The utility of English
Yesterday, I was sitting in the Hvileområde (Quiet Waiting Area) of the Copenhagen airport. While I was sitting there, a couple in their 60s came in and sat down in the comfy chairs. After about five minutes, a man a few seats down from them began chatting into his cell phone. The man in the couple said loudly "Turn it off!" (This is one of the few areas in the Danish airport where cell phone use is forbidden.) "Turn it off!" he said again, this time with a bit more volume. No go. So he got up and walked over to the chatting man, and snapped his fingers in his face. "TURN IT OFF! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO USE THOSE HERE!" Then the gentlemen had a few words with each other, although I couldn't make out exactly what they said. When the initial annoyed man returned to his seat, he turned toward Cell Phone Guy and said, quite clearly, "GO F**K YOURSELF!" The offender replied equally snippily with "I DIDN'T KNOW, STUPID."
Isn't that simply beautiful? Two people—total strangers, in fact—making themselves understood to one another. English is such a useful language.
posted by Sasquatch at
4:15 PM
3 Comments:
That reminds me of a hilarious "debate" I heard once in Prague, on the relative merits of a number of national hockey teams. (The World Cup was taking place there that week.) I got to hear a lot of accented English variations on "you suck" and "we are the best."
Of course, the best part of that week was the enormous roving band of painted Scandanavians, kicking back little bottles of Jagermeister and chanting, "We are yellow! We are blue! We are Sweden! F@#k you!"
By
Merujo, at 1/18/2006 11:36 PM
The Swedes chanted the same thing as they went marauding around Albertville during the 1992 Olympics. You gotta love that kind of consistency.
By
Sasquatch, at 1/19/2006 12:10 AM
Maybe it was the same guys! This was either 1991 or 1992, when Heather and I were in Prague, en route to Cairo.
By
Merujo, at 1/19/2006 5:32 PM
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