The power of the smile and the word “Si, Garcia”

“The smile is the shortest distance between two people” , ― Victor Borge

The smile becomes even more powerful with the word “Si, Garcia” (Yes, thank you in Spanish).

And more than that…………….

I will share with you “the more than that” at the end of this story.

I and 3 other friends (all are Asian who couldn’t speak Spanish) went to register for the Masters course (in English language) that we were granted in Spain.

We queued for half an hour with other students coming from Spain and other countries. As I observed, they could speak Spanish and they registered successfully.

When it was our turn, the receptionist spoke with us in Spanish and didn’t get any respond so she said “Sorry, you have to come back another time, we cannot help you with the registration now. You don’t speak Spanish?”.

We couldn’t say anything in Spanish so we said “Yes”

With her head-shake, she said “No, sorry”.

I smiled and “We just arrived for some days, we cannot speak Spanish now and our course in English so is there any way we can boost our registration process faster. It seems that we don’t have much time left”.

This time there was another lady sitting in a private room went out of the room and told us with unhappy face “You cannot speak Spanish so we cannot help you now”. As she said, she went inside the room and was about to close the door.

I thought she was the boss there, I smiled at her and said “Si, Garcia”

She immediately turned back and looked at me “You can speak Spanish? Come here”.

She then started explaining the process of registration and all I could say was “Si, Garcia”. After 4 minutes, she looked at me and said “you only can say that two words?”

I smiled “Si”.

She felt funny I guessed so she laughed and rubbed my hair “Oh, you are so lovely. I cannot get angry with you”.

I went “Si, Garcia” with a big grin.

She then again gave me a paper with a guidance and timeline to register and talked with the receptionist to help us make the process faster.

I will never forget the smile of the lady when she could hear just 2 words “Si, Garcia”.

I will never forget that the most important thing here is that to make an effort to speak the language in the country you are living.

It is the bottom line to show our respect to local people, willing to learn. 

We may not need to speak perfectly but at least we make an effort to do so.

And yes, don’t forget to give a big smile to others.