Bestest Linguistic Challenge

[lsanderson]

Whilst in France buying some pain au chocolate in the second-best bakery in Azay-le-Rideau, the English woman in front of me kept asking the ignorant French woman who was working the register for "Jam" for the croissant she was buying. No matter how loud or slow the nice English lady pronounced it, the ignorant French woman just didn't get it. Finally, in a creative burst of linguistic genius, I said "Confiture?" to the ignorant French woman, and she instantly pointed to the jars of jam sitting on a shelf on the wall, which were not the to-go size that the nice English lady wanted, of course, nor free. I was about to, in a stroke of brilliance, put together "petite," "confiture," and "togo," saying the last part quite slowly and very loudly of course, so that I might be better understood, but by the time the blinding insight had struck, the English lady had paid and left.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Genius, rilly.

K.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Sure, she tried loud and she tried slow, but did she even think of trying ridiculous hand gestures? I understand that most language barriers can be broken with wild gesticulations.

[quadong.livejournal.com]

It's strange. I've always found in France that after I hesitate for half a second before answering a question, they switch to English or pantomime. I never even get a chance to indicate verbally that I don't speak French. I guess the other approach is, instead of hesitating, rush in the wrong direction.