When sign language isn't enough
Despite never having a German lesson in my life, I really don't want to be the ugly American so I almost always try to at least start conversations in German (this is particularly embarrassing to Gretchen when I try it in front of her because she speaks German and I don't). Usually it takes them about two words out of my mouth to figure out I don't know what I'm saying and they either try to speak slowly, switch to English, or when all else fails, revert to body language like pointing at things. Today I realised that this has its limits.
I had to pick up a prescription at the doctor's office, so I went over at lunch time when there was just a young girl working (that sort of sounds like something out of Penthouse magazine, doesn't it?!). Anyway, when I don't know how a particular word translates from English to German, I usually just say the word with a German accent on the off chance that it'll be close enough. So our conversation went something like this:
ME: "Haben Sie mein Preskription?" [note: I didn't know what a prescription was, so I made that up]
FRAULEIN: ((((quizzical blank stare))))
ME: ((((pretend I'm writing a prescription on my hand)))) "Medizin?"
FRAULEIN: ((((hands me a cup to pee in)))) "Ja?"
ME: ((((blushing)))) "Oh, Nein!"
FRAULEIN: ((((quizzical blank stare))))
ME: ((((wracking my brain...)))) "Für die Apotheke?" [Apotheke=pharmacy]
FRAULEIN: "Oh, ja! Rezept!"
And off I went with my prescription in hand, but not before humiliating myself, almost having to pee in a cup, and learning that a prescription is a Rezept. (To redeem myself, at the Apotheke I managed to do the whole thing in German...and at no point did she try to hand me a plastic cup.)
I had to pick up a prescription at the doctor's office, so I went over at lunch time when there was just a young girl working (that sort of sounds like something out of Penthouse magazine, doesn't it?!). Anyway, when I don't know how a particular word translates from English to German, I usually just say the word with a German accent on the off chance that it'll be close enough. So our conversation went something like this:
ME: "Haben Sie mein Preskription?" [note: I didn't know what a prescription was, so I made that up]
FRAULEIN: ((((quizzical blank stare))))
ME: ((((pretend I'm writing a prescription on my hand)))) "Medizin?"
FRAULEIN: ((((hands me a cup to pee in)))) "Ja?"
ME: ((((blushing)))) "Oh, Nein!"
FRAULEIN: ((((quizzical blank stare))))
ME: ((((wracking my brain...)))) "Für die Apotheke?" [Apotheke=pharmacy]
FRAULEIN: "Oh, ja! Rezept!"
And off I went with my prescription in hand, but not before humiliating myself, almost having to pee in a cup, and learning that a prescription is a Rezept. (To redeem myself, at the Apotheke I managed to do the whole thing in German...and at no point did she try to hand me a plastic cup.)
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