray! Sakit ulo naman!
Aray! Sakit ulo naman! 1 person likes this
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
5 Mar 09
(Ouch! Headache!)
I think the paragraph in parenthesis is the translation for the Spanish paragraph. That's what I figured. But now you just made me think of something else. Do they have another version of this letter without this Spanish paragraph? If I didn't have a Spanish-sounding last name, would they have had included that there?
Hmmm...
1 person likes this
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
7 Mar 09
I don't even want to go there... because I don't know how...
1 person likes this
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
7 Mar 09
LOL. No thank you. I don't want to spend about half an hour over there just to be halfway through the line.
)@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
7 Mar 09
I don't really know. Maybe it's a general letter. My city has a growing Hispanic population... that's what my guess would be...
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
6 Mar 09
I think you did have a valid reason. For going by your post, the main thing that they were supposed to convey was already written in English and the latter part, may be some compulsive statutory thing came in Spanish! Or it could be....now I am getting confused.
1 person likes this
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
7 Mar 09
You're getting there, Mimpi. That's what I am thinking. When we went to Oahu, a lot of the translations were in Japanese... almost all the time.
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
7 Mar 09
Most of the letter was written in English. Everything that I needed to know was all in English. And then the second to the last paragraph was in Spanish and then the last paragraph was the one in parenthesis asking me that if I couldn't read or understand, then I should take the letter to the post office.
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
5 Mar 09
Oh, I know what is going on. I just thought it's funny (in a sad way) for them to add that there for people who can't read it in the first place. I just do not see the point. Thanks for your response, alharra.
