How many languages does it take to buy cheese?

-
My last day in Switzerland finally arrived. But instead of relaxing in the morning before I went to the airport, I was doing what typical Filipinos do when they're out-of-town: pasalubong shopping. I had already purchased macarons and chocolate. The last item on my list was Val's special request: cheese. As per the advice of one of the shopkeepers, I proceeded to Globus, a hypermarket in Lausanne. After a quick tour around, I couldn't find the cheese. So I looked for someone who could speak in English. 


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a grocer who spoke English at that time. I did find, however, find a guy who carved ham for customers to taste. After tasting the ham he offered (which I don't think is jamon iberico... must be from some other breed of pig), I attempted to ask where the cheese was. And at that point, I realised that I could barely speak other languages aside from French. Here's how our conversation went (where was my Lonely Planet French phrasebook when I wanted to use it?!?):

Rochie: Parlez-vous Anglais?
Grocery staff: No. Parlez-vous Español? Italiano?
Rochie: Je parle peu Español et Italiano. 
Grocery staff: Si!
Rochie (switching languages): Dove e il formaggio?

And the ham grocer danced his way, guiding me towards the cheese stall. Thank goodness for the cable networks! I wouldn't know how to ask about cheese (in Italian) if it weren't for that cooking show in the Italian channel. 

I really have to learn another language, earnestly.
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more