A Little English Problem

Go with me back in time to the  year 2000, Seems like a decade ago. Whoops, I guess it has been a decade.
Actually, it was about 1999, even two decades ago. My staff was 99% Hispanic, and they were a very wonderful group of girls. I never had harder workers as a whole than they were. I loved their enthusiasm and zest for life. The majority of them were from El Salvador. Christmas was particularly a festive time because they celebrated with an unbridled joy. They told me that gift giving had not been a part of their culture in El Salvador, but they celebrated with great joy with the focus and family and friends.

Yes, they were wonderful,and they became like my family. I was very much single at the time, and they took great care to bring me special dishes from their homeland to make sure that I "was eating". The only problem was that most of them had not mastered English, and sometimes I was lost in dealing with them.My Spanish was limited to hello, how are you, and good night. Oh, I also learned to say"towels" in Spanish, a necessary word in hotels. But, my girls sure tried, and one of them, Sonia, was very intelligent , and had taken  English in high school in El Salvador. Sonia was also my day time front desk clerk. She was actually trained as a para-legal in El Salvador, but had come to America and had accepted a job as a housekeeper, and then had moved to the front desk. She was a delightful young lady, a whole four feet ten inches tall.

In our computer system, we had a feature that allowed us to track guests who for one reason or another were "undesirable" for future stays. There was a space to list the name and the reason for not being allowed to stay again at the Emerald Inn. The most common reason was that drugs had been found in the room, or they were unruly.

We had a guest that came in about every three months. This "lady", and I use the term loosely, for she was very obviously a transsexual. I never paid much attention to "her", and she didn't appear to cause problems.

I was going through the undesirable list one day when I came across the "ladies" name. Sonia had entered her name, and the reason. When  saw the reason, I started laughing my head off. This is how it read.

"------ cannot stay again, she had "pup" in the bed. OK, what on earth did that mean. When Sonia came in I asked her about her unusual entry. So, the guest had a pup in her bed.So what? Well, Sonia had learned phonetic English, and her answer sent me into waves of laughter. Sonia told me that the guest had "poop" in her bed. I questioned her further, and asked , "poop?",and Sonia said yes, poop. Then said "PUP, poop", as if I were devoid of any understanding of the word.

Maybe that is why Phonics is not taught anymore.