I am in the US for work for two weeks, along with many of my colleagues from around the globe, whom I've known for many years. I went out with the German contingent last night, and we ended up downtown for dinner. It's been snowy here in the midwest where Benevolent Company J is located, and while the streets have been plowed, it's remained chilly and the snow hasn't budged much, making parallel parking quite an adventure.
When we saw a decent parking spot near our destination, German Colleague 2 hops out to be able to inform Colleague 1 how far away he is from the other cars. Colleague 3 and I stayed in the car.
Colleague 1 probably isn't so great at parallel parking in the best of times, and it was a difficult situation: a small spot with a big American car, leftover snow/slush, and a relatively busy road, so time pressures to get out of the way. And therefore he botched it, requiring a second and third attempt, and finally, the back and forth to squeeze into the spot due to turning too quick.
As I stood with Colleage 2 at the curb, Colleague 2 remarked, 'he turned in too hard.'
I answered, 'Yes, I knew each time he was off, but didn't want to pressure him.'
Colleague 1: 'Ah, but H, you must instruct him! Else how will he ever learn or improve?'
In that moment I was reminded of living in Germany, and how different it was, and how out of place it seemed in that very moment on a US street.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
yep, sounds German to me!
Post a Comment