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Things You Don't Expect

  • Jul. 17th, 2009 at 3:26 PM
Mechanical
Talking with a British colleague who mentioned he was at a French restaurant in London with his sister. The waiter came over and asked if their meal was OK and his sister replied, in French, that it was an excellent meal. The waiter apologized, explaining that he was from Indonesia and didn't speak French. So she repeated what she said in Indonesian. The shocked waiter replied that he was actually from Bali and didn't speak Indonesian. So she repeated what she said in Balinese.

Damn. Just damn.

Many people (usually not British or American) speak several languages, but they're usually European or African. Frankly, were I the waiter, I think my brain would have imploded at that point.
  • Mood: surprised

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Comments

( 8 comments — Leave a comment )
[info]circle23 wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 02:38 pm (UTC)
if she spoke aramaic or Navaho then id poop! a friend offered the full Rosetta stone software for free i think im going to take it.
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[info]super_grrrl wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 02:46 pm (UTC)
If you don't want the Rosetta stone software, I'll take it.

I still want to learn more.
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[info]circle23 wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 03:22 pm (UTC)
its a mac version. see you tonight! wait arent you supposed to be jumping from a plane today?
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[info]deprivation wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 02:39 pm (UTC)
wow. did the waiter speak with a french accent?

i was always amazed when the owner of hot pot city would start conversing with the patrons in their native language, no matter what it was. i believe he was indonesian.

i can barely speak english.
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[info]mageraine wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 02:44 pm (UTC)
A classmate of mine in Japan was from Morocco. As such, he'd grown up bilingual in both French and Arabic. Then he'd gained fluency in English, and gone to Japan to learn Japanese. I felt lazy just talking to him. x.x
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[info]brianarn wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 03:10 pm (UTC)
It's kind of sad that I can really only speak one language fluently, and even then, my Spanish isn't functional enough to do much more than order food or ask where the restroom is (two things that are good to be able to do together, fortunately).
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[info]prolificdiarist wrote:
Jul. 17th, 2009 06:11 pm (UTC)
Ooh! *In awe*
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[info]tinyrevolution wrote:
Jul. 21st, 2009 07:31 am (UTC)
That is so awesome.
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( 8 comments — Leave a comment )