Hay a problema

I realise my mistake, using the wrong part of the verb hacer but I felt quite stung all the way home. I was thinking of going back to apologise but it is quite a long walk and now it's very hot. Maybe I am just too sensitive to try out new languages. We could only learn German and Japanese at school and I took German.

Don't worry about rude manners, being friendly and educated is widely interpreted as weakness. "Hay" means "there is" and also  as an interrogation "is there?". Natives oftenly become rude as they are mentally not prepared to deal with foreigners, and in order not to admit their lack of education/culture they take advantage of your need of help.

Did you pronounce it properly? If not, he genuinely may not have understood. Because Spanish pronunciation rules are so strict, they often don't understand what you are saying even if you make a slight mistake. For example, there are two ways to pronounce farmacia - pronounce it wrongly by putting the stress on the wrong syllable and they really don't know what you are saying.

'Hay' is pronounced more like 'eye'.

Thanks for your advice and your lovely reply. Funny thing is I am excellent at pronunciation and I even spelled it so I think it was the interrogation part he didn't like. I got over it a few hours later but I have just been bitten quite badly by a cat. First world problems I know - I washed the wound (on the forearm) out with soap very well and squeezed it so it bled quite a bit and kept washing it. It hurt like crazy because quite a chunky wound and stinging with soap, water etc. Then the only thing I had was lavender oil to disinfect. I hope I don't get any weird illness from this cat bite. My whole arm feels quite sore but that might be because I have been playing solitaire on the computer for a while to chill down.  Thanks again for replying to me. 

Believe me, the cat bite is much worse than the offence caused or taken by the wrong word used.

Creo meeeo"w"! 🙀. V

Si :( 

Hi Ali, if it was a wild cat, I would go get a jab! Anyway, I would suggest popping into a Farmacia and get it looked at just to be sure. 

With reference to the ignorance of your shopkeeper, I am finding in the Costas, that they are not vey helpful when you speak Spanish, they are so used to English, and I find it disappointing. However, it won't stop me learning the language because I find reading it quite easy now. Don't be put off!

Hello Ali,

Some of us are struggling with new language.  But keep trying.  😊 

Cat bite...you did right thing to clean it. However ANY bite may need a person to get an anti tetanus shot from Doctor.  Tomorrow perhaps check in with your local Centro de Salud.  

Regards 

Maria