When watching a movie/T.V. show that has someone in America who doesn't speak English except to say "yes" and "thank you", it seems they always nod or say "yes" even if it isn't a yes or no question. And I always wondered well, why the hell would they do that? You don't want to agree to everything, especially if you don't know what you are agreeing to.
I realized today that I do that too, when faced with words I don't understand in a simple setting. For example, I was at the grocery store today sans husband, and I wanted to order a half kilo of ground beef. I have the order down pat in Greek in my head, and I can pronounce it semi-correctly, and even know the answer to one standard question they might ask in return. But if they say anything else, I'm screwed. So today, I order the meat, say yes to the standard reply question, and then she said something else and I just nodded and smiled. Ok, so the woman knows I don't know Greek very well (just about everyone in this village does), and in the end I got my order with no problems, but I still have to wonder just what the hell she said. Maybe she took the opportunity to insult me with a smile, and I just smiled back and nodded like some kind of jerk.
I really need to get a bigger vocabulary...
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