Text 27321, 75 rader
Skriven 2009-08-10 10:16:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:261/1381)
     Kommentar till en text av CAROL SHENKENBERGER
Ärende: Re: hazards
===================
-=> Quoting Carol Shenkenberger to Nancy Backus on 08-09-09  11:38 <=-

 CS> Sadly, some are so mono-cultural that they never adapt, and it's
 CS> because they do not *want* to at all.  I'll admit there was one spot i
 CS> didnt want to adapt and didnt.  I never really learned to drive there. 
 CS> I was afraid that if i did, my 'left right' habits would be all messed
 CS> up and get me in deep kimchee driving stateside at some odd moment. 
 CS> Once i got a car, I used it only a few times for very short trips just
 CS> to the commisary or exchange. 

The second time I went to Great Britain, I figured out a way to make it
make sense... instead of thinking left/right, I thought passenger-side/
driver-side.  Train reflexes to think that way, and switching sides
doesn't make as much difference.  What made me figure it out was a
"panic situation" where I dove for the wrong side and almost made it
worse!  Fortunately it was a low-speed area, and the other driver was
alert, but I think I may have taken a few years off her life... ;/  At
that point I decided that what I needed to think in such situations was
to dive for the Passenger Side, not left/right...  (G)  The only thing
that took a bit longer to re-train when I came back home was which side
of the road to be expecting the closer on-coming traffic... and that
didn't take TOO long...  ;)

 CS> Yup!  Now that lady who never adapted?  She'd never have gone back
 CS> after an incident like that.  In fact, I heard tell of a wandering
 CS> rumor of this lady and the horrid vat lady.  I suspect it was the
 CS> gaijin.  By the time i heard of it, it was a hilarious tale told by
 CS> those who were not mono-cultural, laughing at her for being such an
 CS> idiot about something new and missing out. 

It could have been her, or someone else just like her.  It's funny and
sad, all at the same time... if only they knew what they were missing
out on...

 CS> I jut realized, you also don't know about Elise.  She's a friend now
 CS> living in Singapore, lucky dog!  Elise is german married to a sailor

I knew about her... and your care packages back and forth... :)

 CS> Want keystone kops almost again?  I met her at the commisary, while
 CS> she got her first load.  One of her kids took spanish.  The other took
 CS> latin.  I'd taken 2 years of german many years back in HS.  We had a 3
 CS> way translation going on where I'd remember a word in spanish or a
 CS> latin one and we'd translate to Elise via the kids while Charlotte gave
 CS> the Japanese names for stuff (or i did, depended on the item).  Over
 CS> time we developed our own sort of lingo as i recalled more German.  She
 CS> got a german Japanese dictionary.  (we never bothered with an English
 CS> german one). 

Conversing in multiple languages while only knowing a smattering in
common can be great fun... gestures make up a large part of it, too.. :)

 CS> It was funny at least in part because out in town, everyone would look
 CS> and assume she spoke english but she didnt for a time (learned fast
 CS> though) but she'd whip through her german-japanese book and get by.

Most of the white round-eyes they saw were English-speakers, of course..

 CS> (BTW, above I'd taken Latin, German, and 2 years of Spanish in HS).

(I've got Latin, French and a bit of German from school, and smatters of
Spanish from trying to talk with my Cuban friends.)

 CS> Back to our stall lady
    (snip)
 CS> In this case, she knew the english, but the faster communication was
 CS> used as she knew i knew it.

That works, too.  :)

... Not for troglodytes to whom a mall pretzel with mustard is radical.

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