Adventures in Enrgrish

Saigon is a busy city roaring with motorbikes (as Debra eloquently described) and it's full of people who are waiting the please the ample supply of tourists who float through. There is one problem...other languages are not the forte of population here.

Enter Debra and Colby on Friday evening July 18th. We get to a hotel and have just had an exciting encounter with a cabbie. He yelled, we had not clue why, he couldn't make change (which is by the way illegal in NYC), he yelled some more, we finally got him the smaller bills he needed and he drove 0ff. Hmmmph. As we enter the hotel we are warmly greeted by a small young man who is serving as the receptionist. The only problem, he speaks only Vietnamese...and has no inkling of the English language at all. I watched as Debra tried to explain what we wanted. I then stepped in to see if I could help. No luck. As the commotion grew the other two young men in the hotel lobby (meaning the 12 by 7 space right off of the street) and we all tried to decifer what the others were saying. This, inlcuding showing us the room and us trying to convince them that we wanted it took the better part of the an hour. They only realized the we were pleased with the room when Debra gave them two thumbs up. Knowing Asians however I may have expected a peace sign...I guess that's only in photos.

I must also write that at the time of blog writing, Debra was in the process again with our receptionist friend and once the conversing ended she managed a high five from him. Victory! They had communicated using only the language of primates.

As we went along our way today exploring we had many encounters with the language of "Engrish" there is a website (www.engrish.com) feel free to brouse it and understand what we truly mean here. It's pretty incredible that a country so thrilled with tourism can't get a better translator (unless it's the commies, they won't hire one!)

Watch for more adventures in the coming days. Thumbs up, high fives, and peace signs are all part of our preferred means of communication. It is ensured that our universal sign language will catch on. Until then? High Five!