So every time we go shopping we inevitably have to ask where something is or if they have something. Like flour. Or shower rods/curtains. Or meat. Anything really. Essentially what happens is we ask, they don't understand, then we play charades. You won't want to play us in cranium when we get back btw. Generally there are maybe 2 people working at the store who understand enough of our English - which I think is perfect by the way - to help us, and they are never around. So we play games with the people who are working and around.
Tyler asked a guy for mouthwash the other day. We had been up and down each aisle and not found it so we gave in and asked. Tyler acted out actually using mouthwash, putting it in your mouth and swishing it around. First they thought he wanted alcohol. When world-class charades is shot to the ground you go back to words. What else could you do? So he then tried as many descriptors as possible....liquid, rinse, clean, teeth, wash....this doesn't seem to help either. So that guy went and got another guy and Tyler did the same motions and words with him. He didn't have a clue so he went and got another guy. Eventually they went to find the guy who understands American English and he took all 6 of us to the section with the toothbrushes where we had been before and grabs a breath freshening spray. No....not quite it. We still don't have perfectly clean mouths. :( Another customer not helped by 6 employees at the same time.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
"Communication Problems" Part 1
So here is an example of our time here.
We haven't had a shower curtain since we moved in. In India its not cutomary to have one because there is not really a difference between water in the shower and water on the bathroom floor. Plus there is a drain on the floor of every bathroom, besides the one that is designated for the shower, which just drains any water that gets on the non-shower bathroom floor. This is all fine. However, we wanted a shower curtain because its actually kind of annoying to have water on the floor. So we found a shower curtain. The only problem is the shower curtains don't come with a shower rod, nor do they sell shower rods anywhere in the country. We spent a week looking for a shower rod and finally found one in the shopping center across from the office. Well of course the guy working there didn't speak English...
Speaking of English: the Hindi that everyone speaks here has English interspersed throughout. So we catch about every three or four words that people are saying. This makes it a little easier for us to understand what other people are saying even if they're not speaking in English. Also, there are many words that just don't have a translation to Hindi. So they only use the English words, usually nouns.
So back to the story...
We buy the shower curtain rods and leave. We decide that we should get a receipt so we go back to the store and try to ask for a receipt. First the guy just says no, so we know he doesn't understand us. Next he thinks that we want to know how to use the shower rod. He pulls out an open shower rod and starts to show us how it works. We say "no, no, no." We try again: "Receipt". We tried "bill". The accompanying hand gestures don't seem to help either. We see a credit card machine behind the counter and point to that...once the guy figures out what we're pointing at he just says "no". So once again, I know he doesn't know what we're talking about. There was a guy at another store who did speak English so we went and got him to come over and tell the guy what we wanted. We said, "Please just tell him that we want a receipt for our shower rods." So the guy walks over with us and says mostly in Hindi "Hindi Hindi Hindi receipt." The guy behind the counter says happily "Oh, yes, yes, yes", and produces a book of receipts. The guy that we brought with us filled it out and we were on our way.
We haven't had a shower curtain since we moved in. In India its not cutomary to have one because there is not really a difference between water in the shower and water on the bathroom floor. Plus there is a drain on the floor of every bathroom, besides the one that is designated for the shower, which just drains any water that gets on the non-shower bathroom floor. This is all fine. However, we wanted a shower curtain because its actually kind of annoying to have water on the floor. So we found a shower curtain. The only problem is the shower curtains don't come with a shower rod, nor do they sell shower rods anywhere in the country. We spent a week looking for a shower rod and finally found one in the shopping center across from the office. Well of course the guy working there didn't speak English...
Speaking of English: the Hindi that everyone speaks here has English interspersed throughout. So we catch about every three or four words that people are saying. This makes it a little easier for us to understand what other people are saying even if they're not speaking in English. Also, there are many words that just don't have a translation to Hindi. So they only use the English words, usually nouns.
So back to the story...
We buy the shower curtain rods and leave. We decide that we should get a receipt so we go back to the store and try to ask for a receipt. First the guy just says no, so we know he doesn't understand us. Next he thinks that we want to know how to use the shower rod. He pulls out an open shower rod and starts to show us how it works. We say "no, no, no." We try again: "Receipt". We tried "bill". The accompanying hand gestures don't seem to help either. We see a credit card machine behind the counter and point to that...once the guy figures out what we're pointing at he just says "no". So once again, I know he doesn't know what we're talking about. There was a guy at another store who did speak English so we went and got him to come over and tell the guy what we wanted. We said, "Please just tell him that we want a receipt for our shower rods." So the guy walks over with us and says mostly in Hindi "Hindi Hindi Hindi receipt." The guy behind the counter says happily "Oh, yes, yes, yes", and produces a book of receipts. The guy that we brought with us filled it out and we were on our way.
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