Years ago, while working as an internal auditor for one of the largest gold mining companies in the world, I was in Antofagasta, Chile auditing the construction project for a large copper mine with our joint venture partner’s CFO, Chuck. One evening, we decided that we didn’t want to eat at the hotel’s restaurant, so we ventured into town.
We found an interesting restaurant, with a panoramic view of the port. It was early for dinner, by Chilean standards, and the waiter brought Chuck and me the menu. Not surprisingly, the menu was only in Spanish, and was quite detailed, with many options.
I had been studying Spanish for a little while, since my company had several mines in Latin America that I was going to visit, so I was able to find a seafood dish that looked interesting. However, my dinner companion, Chuck, did not have as much Spanish as I did, and was struggling with making a decision. He asked me for help, so I tried to help him translate the menu choices.
I quickly realized that my Spanish lessons had focused on what I needed to do my job, i.e., a business focus not on ordering dinner! We were stuck trying to figure out the different types of meat available – we knew what the cut filete was but there were multiple options for this cut of meat.
As we were lost, Chuck called the waiter over. He had decided that he would try pointing to the menu and asking the difference between cerdo and vacuno. At that point, I did not know that his plan was to do this by pantomiming the animal sounds to find out which was cow and which was pork.
I can still see the waiter’s amused face as Chuck pointed to cerdo and asked “filete mooo?”, drawing out the “ooo’s” comically. The waiter chuckled, shook his head and said “no señor, eso es filete oink!” (this is pork) with laughter in his eyes. We all laughed hearily, and Chuck then ordered “filete vacuno “ which is what he wanted all along.
Our food came, and it was delicious. We had a great meal and joked about how the steak was ordered. At that point, another gringo entered and was seated a few tables away. After being given the Spanish menu, he asked in loud English “do you have an English menu?”, to which the waiter said “sí, un momento” (yes, one moment)!
We looked at each other in disbelief, and burst out laughing. Neither one of us had even considered asking for an English menu! The moral of the story is: it always pays to ask. Never assume!