Friday, April 24, 2009

more english experiences

Last night I stopped at the Tescco (sort of like Target or something, but with a large grocery/bakery/produce section) at Narodni Trida. They are currently renovating the grocery level (-1) so the food has been moved up to the 0 level and everything there is really crowded. However I found the few things I needed for a small pre-concert gathering and made my way in to line.

While I was standing in line a man behind me caught my attention and then asked, "Excuse me, do you speak English?". "Yes" I replied. Then he gestured to a poster above my head with an image of a pen and a few words and continued. "What does that say?" "I have no idea" I responded.

"But you speak English, it's... you... what...," he stuttered. "Yes, I speak English, but..." I started. "Oh, you don't speak Czech" he interjected.

"Right."

So he turned to the guy behind him and asked again - and had the same conversation, almost word for word. So he turned to the woman next to that guy, and then to another guy, and then back to me - he'd asked at least 4 or 5 individuals if they spoke English - we all did - and then asked them to translate the poster - not one of us could read it.

He started laughing about how he couldn't find a Czech in the Czech Republic but that everyone in the world speaks English.
I felt kind of bad for him as he really wanted a direct translation of the poster, and I - and one other guy - were only able to give a very vague idea.... something new, something something something, something else, 3rd floor.

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