OT #1 -- week ending Sun 13-Dec-09

This one's for Jo-Jo, but y'all can read it if you like. About the most embarrasing foreign language experience ....

About 15 years ago I was working for an international consulting company. My office was based in NY, although I was stationed in Germany, a satellite that took care of the European branches. Lots of travelling involved. Main languages in the office were German and English, but in dealing with the other branches there was a good mix of other stuff.

I had just been on a three week stint in Milano, Italy, and then got posted to Madrid, Spain, to do training in some stuff.

Stuff'ed is what I was, really. Spain is closed between 2pm and 9 pm. Lunch break. There may be a bit of work going on between 3pm and 5pm, but when you hit the road after (what I considered) regular office hours, the city was pretty dead. Restaurants don't open until 9 or 10 pm, unless you want a sub-standard cheap Chinese r.ip-off.

After a week of back to back computer teaching (can't even remember what ...) I stumbled out of the office, and, hungry as I was I knew I wouldn't get any decent nourishment for at least another five hours.

So I decided to do it the Spanish way, and sleep it out until 11 pm. To help me get into the sleepy mood, I wanted to pick up a six-pack of beer from a little corner shop. Actually, a four-pack. They didn't do six packs there and then.

So, on my walk from the office to the hotel, I duck into the corner shop and proudly present the owner with what I considered my best version of Spanish to date:

"Kwattro birra, por favor "

The guy looked at me blankly for a few seconds, bit down hard, swallowed, and said

"Cerveca!"

I had to repeat the correct word before he would sell it to me.

Dang Italians!!

PS: Mi dispiace, non intendo offendere alcun italiani. Vi preghiamo di comprendere che era la mia stessa confusione che ha causato la situazione. Amo l'Italia! - Grazie!