Many people travel to countries where they don’t know the language. Prior to my trip to Italy I had traveled to England, France, Mexico, and Japan. In middle school and high school I had taken some Spanish, French, and Japanese classes, so I didn’t feel that lost language-wise when traveling to those countries. So Italy was a first for me, not knowing any of the language.
After a long day of traveling, our group stopped into a roadside shop. It was like a mini-grocery market combined with a restaurant and a chocolate shop. I was tired and decided to buy some chocolate. They had it behind a glass counter, so I had to order with the man behind the counter.
He spoke in Italian to me, and I went deer in the headlights. I pointed at what I wanted, and he spoke again. My mind in its blank state realized it was a foreign language and so switched to the foreign language I know the best. He pointed to what I wanted and I answered “Hai”, Japanese for “Yes”, but sounds like “Hi”.
He looked at me like I was a stupid tourist. He said something again and I just nodded saying again “Hai”. He sighed and was like “American right? Is this the chocolate you want?” That is when I realized I was speaking Japanese, and hadn’t even bothered checking to see if he spoke English. I felt like an idiot. But at least I got some delicious Italian chocolate!
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
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