Last night, I met up with some of the women I used to work with and saw a cruise ship -- looking more like an apartment complex than something that could stay afloat -- pull away from Pier 21. Today, I had lunch with a transplanted American friend downtown (Happy July 4th) and saw hundreds of tourists wandering along the harbour boardwalk. It brought to mind an incident at my bank last year and how infuriatingly dense we can be to tourists.
A woman and her husband were standing at the teller beside me. I assume they were from New York or New Jersey (I've never been great identifying accents.)
The lady says to the teller: "I wanna dollah.
The teller says: "I can give you a loony."
"I just wanna dollah."
"I can give you a loony.
"What's the mattah with her?" the woman asks her husband. "I just wanna dollah." She turns her attention back to the teller. "I wanna papah dollah."
"I've got loonies."
At this point I want to smack the teller into last week.
I lean over and say to the woman and her husband who are, at this point, probably wondering what brand of idiot we have working at our banks and regretting their decision to spend their vacation money in Nova Scotia, and say: "I'm sorry. We no longer have paper one or two dollar bills. We call our one-dollar coins loonies because there's a loon on them and our two-dollar coins toonies because it rhymes with loony. She can give you one- or two-dollar coins."
"Well, would ya gimme coins then? I just want change for a five."
C'mon people. We WANT tourists to have a good time here so they come back and so they tell their friends how great it is here. Tourism is one of our few growth markets.
Don't expect people to know our little colloquialisms. Offer assistance. Be friendly.
That's all I'm sayin'.
Colleen
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During my first visit to Canada I ordered a hamburger "with the works." The waitress looked at me for a moment, then said, "Oh, you mean loaded." If not for the translation (if she had said, "Do you want it loaded?") I wouldn't have known what she meant.
Don't even get me started on British terminology.
Not that I have a reputation for patience, but I really could have smacked her. There seems to be people who can't fathom that everyone who speaks English doesn't speak the same English. Presumably folks who've never left their own backyards. I actually love the differences -- love to hear about them and collect them. We just need to be aware and a little more on the ball.
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