Communication?

[beige_alert]

They tell us that studying languages can help us communicate with our fellow humans. Sure, but sometimes you don’t want to communicate. Do you really want to communicate with that panhandler asking for “spare change?” I don’t, but I tend to get sucked into lengthy discussions with them. Sometimes I’m just to polite to tell them to buzz off. I tried a different approach today on the streets of Milwaukee. The encounter went something like this:

Begger: Excuse me....
Me: Guten Tag!
I don’t mean to be any harm I’m just looking for some change to...
Wie geht es Ihnen?
Huh?
Wie geht es Ihnen?
Uh......
Wie bitte?
Um.......

At this point, I had successfully achieved my goal, which, you’ll recall, was to fail to communicate, but to do so in a creative manner.

I suppose it’s unnecessarily cruel to cheerfully speak to someone who probably has mental health issues to begin with in a language I chose to use specifically because I doubted he had any knowledge of it, but it was way more entertaining than these encounters usually are.

Comments

[lisande.livejournal.com]

:rofl: That reminds me of my way to handle them - I usually offer to tell them the address and opening hours of the social welfare office (were I'm working).

[legoline.livejournal.com]

Heh - I knew German was useful for SOMETHNG! :p

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

My father told a story about someone he knew, decades ago, who encountered a bunch of toughs who went into a schpiel about how they needed him to give them money for some reason, with the implication that they would beat it out of him if he didn't give it. My father's acquaintance just said "Ich spreche kein Englisch" and kept walking, and he got away.

[aryana-filker.livejournal.com]

*rofl*

[lisande.livejournal.com]

By the way - there's a funny story about a colleague of me, who worked in the asylum department of the social welfare office were those foreigners whose demand for asyl isn't deicded yet get money. And there was a couple of Croatians who were not happy with her decision and started to insult her in Croatian, feeling safe... What they didn't know was that my colleague is half Polish and half Croatian... *ggg*