Categories: uncategorized
Date: 11 December 2003 14:19:12
English guy was in yesterday. Passed by other salespeople and came straight to me. I must have a sympathetic face. Or something.
He looked me in the eye and in a very clear voice asked where he might find a "cash point" and how he could get to the "first floor".
Now, understand, I see customers from all over the world, even in our relatively small town. So far we've dealt well- I've managed to help them find the blue jeans or the restroom or the coat they wanted. Talking with one's hands and facial expressions and a couple words of garbled Sesame Street Spanish works well for me.
But the British guy... with his oh-so-clear enunciation and so on- I had to get him to repeat the question. I was two feet away and looking him in the face and watching his lips move and I STILL had to get him to repeat the question!
"OH!" I thought - "He needs an ATM and this IS the first floor, here..."
So we dealt well together after that.
<giggle> Two peoples separated by a common language, yeah.