SC transcends language boundaries

[PepperElf]

An excellent example of the reverse of the English-speaker's "If I shout loud enough, they'll understand." Just goes to prove suckiness crosses all boundaries.

Thank goodness you finally got rid of him. Shame he didn't think to try body language, as you said, and/or sketches (maps, etc.) or something ...

OMG yes. talking faster and louder does not mean "easier to understand".


This is why, when I was in Japan, my BF bought a book of common phrases etc in English, Japanese words, as well as the phonetic-English. So we could try to speak the phrase, or if worse comes to worse just point and the locals could read it.

[Josh]

have had customers in the store very upset that we had no one that spoke Spanish to help them (I do btw). As a manager I apologized, and responded that we made every attempt to ensure we have bilingual associates BUT since this is the USA and English is the language spoken here it was not always possible

[HotelMinion]

Lol. Your post reminded me of my own exp. I understand more Spanish than I can speak, but this time:

Me: Hello can I help you?
Spanish Guy: Hola ^_^ hablas espanol? (Hi you speak spanish)
Me: Un poquito. (a little)
SG: Ah...ok...tienes cuartos disponibles? (do you have rooms available)

Ok, if he'd said tienes cuartos? I would've understood. But 'disponibles' was a mystery. Unsure I said no. This was when I was a newb minion, so I thought he meant something else. But he was just asking if there were rooms available. Which there were. Ooops.

[vikingchyk]

Ok, if he'd said tienes cuartos? I would've understood. But 'disponibles' was a mystery. Unsure I said no. This was when I was a newb minion, so I thought he meant something else. But he was just asking if there were rooms available. Which there were. Ooops.

I had the equivalent of 3 years of Spanish in high school. I had three semesters of German in college. I try to speak Spanish, and at some point, there is a German word sitting in the the bin where a Spanish one should be. I try to speak German, and... you get the idea.

I speak Germish. Too bad no one else does

{Good thing the one semester of Russian I took was mostly reading, so that doesn't add into the conversation mix much - I've mostly lost my skill at reading Cyrillic }

{OMG, I can't believe I just had to look up the word for "understand" in Spanish, since the German was a giant wall I couldn't see beyond. Comprender! I KNEW that. Once. About #mumble# years ago... }

[Peppergirl]

I thank God every day that we're allowed to hang up on people if it gets bad enough.

I've never understood the point of asking someone 'Do you speak *insert language here*", being told NO, then proceeding to speak the language anyway.

Why even bother to ask if you're going to insist on speaking it anyway, regardless of whether or not I understand you?

I must admit, hanging up on these types is HUGELY satisfying, particularly if it's in the middle of a sentence.