TIFU by telling a trucker to call his asshole

Submitted by PoorRij t3_zxgg7d in tifu

I work in a warehouse with a lot of Mexicans. It just so happens that a lot of the truckers we service are also Spanish-speakers. There's a lot of code-switching in the warehouse, a lot of inside jokes, double-entendres, etc.

Anyways, the Mexicans call the boss "cabrón". I thought that it meant "boss/jefe". Anyways, there was a problem with a Spanish-speaking trucker's paperwork that prevented us from logging their load and charging them a lumper fee. After explaining the problem, I told him to "Call your cabrón and get the paperwork for the load."

Well, there was obviously a language-barrier and the trucker called his jefe to tell him to call my jefe about how I called him (the trucker) an asshole, and my boss who is Guatemalan-descendant had a word to speak to me before I explained the situation; funny enough when he told me to walk into his office I asked him, "What's wrong, cabrón?"

We all had a good laugh and I apologized to the trucker, and my boss explained the situation in Spanish to said trucker and his cabrón.

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TL:DR Language barrier caused me to disrespect a trucker and his boss

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Comments

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Sufficient-Ad451 t1_j20lsne wrote

May want to edit the title. “TIFU by telling a trucker to call his asshole” had me envisioning the trucker physically calling his asshole, instead of calling his BOSS asshole. Funny story though! Reminds me of “hermano” from arrested development…

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TheLizzardMan t1_j22qtke wrote

You can't change the title and this is why I believe that feature (or bug) should never be fixed.

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PoorRij OP t1_j23wbdq wrote

Well, that's translated literally!

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ScarletteMayWest t1_j22xkqc wrote

Decades ago I went to Spanish camp. One of the American female counselors accused one of the male South American counselors of being a Latin Lover, only interested in flirting.

He vociferously denied that, stating that he was not a "cabrón" whose only aim was to chase women, he had come to the States to study.

My brain went "cabrón" = "stud/flirt".

Went back to school and the guy in front of me had heard I met a cute guy at camp and started giving me flack. Knowing of my classmate's reputation as a ladies' man, I responded by saying, "Ay, Miguel, qué cabrón eres!"

Spanish teacher was in front of us. Did an actual spit-take and yelled at me.

And that is the story of how I learned that words could have different meanings in different countries and that I had learned my first swear word in Spanish.

BTW, 'Miguel' was not a very bright boy and never did figure out what I had called him because the classroom dictionary had it listed as "buck".

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I_Need_Leaded_GAS t1_j23j3te wrote

First time I’ve heard it translated that way. Cabrón = Goat. Old Goat. Stubborn Goat. Not asshole.

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