----Original Message Follows---- From: <mtiller at ntlworld.com> To: Steve Brust <skzb at dreamcafe.com>,Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> CC: Dragaera List <dragaera at dragaera.info> Subject: American tourists was - A Linguistic Note Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:39:10 +0000 > From: Steve Brust <skzb at dreamcafe.com> > Date: 2004/12/14 Tue PM 08:01:23 GMT > I have long believed that the one phrase an American needs >to learn when > visiting a foreign country is, "I do not >speak your language. I am Canadian." > A True Story. I met an American guy in Paris who was teaching English to French Air Traffic contollers. He was walking down the streets when he was stopped by an elderly American couple who asked him for directions. Afterwards they politely thanked him, and as he walked away, he heard the husband say to the wife "See Martha, I told you they could speak perfectly good english if they wanted to." HE told me he had never been so embarassed to be American. ----------------------------------------- Email provided by http://www.ntlhome.com/ I have always made it a point to dress like a local when I travel, but occasionally it backfires on me. While wandering outside of the tourist section of Rome, I was approached by an Italian, and he asked ME for directions! Jeff G