Today I had an experience that really made me question (again), if on the long run I could master living in a foreign country, or rather one where they don't speak German or English, as I feel much more confident in English than in Spanish. I just hate not being able to always say what I want and of course, being unsure of HOW to say it, sometimes even in the most common situations. But in general I come by quite well and in general, Spaniards are welcoming and friendly in a way that they will try to understand what you say (hey, it's not as it was TOO difficult understanding me anyway! :) and generally are very helpful, even in most offices. But today I had to go to an office to pick up a letter, that a lawyer had written for me on the deplorable state of my apartment. (Though that's a different story.)
When I came into the office I approached the girl at the recption desk telling her I wanted to pick up a letter ("Querria buscar una carta.") Maybe she thought I had mistaken her office for the post office or maybe I looked momentarily like Mickey Mouse, but she looked at me as if I had asked her "Could I borrow your frog, please?" And she asked: "Una carta...?????" as in "MY frog...????" Complete and utter awe, with hints of repulsion, I am serious!
The look on her face was so extremly dumb and inappropriate that I decided it would do no good to insit, I was trying to pick up a letter, so I immeditatley approached the lady who is responsible of the case, she handed me the letter and out I was.
I just thought how absolutley idiotic do you have to be to show such a reaction. Receptionist, public adminsitration, housing problems, lawyers dealing with it. How strange is it, that people come to YOU (the receptionist) and ask about letters, that lawyers that work in YOUR office write for (after all...) YOUR clients? Unbelievable....
The thing is I am sure that her absolutley fine-tuned "guiridar" sensed immediatley: "FOREIGNER, NO GOOD SPEAK SPANISH, ASKING TO BORROW FROG WHEN NO FROG HERE" so she just couldn't cope with the fact that in the end I was asking her an absolutley normal question in normal spanish...So sad...I just hope I didn't scare her too much, and she will stop wondering, why on earth that alien was asking for a frog....
SaturTabs
vor 11 Stunden
Sometimes I think that the social cues are almost as hard as the language itself too! In Spanish a lot of times they'll say "Quiero un cafe," which in my head translates to RUDE. "I want a salad." In English I would say, "I would like a salad." But if I did the translation into Spanish directly like that, I'd probably confuse people. AH, foreign languages can be so tricky sometimes!
AntwortenLöschenPS. I am commenting from my new blog, but you commented on my old blog www.ohquepasa.blogspot.com
Nothing to do with Europeans or Spaniards: Whenever I go to 7/11 in Bangkok and ask for a LM Menthol (which is L-M-Kiao) I get Marlboro Lights (which is pronounced Marlboro Light). I can´t see any similiarity between those two. I guess you´re right: They sometimes just consider you unable to speak their language and then just give you the thing that they expect foreigners to ask for.
AntwortenLöschen@ Teesha, don't get me started on L&M cigarettes ...haha - you know that in the end, I just had to show with gestures....yes, cigarettes, no, up, up..., left...more, no..there, yes THERE!...two...,no, two....two...no, TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!kap........!!!!!:)
AntwortenLöschen@ Kyle, that's so true, I remember how incredibly rude I found it in the beginning how Spaniards would just say "Como?" or just "Que?" where an English- (and also a German-speaker) would say: "Excuse me. What do you mean?". No I "que" and "como" all the time and I just like it...it's so easy - and it gives you the satisfaction of being rude when you want to, without even being rude in their ears.... :)
AntwortenLöschenI'm laughing at your post. The same thing happens to me on a daily basis here. It's like OMG did the little gringa just utter a coherent sentence? No.... No... That cannot be. The world *hack* must be ending. Save...yourself...
AntwortenLöschenOkay, so that is perhaps a bit too dramatic, but I feel that way sometimes.
I had to laugh at Teesha getting Marlboro's when she asked for L&M. One time (in Chile) I asked for a Beatles CD and got "Virus". I finally had to say it phonetically "bay-AT-lays" before she would understand me! (And I'm pretty fluent in Spanish). Sometimes all it takes is an accent for the listener to put up a wall!
AntwortenLöschendu armer!
AntwortenLöschenich kann mir die Szene live vorstellen :)
die SpanierInnen sind nicht gerade die geborenen "Polygloten" ;)