I went to my travel agency last night (after work) to finalize my planned vacation next month. As expected, the inevitable happened (read: language barrier). At first, i never thought it as something to hinder the transaction because I was hoping to talk with the same girl (let's call her 'Girl 1'), who entertained my queries last week. But when my number was called, 'Girl 2' gestured me to approach her desk, who obviously was not the girl I hoped to transact with. I started to worry --- Will 'Girl 2' be able to understand me? Considering that I arrived there a few minutes after 8pm, will we able to finish before they close at 8:30pm?
Instead of giving her my name, as an introduction, I said 'Ego dake' (English only) -- as a precaution.
Lucky for me, they kept my files from last week (when i went there to inquire and make reservation). What a relief! Somewhere in the files must be a note about my inability to speak Nihonggo =P
Well, thanks to Babel fish. 'Girl 2', having limited English, used it (she must have gotten the clever idea from 'Girl 1'). Our oral communication was limited to basics like, thank you, please...and its Nihonggo counterpart. The rest was made possible by babelfish. She would type the words and after clicking 'translate', turn the monitor in my direction to let me see the English translation.
I must say, it's good to live in this era. The perks of technology are awesome.
6 comments:
Thats really cool. Thank god for Bablefish! lol. Where are you jetsetting off to? I'm so ready to get out of here....
thanks to technology! :D
bluejazz is in Davao :) thanks! i'm feeling better now :)
That's really funny, actually. Thank goodness she knew babelfish exists.
oooh that's great you have such thing as babelfish! i learned something from you haha. when i get to japan, i'll wear a shirt with a big ego dake printed on it!
language barrier. sometimes i hate it for making me feel so illiterate. :)
where in japan are you currently based? :)
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