Just speak english will ya?

 Yesterday, I was in the check out line at the local Hardware/Garden store. We still have Covid plexi at checkout ( the same in the US? ) …The man in front of me had a big green garbage can. The cashier told him to come through as you can’t get it on the conveyer to be scanned by the cashier…the plexi walls won’t allow. You have to go through and then push the bar code in the direction of the cashier where the plexi is open.  ( Can we place take to plexi down now?)The man goes though and goes to pay.He was in his 50’s, kind of good looking. He looked like he spent a lot of time outside.

He was dressed in khaki pants and green polo shirt. That should have been a clue and no one dresses like that here.   He was having problems paying with his credit card.. Right away, I could tell he was an “etranger” as the french would call a non french. The cashier tried to help him and he was looking at her with a bit of fearful  inquisitiveness…huh? He tried again and it went through…

( as a side, here , now, you are asked if you want a printed out receipt, the usual itemized receipt beside the credit card receipt…saving paper???? Also, in most places, you do your own CC transacting . They have the little machines at the end of the counter and you put your own card in…The cashiers no longer are involved in that except for clothing stores where they take your card …and while I am on this subject…the french call credit cards in general “carte bleu! No matter the card or the color, they are called carte bleu….)

So the woman asks him if he wanted the print out…huh? He mumbled something then said Yes…huh? Then he said "Thank you"!

He was wrestling with the garbage can and I couldn’t help myself and said ,  Why don’t you say “Merci”?  He looked up at me expecting I was speaking to him in french..his cloudy brain cleared for a minute and he understood I was speaking english. He said, “I’m trying to teach these people some english. He sounded annoyed. Then he said his (french) vocabulary was not good. I said…well at least you know how to say Merci…and he mumbled something and left to get into his white mini cooper and drove away. 

If I had to imagine his story, I think he was some kind of worker for a wealthy person, perhaps a grounds person imported just for the season.I would guess that this is the first time he had been here and was finding it difficult to maneuver. For him, doing the simplest thing required language skills and he was just angry about it in all directions…He is not going to speak french if he can help it…those damned french will bend to him…on top of that, he has to wear this outfit AND he has to drive the daughter’s white Mini Cooper to do anything…He is in the south of france and life is not as he thought it would be….