Over on Vivi's blog she has been writing about how speaking a new language can be an up and down thing...sometimes you do it like a native and people treat you as such, and sometimes you just can't get it together. You never know when it will go right or wrong...but it can throw you for a loop either way.
Like today? I had to run some work errands and so stopped at Burger King for a burger at lunch. (I NEVER have Burger King in the US, but here it's actually the closest thing to a good burger I can get...so I treat myself sometimes.) So I ordered my usual...a Whopper with cheese uten mayo. Uten means "without". I order this all the time, in Norwegian, and never have problems.
So HOW I got a Whopper with cheese with not only EXTRA mayo but also two packets of mayo on the side, I don't know. But I did. Only thing I can think is somehow my pronunciation of "uten" sounded like "two" which is pronounced pretty much like the English two, but a bit rounder.
I don't know. I really don't. All I know is when I took it back the guy was all like "you ordered two mayonnaise" and I'm like, no I said "uten" and he said "yes, two". DAMMIT!!!! So I'm like, "INGEN Mayonnaise!" "Ikke Mayonnaise"! " NO mayonnaise!"
It was depressing. Very depressing. And kind of gross, with all that mayo. Ick.
In my sad little defense, he was not a native Norwegian either, and so I think we both had accents that neither of us understood...which happens alot here. Norwegian is not a difficult language to learn, but it's damned hard to pronounce.
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