When you need help working on your home, knowledge of Spanish can be very valuable. Some of the best craftsman working in south Texas are monolingual. The great faux-beaux artist Dionicio Rodriguez communicated only in Spanish.
There are a number of English to Spanish / Spanish to English guides that specialize in phrases that are useful on a construction site. One that seems especially well thought out is the "Instant Jobsite Translator" from Construction Communication Corporation of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
At 3 1/2 inches by 5 inches and 120 pages, it is truly pocket sized. At $5.00 it is less costly than the guides you'll find in bookstores. It does not attempt to teach grammatically correct Spanish instead it gives the sort of primitive forms that will allow you to get work done.
An extra copy or two to give to the craftsmen you work with regularly you can be well on your way to a fruitful multi-cultural construction collaboration.
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