I won't make this long and drug out. When I was a kid, living in King of Prussia, PA about 6th grade, my Mother took me to get a haircut. Now prior to King of Prussia, I'd lived in several other southern and northern cities and was fairly cultured. This may seem overstuffed for me to say this but I did live in Fayetteville, NC (Fort Bragg) for 5 years right prior to KOP so, I was cultured for an 11 year old.
So Mom takes me to get a haircut and I'm actually "used to" oriental hairdressers. (Don't know if this is indicative of Fayetteville at the time, but think rather it was my Mom's coolness as they were also our friends and I often had the pleasure of spending family time with them.) Well the hairstylists in King of Prussia apparently were Greek in my new home. Or I don't know maybe just my guy was Greek...I don't at all remember any of the other participants to this fiasco, only he and I. I don't even know where my Mom went.
So I'm sitting there, this guy has scissors really close to my head, he's speaking English but so heavy with Greek, I could not understand a word he said. It was like Steve Martin speaking French: "Le dondon de swii le doo doo deswah?" I asked him, "I'm sorry what did you say?" and he repeated "Le dondon de swii le doo doo deswah?" and I became so embarrassed at my continued mishearing that I just said "Yes!" with a smile.
That was the most shortest, hideous-est, hairdo I've ever owned. I learned a lesson that day.
I decided from that point on, I would no longer go through life ever wondering what someone had said to me and nod. I would never enter into a contract against my body that I did not understand.
I've found typically speaking when you asked someone to repeat themselves, even if several times, you can always end on an upnote. I'd always tell my misheard friends, "I just love the sound of your voice" which would always make them smile and forget I'd pestered them.
Then I went to college. I made the sorry choice of jumping my freshman French course straight into intermediate as I'd had three years of French in high school. I spoke southern-frid French. Well, my French teacher was a German. Oh Lord, if she spoke French it was with a thick German accent and if she spoke English it was "almost German". I simply could not understand my French teacher in any language. I tried, Lord knows I tried.
[Unfinished]
- the world's "greek haircut" when we refuse to try to understand our neighbor, through shame or pride
