FatGiant
Conversation Conqueror
- Jan 7, 2022
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"Sprechen Nicht Deutsch" Is probably all that I "know" of German. I say I "know", because I'm not even sure if that means what I think it means, and I'm really afraid to find out, because I spent years mumbling it to so many people.
Many years ago, I lived near a rather important historical building, since there was a lack of guides, me and a couple of guys my age, saw an opportunity to make a bit of money. We looked for confused groups of tourists, tried to see if they understood one of our semi learned languages and if they did, we proposed to show them the place, being upfront (at least in my case) that we weren't guides and we weren't charging anything.
I had followed so many "official" tours that I knew the cassete back and forth. I could say it in passable English, rather good French, very bad Spanish, but no German whatsoever... LOL I used the above expression and they went back to their confused and glazed eyes look.
If you are wondering if it payed well, no, not really, but I had fun, was able to talk with some rather beautiful girls, and sometimes get some tips, that allowed to have a free movie night or a pack of cigarettes. Only rarely I got a bit more than that, mostly if there were old Americans in the group. The worst tippers were the French, LOL. Maybe because part of the tour included showing the destruction made by French soldiers during the Napoleonic Invasions. They never looked happy. Hehehe.
Sorry for this long off-topic non-sense, I am really getting old... LOL
Many years ago, I lived near a rather important historical building, since there was a lack of guides, me and a couple of guys my age, saw an opportunity to make a bit of money. We looked for confused groups of tourists, tried to see if they understood one of our semi learned languages and if they did, we proposed to show them the place, being upfront (at least in my case) that we weren't guides and we weren't charging anything.
I had followed so many "official" tours that I knew the cassete back and forth. I could say it in passable English, rather good French, very bad Spanish, but no German whatsoever... LOL I used the above expression and they went back to their confused and glazed eyes look.
If you are wondering if it payed well, no, not really, but I had fun, was able to talk with some rather beautiful girls, and sometimes get some tips, that allowed to have a free movie night or a pack of cigarettes. Only rarely I got a bit more than that, mostly if there were old Americans in the group. The worst tippers were the French, LOL. Maybe because part of the tour included showing the destruction made by French soldiers during the Napoleonic Invasions. They never looked happy. Hehehe.
Sorry for this long off-topic non-sense, I am really getting old... LOL