learning my 1-2-3’s
I was a bundle of nerves. Italy was the first country I’d ever visited where I knew I wouldn’t understand a single word. Okay, I knew grazie and ciao, but how far are those going to get you when you’re in search of help at the pharmacy or asking for assistance deciphering a train schedule?
I probably don’t have to tell you that I worried for nothing. The Italians, they are warm and friendly, and everyone I encountered, almost without exception, was more than happy to bridge the language gap. Almost without exception. Gotta love the grocery store checkout lady who refused to let me buy a box of granola bars with a 20 Euro note.
I got that she was saying she didn’t have change, but I’d seen a drawer full of it when she helped the customer before me. Unable to say that, I stood there stupidly as she let out her frustration on me - the girl without exact change. She kept repeating the same phrase, over and over and I kept apologizing, feeling my face get redder and redder. I was really starting to hate Milan.
The more I apologized, the more she ranted. And still, I had no idea what she wanted. Until a couple weeks ago, when we learned numbers in Italian class. In the middle of the lesson, a light went on in my brain. There it was! The phrase o’ humiliation.
Thirty-seven. I stood in line for five minutes being yelled at for not having thirty-seven cents. Somehow, clarity doesn’t make me feel any better about it.
How frustrating - I worked in Germany one summer and found that a lot of tourists got around that (despite the fact that I was bi-ligual and could quote prices in several other languages as well) by just holding out their hands with a load of change (not even always the right currency) and letting me pick out the right amount!
It’s a good thing I’m honest. I could have made a nice little earning that summer otherwise!
I have never been yelled at myself but have had similar frustrations - Japan, Hungary…
First time I went to Germany I could hardly speak the language. Most of the time I found no problem dealing with people in English, but… I was staying with a host family and the woman kept speaking very fast and chose the most complicated vocabulary and structures. I usually stood there, eyes wide open, trying so hard to understand, and barely uttering “I don’t understand” and “Could you speak more slowly”. I would even show her my dictionary and ask her to point to the word she was saying.
Usually, all she did was keep repeating word by word, each time louder and louder, until she was yelling at me.
I was there for six whole weeks. Towards the end, my level of German had improved enough to get an idea of she was saying. That’s when I discovered that, half of the time, she was just making fun of me.
I had a very similar experience while purchasing a water taxi ticket in Venice. I got the idea he was irritated I didn’t have change, but what are you going to do? I wished I’d known how to say -
‘just round it up, then, and give me what you have…crimeny! I love Europe, but the service industry there just ain’t the same…Sometimes I think they do that for entertainment.