Cross-Cultural Miscommunication

Anytime one is a foreigner dwelling in a foreign land, one is bound to encounter miscommunications (see Blog, supra). Whether based on diverse languages or customs, they can either be disastrous or hilarious. I've attempted to compile some of my favorites here.

1. In a winery, my father, after having guzzled instead of tasted about 5 or 6 glasses of wine, attempted to ask the bilingual winery employee the following question in Spanish: "Where is your family from?" However my father, who is unable to speak a complete sentence in Spanish without also throwing in French, Italian, Russian and/or German actually asked:

"From where are your genitals.?"

2. Greg and I spent several days aghast after hearing from our English friends that kids in England like to eat "jelly and ice cream" together. Blech!!!!! Several days later we learned that "jelly" in England means "Jello." They assured us that English children do not eat "jam and ice cream" together.

3. A waitress, in response to my father's attempts to put Spanish, Italian, Russian and French all in one sentence: "El habla castellano, pero no entiendo." (He speaks Spanish, but I do not understand him).

Check back at this entry for continued updates!

Curious George

As some of you may already know, my father, George, arrived in Buenos Aires December 2 for an 11-day stay. Armed with six weeks' worth of Spanish and a healthy curiosity for all things Argentine, he hit the streets.

We identified a few of his favorite things:





THE FOOD


















THE WINE









THE LADIES











But that's not all. He also loved the coffee. However, in that regard, we had a few logistical problems.













Before we go on, I think I need to dish some more background on coffee in Argentina.

As discussed below, you will quickly run into problems if you order your cafe before or during the meal. Coffee is for after meals, no exceptions (see Discussion re Coffee, supra). Unfortunately, George's first coffee of the day usually coincided with a meal time (lunch). As a result, our first obstacle was to find a way to order coffee BEFORE/DURING lunch without provoking an international incident.

After several strategy sessions, we decided that deception was our best option. The plan was to go in pretending that we were only interested having coffee and/or pastries (it is perfectly acceptable to wander into a restaurant or cafe to have coffee and pastries at any time of the day). Once we were seated and the coffee was on its way, we would "suddenly" decide that we were very hungry and order food.

Success! Although they would raise an eyebrow or two when George would order his second or third cup during the meal, we averted an all-out crisis.

However, as one coffee conundrum concluded, another commenced.












"How do I get a LARGE cup of coffee?"

This was more or less a trick question because, as we learned, there is no such thing as a large cup of coffee in Argentina. Unfortunately, the espresso-sized "cafe" that the Argentinos drink was not at all sufficient for George. He likes more volume, in all things, especially coffee.

However, no task was too great for the intrepid team. After some discrete investigating, we discovered that you can order a "doble" (see photo) and get coffee in a medium-sized cup.















FANTASTICO!

The only problem was that after two or three of this highly-concetrated, diesel-fuel dobles, George felt a little weak in the knees.















On several occasions he complained of light-headedness and dizziness after throwing back multiple dobles. Shortly thereafter we limited his intake to only one doble per day.

However, all in all, the trip was a success. George LOVED Argentina and can't wait to come back!