I doubt that using German with the panhandlers in Germany has the same effect. I suppose you could try your best "Clueless American" impersonation. ("Where is the train station? And these streets are so confusing! Here I am at the intersection of Einbahnstraße and, um, Einbahnstraße? And where is that on this map?") Spanish would probably work. I didn't want to try Spanish here because of the significant chance of the beggar speaking Spanish much better than I can, which would defeat the purpose, which was, after all, to fail to communicate.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-12-30 02:23 pm (UTC)I doubt that using German with the panhandlers in Germany has the same effect. I suppose you could try your best "Clueless American" impersonation. ("Where is the train station? And these streets are so confusing! Here I am at the intersection of Einbahnstraße and, um, Einbahnstraße? And where is that on this map?") Spanish would probably work. I didn't want to try Spanish here because of the significant chance of the beggar speaking Spanish much better than I can, which would defeat the purpose, which was, after all, to fail to communicate.