Whew, it's been ages since I've written, but here I am. 2013 has been off to a great start. Three weeks into January, the Latin American Team (my team) for Milwaukee Tool had our FIRST ANNUAL LATIN AMERICAN SUMMIT!!! Summit = cumbre in Spanish. There's your word for the day. We had customers in Miami from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Since my territory is a bunch of fairly small islands (and also the small country of Belize), I didn't actually have customers there, so my job for the week was to mingle with everyone and be there to educate on the product during information sessions, discuss our overall Latin American goals, and just share the Milwaukee love. This was me in my element - conversing with people, getting to know them and their background, and putting that in a Milwaukee setting where I could be a bridge between Milwaukee and the customer on a very cultural level. Milwaukee has only been heavily investing in the Latin American region for a couple of years, so it is important that the customers know where we're going, their significance to us, etc. The highlighted task of my week was being able to break that language barrier! You guessed it, I spoke Spanish most of the week. There were a few customers there who did not speak any English, so I was able to both translate and interpret (which are different things). There were alot of Milwaukee corporate people there, from the President to many of the Product Marketing experts, and most of them are Americans who live in Milwaukee and do not speak Spanish.
The final night we had a dinner with about 70 of us in one big room, when I had already sat down and noticed that Cesar, a customer from Venezuela who didn't speak English, sat down at another table near the President, a couple of VPs, and a couple of 'Gringo' product marketing guys. I was thinking to myself, "Oh no, there is a language barrier to break!" So I went to sit by Cesar the that table. Sounds cheesy - I know - but that is what went through my head! As I started to eat my salad, I told Cesar that I could interpret for him during dinner, and that bite of salad was practically the last thing I ate, because I was breaking language barriers for the next 2 hours! It was intense, and I left the dinner both a little hungry and exhausted from thinking/speaking so much in both languages, but I loved it. We did everything from talk to the VP of the Test & Measurement Tools about how the tools aren't selling well because Milwaukee T&M Tools don't come with cases (apparently Venezuelans want cases for their voltage detectors and fork meters) to discussing with the CFO - yes the CFO - about the Venezuelan exchange rate and how the U.S. Dollar was so devalued because of restrictions that Chavez was putting on importing. It was intense, to say the least, but I really enjoyed it, and I think alot of issues/questions were cleared up during that dinner.
One of our 5 days at the cumbre (remember that's the Spanish word for 'summit') was a leisure day, and all of us Milwaukee team members were assigned a team to go with on a 50-foot fishing yacht for a deep-sea fishing trip. They put me with the Argentines. Let me tell you, the Spanish they speak in Argentina is a very different accent, one of which I really haven't been exposed to, so my brain was being challenged to understand their accent and colloquialisms, even though I would say I'm pretty fluent in Spanish. And, I learned that I will never go deep-sea fishing again. I tossed my breakfast up over the side of the boat 3 separate times. I've never felt so nauseous in my life. It was kite fishing and it was a windy day, and I guess that type of fishing tends to entail lots of boat-rocking. I caught a couple of the Argentines 'tossing their cookies' too, so I wasn't alone :). The worst part was probably that we didn't catch a THING! Oh well, they had fun and got to see Miami Beach from the ocean.
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| Here is Team Milwaukee Argentina - we caught no fish :( |
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| Here is the Milwaukee Latin American Fishing Team! A few of the countries represented here: Puerto Rico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama. |
PICTURE THIS: I'm sitting at a table eating lunch on the last day of the summit with 2 Argentines, a Mexican, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Colombian, and Salvadorian, and a Guatemalan. All speak Spanish (including me with my knowledge-base learned during my year in Spain), but all have different accents and different ways of saying things. My adrenaline seriously was rushing, I remember clearly, when we were sitting there just chatting about the cultural differences from country-to-country. We discussed how to say words like 'straw' in Spanish and phrases like 'Teacher's Pet' in Spanish, and it was seriously different in almost every country! Usually the Ecuadorian understood the Guatemalan, but it was sort of humorous because that wasn't the word that he was use back in Ecuador. I guess a small example would be an American hearing the word 'loo' for bathroom. We may know what it means, but we'd never use it because it's an England English word. That's the kind of stuff I love, and it is what brings me so much joy through this demanding but amazing job.
Overall, the week was really, really productive and beneficial for Milwaukee as far as training, explaining our long-term goals, and strengthening those relationships. For me culturally - It. Was. Awesome. I can't explain where this passion for the Latin culture and Spanish Language comes from. I'm from a small, predominantly-white farm town in the rural Midwest, but I love and embrace the Latin Spanish culture and language. It is truly a gift God has given me, to be able to speak the language well and then embrace the culture and take such an interest in its people. And what a blessing to be able to use it in my job like I do.
Thanks for reading! Hasta la proxima (See you next time)!!!
-Anna Banana
