You will not be renumbered
I woke up with a loud BZZZT — It happens every couple of years. The electric transformer for the circuit where my house is located, at the Northern edge of Ciudad Universitaria, decided to die (or at least, to take a break… literally).
About one hour later, I decided it was time to wake up and start being a useful person. I gave breakfast to my cats and had breakfast myself, and called the electrical company to report this mishap. They told me the report was registered, and I hope to have electricity soon (meanwhile, I’m sitting at a nearby restaurant, as there is some job to do — Yes, besides writing blog entries). And they told me, as is often told in Mexico, a general anticorruption phrase – With a twist: «recuerde que usted no debe renumerar ningún servicio que realice el personal de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad». (You should not renumber any service done by the Federal Electrical Commission personnel). Yes, remunerado (not renumerado).
This shows once again the power of asking people to read things they don’t understand.
Comments
Anonymous 2010-05-09 14:39:50
Trying to verify that I’ve
Trying to verify that I’ve correctly translated that phrase with my limited Spanish skills: “remember that you need not pay for any service done by the personnel of the Federal Electrical Commission”?
That certainly makes a lot more sense than “renumber”, and seems like a reasonable thing to point out.
Anxious 2010-05-12 08:06:00
Spelling bee
Loads of English people get the English equivalent wrong too; they talk about their renumeration when they want to talk about pay.
But who am I to point the finger - I was more than ten years a doctor before I realised I couldn’t spell therapeutics. And I only realised how to spell restaurateur when I couldn’t make the version with an “n” fit in a crossword I was doing.
A
gwolf 2010-05-10 15:40:26
It must not be that often…
But every now and then, they must hear this “hey, man, thanks, you are #1!”
R 2010-05-10 15:12:23
No, no. They DO mean
No, no. They DO mean renumbering. You have no idea the pain it causes in their admin systems when you go and renumber their internal tasks :p