XPost: rec.puzzles, alt.usage.english, alt.proverbs   
   From: peter@pmoylan.org   
      
   On 09/06/24 11:39, Tony Cooper wrote:   
   > On Sun, 9 Jun 2024 00:35:45 +1000, Peter Moylan    
   > wrote:   
      
   >> At various times I have been in places where my command of the   
   >> local language was somewhere between zero and negligible. That must   
   >> happen to anyone who has done a bit of travelling. How does one   
   >> deal with this?   
   >>   
   > I am so monolingual that I was identified as an American after   
   > saying only "Zwei bier" in a crowded pub in Germany.   
   >   
   > One way I coped in restaurants was casually strolling around   
   > noticing what other patrons were being served, and telling the waiter   
   > "We'll have what those people over there are having" and pointing to   
   > a table where something looked good.   
      
   When my wife and I were in the south of France, only a few years ago, we   
   decided to visit the Dali museum in Figueres. (Northern Spain.) (An   
   excellent museum to visit, by the way.) When we went to lunch, I coped   
   with the language problem by going to the menu board and writing down a   
   couple of things that looked promising. When the waiter came I handed   
   him the bit of paper.   
      
   This worked well, except that I did end up uttering a few words, and I   
   said "con" when I should have said "amb". (My knowledge of Catalan was   
   zero.) This made the waiter think I was one of the southern enemy, so he   
   was a bit cold to us after that.   
      
   --   
   Peter Moylan       peter@pmoylan.org    http://www.pmoylan.org   
   Newcastle, NSW   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)