Re: CHAT: A pretty bad language joke :]

En réponse à Frank George Valoczy <valoczy@...>:

>
> I have a funny story...I went into a cafe the first time I was in Paris,
> in 1995 (well, maybe second time; I was two months away from being born
> there!). I asked what is a croque monsieur, and the man there told me to
> leave...
What a strange reaction! I know that in Paris, cafés are quite unwelcoming with
foreigners, but I wouldn't have thought of such a reaction! After all, most of
their income comes from tourists... Well, even for people from the province like
me, they are not very nice, so...

then I went to another place, where they were nice and told me
> what it is, and I had three, and afterwards I had a big argument with
> the
> waiter, I left him 10 francs for pourboire and he yells at me, you
> forgot
> your money, and I said, no that's for you, he said, but you already
> paid,
> I said, yes I know, that's a pourboire, and he didn't seem to
> understand,
> he kept trying to give it back, until I decided, enough of this and left
> the cafe and the money there...
>
In some cafés, waiters are forbidden to get pourboires, because service is
already included in the price you paid. I suppose he didn't want you to give
your money for nothing. Did you speak French? With an accent? Parisians seem to
expect that everyone speak French without any accent (they don't understand that
they are the ones with an accent :) ), and if you speak with an accent they get
very annoyed easily. Don't ask me why, I never understood how a Parisian mind
works...

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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