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Language Difficulties

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Hopkirk | 13:47 Mon 04th Jul 2022 | ChatterBank
36 Answers
Have you had difficulty communicating while overseas?

I struggled at a McDonald's in the US
After placing my order the staff member rapidly said what sounded like "izitagaw". I said pardon a couple of times and she kept saying "izitagaw".

Eventually I said "I'm sorry, I don't understand"

"Is ... it ... to ... go?" She asked.

In my strongest Queen's English accent I replied "Oh, a takeaway, yes please"
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I remember I had a similar problem in Glasgow. That time the question asked sounded like "kerryoot?"
Kerryoot is a real phrase!

Try going up north to Aberdeenshire - they speak another language. A totally bizarre language.
You're lucky they're pre-wrapped.
Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire are both odd Full of Ken's quinies and loons :))
Kerry-oot is normal, it just means "carry-out".
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Mind you, I got the impression that for many Glaswegians a "kerryoot" is a six pack.
Popped into a Spar shop on the outskirts of Newcastle on Saturday to ask directions and could for all the world have been replied to in a Mongolian dialect lost to the mists of time for all I could pick up.
I like the odd drink ;-) I can honestly say I've never seen a six pack in the UK.
The Head Girl only allows alcohol-free in six packs, I believe it's in case we become so inebriated that we fall prey to some of the weirdos she surrounds herself with.
As Wolf says if you want to struggle to try and understand someone try Buchan, Peterhead and Cruden Bay!
There you need a mouth like the ass end of a buckie driffter to be understood - but as long as you have a capie for your scaffies you will be fine!
I had a misunderstanding, also with an American. During my RAF career I was sent to Christmas Island in the Pacific while the Americans tested their atomic weapons there. Because there was a sudden influx of them, facilities had to be shared. One morning while I was shaving, an American Marine mentioned that his tap didn't work. I said it's probably U S. I was immediately seized and his knife was at my throat. Are you saying it doesn't work because it's American? he said. I hurriedly explained that in the RAF if something doesn't work it's referred to as being US meaning it was Un- Serviceable. He begrudgingly accepted my explanation and released me. These Marines are very touchy.:o)
Yes.
I was in a big store in Kyiv one time looking for toothpaste - I was damned if I could remember the Russian for it and everything was in locked cabinets behind the counter.
In the end I was reduced to miming
Noo quine jist whit's wrang wi' the Aiberdeenshire accent. Fair foonert i day.
An Aberdonian is in a shoe shop and the assistant hands him a pair of shoes. Puzzled, the customer asks: Fit, fit, fits on fit fit?

To which the assistant says At een on at een, an at een on at een!

Perfectly understandable!!
And thus began Col-Gate.
Maggie, my mother and grandmother were from Cruden bay.
It always amazed me when people asked me what my mother was saying - or hasn't your mother got a strong accent!
I never heard it and never had an issue understanding it!
Aye you canna beat a cappie on a braw day
Redhelen - my husband came from New Pits ligo near the Broch. One of the fist times I visited, I offered to do my future mother-in-law's shopping. Well I had to go to the bakers and get six softies, six butteries and two packets of hardies. Thought she was having me on!
Remember this chap.
Remember that one Spicey. Interviewer kept trying to get him to slow down without success. I can understand most Scottish accents but some of the English ones are difficult for me. Really need to tune in.
Bill Bryson 'in a Glasgow pub' made I laugh.
I was going to test the Scottish ABers on it but seems he just made the words up.
'Hae ya nae hook ma dooky?'
'D'ye nae hae in May? If ye dinnae dock ma donny.' Anyone?

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