testmeat photoblog

in july i went on two little trips to poland and switzerland, during the course of which i spoke a combination of english, polish, german, french and spanish. that looks impressive on paper but trust me when i say that the english was the only language that came out right - and even then an american-sounding-english-speaking pole said she struggled to understand my british accent. so i used english throughout, polish in poland, german in the north of switzerland and french in the south. so how about the spanish? well the day before i took a train up to this mountain i was staying in a campsite in lausanne. i needed some supplies and while i was looking around the local store the shop assistant asked if i needed any help. only she asked it in french, which i didn't understand, so i looked (more) confused and replied "anglais?". she looked and acted decidedly unimpressed and stubbornly responded "non!". as spanish is the only foreign language i'm somewhat conversant with i thought i'd follow up with "espanol?". her face and attitude instantly changed and we preceded to have a perfectly pleasant conversation in spanish. it's a little surprising that a french-speaking swiss person who works in a tourist campsite would be fluent in spanish yet not know any english, but i'm not so much of a dick to play the you should learn to speak english! card.

here's the original