Embarrassing Moments in Travel
As a 19-year-old Canadian gal who had never been on a plane or train in my
life, I had somehow been given a student exchange trip to Germany. Having
been unceremoniously deposited in Frankfurt, and having only one semester
of the German language, I was still advanced compared to the girls I was
socializing with the night before we were to travel to our respective jobs.
As we strolled through the city, we suddenly realized we had lost our way
and were becoming a bit nervous. We were in a residential area but finally
came across a gas station where we could go in and ask for directions.
Being the pre-eminent scholar of the group, (one semester) I approached the
attendant with confidence. Though I had forgotten the word for lost, I
thought I would manage by saying, Wir wissen nicht wer wir sind,
i.e., we don't know where we are. What I actually said to the attendant
was: "WE DON'T KNOW WHO WE ARE" Is it my fault that in German, wer
means who and wo means where? I mean, is it my fault that wer
sounds like where, right? The attendant looked at us like we had just
arrived from another planet and, although it's been over 30 years, I
haven't forgotten the embarrassment.
Secondly, on the same trip, I went into a German restaurant for breakfast
and, loving my eggs, I ordered zwei eis. I added an "s" like we do
in English to make something plural and I knew that an egg was ei.
They came with two dishes of ice cream and a cherry on top. A person with
one semester of German doesn't necessarily remember that ei is egg
and eis is ice cream. I naturally pretended that I always eat two
dishes of ice cream for breakfast and I'm sure they put it down to some
Canadian peculiarity! (or American as they probably assumed I was).
Wilma
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