Today two french ladies came in to eat lunch. They were both in their late twenties and seemed pleasant enough. The first lady ordered a salad and the second one ordered a burger. After the second one ordered her burger the following conversation happened:
Her: Lattice on zee sied
Me: Huh?
Her: Lattice on zee sied (slightly annoyed)
Me: Lattice?
Her: Lattice on zee sied (getting more annoyed and using a firmer voice)
Me: Lattice? on the side? (saying it to myself in an attempt to figure out what she is saying)
Her: green lattice… on zee sied
Me: OH…. lettuce. You want the lettuce from your burger on the side?
Her: Huh?
Me: Do you want the lettuce that normally comes on your burger on the side?
Her: No, No, No. I want a sied of lattice.
Me: You want lettuce on a plate on the side? And the burger the way it comes?
Her: Yes.
Me: So… just some lettuce on a plate?
Her: Saleeed
Me: OH… You want a side salad?
Her: YEEEES
Me: We don’t have side salads
Her: You have no side saleeeed
Me: No, we have no side saleeeed
Her: (looking pissed) OK, then jest the burger.
I repeated the story to my neo-nazi co-worker and we both laughed. I was surprised when these ladies tipped me 20%.
Ooooooooooo I love your blog. I work in France and some of them think I’m very stupid when they don’t understand me (I’m Dutch). The times I heard ’speak french please’ in a very unpleasant way are countless…