Thursday, April 24, 2008
No vacation from speaking Mongolian
Today I rode my bike up to Marshalls with my mom to pick up some new clothes. I had tons of stuff to try on and I went into the dressing room. I was trying on a shirt when I realized that the 2 ladies next to me were speaking Mongolian. At first, it didn't register because it seemed normal. Then I remembered that I was on the north side of Chicago. I walked out, looked at one of the ladies and said "Ta mongoloor yirdig uu?" (Do you speak Mongolian). She looked at me blankly and called to her friend saying in Mongolian "I can't understand this persons English, can you come and help me." I looked at her and said "yassen ve?" (what?) and then it hit her, I wasn't speaking English, I was in fact speaking Mongolian. Both women were in shock. To be honest, so was I . We chatted and made some plans. It was so random and bizarre.
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6 comments:
Kudos to you for this really interesting blog. I think I've gone through all the posts...it's great to see so many more "foreigners" learning our language and culture and embracing it. Makes us more conscious of what we have.
Hey anonymous: I'm glad you like it! Keep reading and commenting!
HAHA! hilarious! She must have been so bad listener! You're not in Mongolia anymore? :(
Natso, I'm back in Mongolia now. That was just a short trip home!
Hah, I've had a few of these moments (I'm ex-PCorpsMNG from the north side of Chi as well). Its hilarious.
Did you know they sell Chinggis vodka around here?
Hey Nomad,
We haven't met each other but we exchanged emails before you went to MGL~ Small world. The Northside of Chicago is full of Mongolians! I didn't know you could buy Chingis in the States. I do know that APU doesn't export. So if there is Chingis vodka to be found, someone is shipping to the US in a container or something...
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