Friday, September 29, 2006

Bilingual? Me? Mochirun!

One little detail I forgot to add yesterday. While at the Japanese-staffed Japanese restaurant with Paul, Kasumi, Juliette and Ashley on wednesday, conversation naturally turned to Japan and Kasumi and I exchanged a very few words in Japanese. And then it came to pay the bill and someone asked what it was in Japanese. Juliette said, "okanjo onegaishimasu" and Paul asked if you could just cross your arms in an x-sign to ask for it. This actually means, "dame!" which is "no!", so I demonstrated the correct finger-x sign for the bill and then called the waiter over with a hearty, "sumimasen". And when the waiter came over what did I do?

Say, "Okanjo onegaishimasu?"
Make the finger-x and say "onegaishimasu?"

No.

I said, "sumimasen, bill please."

D'oh.

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