THE DIFFICULTIES OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Дата добавления: 2014-10-24 | Просмотров: 1594

There are numerous anecdotes about the difficulties of people travelling in foreign countries without a knowl­edge of the language of that country. Here's the story of a Frenchman travelling in the United States who, while eating in a restaurant, wished to order some mushrooms. Unable to make himself understood, he asked for a pen­cil and paper and carefully drew a picture of a mushroom. His drawing, however, was not too good, for the puzzled waiter returned in about ten minutes, not with an order of mushrooms, but with a large man's umbrella.

Another similar story concerns two Americans trav­elling in Spain. They were both unable to speak a word of Spanish and one day, while eating in a restaurant in a small village, they were having considerable difficulty in explaining to the waiter what they wanted. One of them wanted a glass of milk. The waiter seemed unable to un­derstand. Finally, on the back of the menu the man drew a picture of a cow. The poor waiter, however, still seemed puzzled. Finally he left and was gone from the restau­rant for half an hour or so. He returned very pleased with himself. There were two tickets for a bullfight in his hand. THE BLINDMAN AND THEGREAT ARTIST

Every day in one of the streets of Vienna you could see a blind man playing the violin. His dog sat near him with a cap in it's mouth. People, who were passing them, dropped coins into the cap.

One day, when the weather was very cold, the man was playing for a long time, but nobody wanted to give him anything. The poor man thought that he would have to go to bed without supper. He was so tired and so weak that he stopped playing.

At the moment a young man came up to him and asked him why he had stopped playing. The blind man said he had played for two hours but nobody had given him any­thing. «Give me your violin. I shall help you», said the man. And with these words he began to play. He played so well that people began to gather and soon there was a big crowd. Everybody was eager to listen to the fine mu­sic and to thank the young man for the pleasure.

Soon the cap was full of money.

«I don't know how to thank you», said the blind man».Who are you?»

«I am Paganini», was the answer.

A WISE JUDGE

Once there lived two brothers. They worked together on their father's farm. They were very honest and got along together very well. One day their father died leav­ing his property to his two sons. In his last will he told them to divide the property between them.

But the brothers could not agree now. Each wanted to have the better part for himself. After some time they even did not speak to each other. At last they went to the judge who was very wise and always knew how to settle such difficult matters.

The judge listened to them attentively and then he said: «The matter is very simple. We shall divide the property in this way. One of you will divide it in the way he thinks is best and the other one will then have the right to choose whichever of the two parts he prefers».

In this way the case was settled.