The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

This week, I learned the important lesson that you should always have someone check a translation of a parent letter that is going home in your name! I gave the school secretary a letter in English to send home with all the elementary students, and since many of the parents only speak Spanish, she only sent home her translated version.

The letter was supposed to ask parents to help with Teacher Appreciation Week in May by bringing in treats, helping with recess and providing a special lunch. Apparently, the word “appreciation” means something similar to evaluation in Spanish. The secretary got a little confused and then kind of ran with it. So essentially, she sent a letter from me, inviting parents to come to the school that week to “evaluate, examine and give their opinion” of our teachers. Needless to say, some of the teachers were a little miffed that I was supposedly inviting all the parents in to critique them, so I had to go to each one and explain that it was a translation error. The parents were also confused because some of them assumed that I thought the “evaluation” was going to be so hard on the teachers that they need special food that week to make them feel better.

Thankfully, the secretary volunteered to send out an email soon to correct the misunderstanding, so I hopefully I won’t come off looking too silly!