Wednesday, April 29, 2009

This one day....so much to say.

Teacher Mommy tagged me for a meme, which I am right up for, but I have so much to say right now....so it is going to wait for just a little bit.

There is a man here in the village who we have dubbed, with great originality, "The rudest man in the village" because he is so far. I don't honestly know what he is like, but on the surface, he is simply amazing.

I must see the man 3 or 4 times every single freaking day. It is the way our life works, our paths cross and re-cross. His kid goes to the same school as youngest and he must live over near where I work.

He has never, once, looked me in the eye or said hello, well, hola. He muttered something once after I was past him when he saw me coming out of the hills with a big fat fistful of asparagus. I muttered something that sounded suspiciously like f*ck you.

You have to understand just how small a town it is. We see the same people over and over and over again. You say hello to EVERYONE. You say hello every single time you go into a store, and good bye. To everyone. You say hello to the vast majority of the parents at the school when you pick up your kid, and if you catch someone's eye on the street, you had better d*mn well say hello. I spend a serious amount of time saying hello.

Not this guy. Not with me.

Oh my.

I was talking to my best friend here (BFH) about it, wondering if he just wishes these freaky foreigners would stay out of his village/province/country, if he was just an astonishing jerk or, as my friend kindly offered, he is just shy.

That is some level of shy, let me tell you.

Then we were at a local opening, for a little museum in town, and they had put up a lovely new plaque explaining all about it in Catalan, Castillian, Braille and English. I cannot attest to the Catalan and Castillian, though I imagine it was very correct. Nor can I attest to the braille, other than to say it was bumpy.
- as an aside here, how is the blind person to find the sign anyway?

The English though....was really bad.

A shame.
WHY WHY WHY didn't they ask us to look it over, you may ask?

Guess who runs that museum.

My man (to differentiate him from the rudest man) went over and diplomatically pointed out that we would be quite willing to help and please don't put up anymore signs without a native speaker looking them over. Yee gads. He even -diplomatically I thought- mentioned how difficult it is to get just the right words in just the right tone in a foreign language; though the problems with this sign runs deeper than that.

Turns out they were translated by the wife of the rudest guy's closest buddy. Seems she is an English teacher.

I dread to think.

8 comments:

kate said...

Oops. Oh well. So, how old is the rude guy? I was picturing an old man, for some reason, but now I'm thinking not so much.

J.G. said...

C'mon, you've got to tell us what the plaque said! Having mangled a few sentences myself, I always enjoy the humorous mistakes of others.

As for the rudeness, who knows? But sometimes extra-obvious, passive-agressive niceness works wonders. :-)

Teacher Mommy said...

I'm looking forward to the meme, but in the meantime, I REALLY want to see that Engrish! If it's as bad as it sounds, maybe you should submit it to Engrish.com so others can be amazed too...

Beth said...

I definitely vote that you post the funny English translation. It's always so entertaining- especially coming from a supposed "English teacher"!

As for the Rude Dude... I guess you can't please everyone. Isn't that how the saying goes? Trite, but true.

Beth said...

I definitely vote that you post the funny English translation. It's always so entertaining- especially coming from a supposed "English teacher"!

As for the Rude Dude... I guess you can't please everyone. Isn't that how the saying goes? Trite, but true.

Boo and Trev said...

Maybe the bloke has Asperger's or something. (No eye contact? Works in a museum)

hooray said...

I think typically that people who are rude have something going on in their own lives that cause them to act that way. It's too bad I think it results in missing out on the joy of knowing and being known. But some people get stuck and as Dr. Seuss says, getting unstuck is not easily done.

oreneta said...

Kate, rude guy is probably late thirties, early fourties. They at least know that we have no idea who did the work so it isn't personal.

J.G. I tried passive agressive niceness, you would not believe the number of times I said hello to the man only to be snubbed. Then I tried just staring at him, my own little mind game. Now I just pretend he doesn't exist, between bouts of stunned amazement.

One great phrase is, "the ovens were placed in a battery" They mean that they were grouped together, and battery can work that way, but it is an extremely odd use of the word.....she did a literal translation and it is almost meaningless. It is not normally a good idea to place your oven in a battery, not your batteries in an oven for that matter.

teacher mommy, I will go take a photo and have a look at what I can get.

Beth, how true is that one, I was pointing it out to my disgruntled kids this evening.

Boo and Trev, that's a thought....

She, You are so much nicer than me. I just think he is a big fat jerk. That said, you could also well be absolutely right. He is still pretty darned rude though.