Heh. . . oops.

I am a big fan of languages.  They're basically a huge game to me.  'Gotta catch them all' type complex.  Especially Japanese with all the kanji.  Love.  Even if its a few phrases, greetings, pick-up line, you know, whatever.  Its not to often that I get to use many of them (except Spanish of course).  Well, I had a couple dumb moments last night that I thought were pretty funny.

The bar I work at is pretty close to a deaf school. . . hearing impaired school?. . . you know I mean.  Well, from time to time we get patrons who only communicate thru sign or writing.  Last night one came in and asked for a pen.  Well, I got excited and started signing to him asking him what he wanted.  Granted I've never actually taken a class or anything, but the language fascinates me seeing as its like interpretive dance talking. . . with your hands!  Here's the first funny part.: after learning the sign for 'bottle' I go over to a bartender and let him know,
"When you have a chance, the deaf guy wants a BudLite bottle."
"Which one?"
"The deaf one. . . oh, the guy in the white shirt. . ."

Yeah, as if he was wearing a sign or something.  Oh man.  Not only that, a little later he was asking me if a guy was straight or not.  Well, I got confused because I forgot the sign for 'straight' which is rather close to the sign for 'bitch'.  Yeah. . . Hah!  Hilarity ensues.  It was a good night.  Also learned the sign for 'drunk'.  Its fun people watching with someone who uses a different language than everyone else.

Maybe I'm just used to Americans, but I find that, not always, but being able to speak in someone's language is taken for granted.  My experience in Japan this isn't true, generally any Japanese you'd try to use was warmly received and usually with a lot of excitement.  Here though. . . I find if you can't communicate in Spanish well. . . that's a whole other blog.  One afternoon, it was pouring rain and I had walked to the local Russian delicatessen which I greeted the owner in Russian with a "Lord have mercy" and she merely chuckled, repeated it and asked if I was dining in or taking out.  Didn't skip a beat or anything.  As if random young men always come in greeting her in Russian.  Who knows, maybe they do.

Though one time I got to use the three Swahili phrases I know booked quite a reaction.  I learned a few phrases from a missionary kid friend from college and one year while getting ready for Halloween at a bar I got to use them.  It was my friend, the bartender and an individual with a thick accent.  After asking where he was from so I wouldn't look like an ass I waited for the perfect opportunity.  Before a shot or something I yelled out: "tembo yango ni kali" (if there's a reader(s) out there who knows how to spell this correctly, I apologize) at which the individual's face contorted to some priceless expression.
"Do you know what you just said?"
"Yeah"
"Really?!" (this all in his thick African accent mind you)
"Yeah, 'my war elephant is fierce'"
And after some laughs a short explanation was given as to why I, a random guy in a bar, would know a pygmy war cry.  After about 10 minutes of coaching and my friend finally told me what she was teaching my I died.  We laughed so hard.

Granted I'm not that fluent at anything really other than English.  I'm more of a hobby linguist.  And ASL isn't really a secret language and I should have been more careful with my shit talking and a bar full of lesbians, especially since you can't really whisper in that one. . . but its whatever.  Just be careful when you're talking about your 'straights' and 'bitches'.