Never let it be said that I never have a good day in my life! I can use this blog educationally too.
Stood in a number ticket queue at the bank. It was 10am and they had only just opened. Despite a lot of people wanting to do their banking business, they only opened one till. Fine. I have seen that sort of "customer service" back home. Where they do not charge money to pay a bill, but whatevers.
A lady was doing the rounds to see if she could "triage" us off to the automated processes. She got to me when I was next in the queue because she disappeared into the office for most of the time I was waiting.
She said, in Danish of course, "Oh I notice you want to pay in a cheque..."
And I thought in fairness to her, if she is going to launch into it, then she needs to know to keep the language simple. If she is going to teach me how to put in a cheque in the machines, she cannot go too fast so I say quite sweetly...
"Oh men jeg er udlænder så jeg kan ikke forstå at... bruge.... automat..." but she had me at "udlænder" and has turned around. Of course, "udlander" is a dirty word and even though I was speaking to her in Danish, she has decided it is not worth even trying to explain if I am going to go around being foreign. Fuck me, basically.
You are supposed to say "indvandrer" or even better "englaender".
Good luck, udlænders!
*for the kiddies at the back I said in bad Danish "Oh but I'm from abroad so I can't understand how to use the machine..." but of course the word "foreigner" has been hijacked by the National Front "they're REALLY not that powerful here! Really! It's just old people that vote for them!" Danish People's Party to mean "evil sponge on the welfare state who will bomb you soon as look at you"
Pilipinas kong Mutya
2 hours ago
3 comments:
*sigh* It's bad enough when the Danes do that to us, but then to have certain other 'udlænders' tell us that 'oh, that never happened to me therefore it doesn't ever happen at all' makes me just as mad. Not that I wish this to happen to everyone, but until I found out from other expats that they've had this behavior as well, I honestly thought it was me who was doing it all wrong. I can now put it in its proper perspective and know it's a cultural trait among many Danes. And can so ignore it and go on my merry way . . . take that, rude Danes! :p
She was probably having a bad day LOL!
Last thing she needed was one of them there udlænders to test her ears on.
Remember, there are several types of international here. The ones at the top say they are at the top because they are not refugees.
But really thinking about it, we are all the same. None of us can speak Danish properly.
Hey, are you passing through London at all this Christmas? Has been too long since I saw you and I feel bad for missing you last time. Kx
Post a Comment
You found it! I have NO idea why my comment section is so hard to find. One of these days I will just switch over to wordpress and have done with it.
Make yourself at home, innit.