The embarrassing, educational experience of getting "corrected" by a local

[Mattg]

Many years ago, I was sitting in a restaurant in Osaka eating some delicious gyoza. I'd got about halfway through my meal when the chef, who spoke no English, came out from the kitchen to my table and was gesturing at my chopsticks. Apparently, I was using them wrong and he couldn't stand watching me do this any longer, so took it upon himself to come out and show me the "correct" way!

While slightly embarrassing at the time, I've been using my chopsticks "correctly" ever since! Something my Aussie parents never taught me

Have you been told off and "corrected" by a local during your travels? What did you learn from it?

 

[elanshin]

My brother had a video of him and his friends visiting Korea on their schoolies trip. Apparently his friends never had bimbimbap properly in Sydney (which is pretty surprising for a bunch of young Asians). They were not mixing it up and just eating it as it was presented.

The waiter looked at his friends a bit horrified then came over and mixed it all up and said "eat like this".

 

[rbjhan]

I was at a fine dining restaurant in Kyoto, sitting at the counter.
I took pictures of every course, obviously
The older gentleman sitting next to me spoke quite good English, so we got chatting away......suddenly he stop and carefully placed the lid on the edge of the bowl before I took pictures....I had been doing that ever since.

This is the one!

 

[RooFlyer]

In Quebec. Trying my best to speak the local lingo, my French was constantly corrected to Quebecois.

Until the last day I worked there .... a year later. But by that time of course they were correcting my Quebecois

 

[Forg]

I was in Ghent for 3 months for work … every time I tried even the simplest pleasantry in Dutch (in shops, restaurants, coffee-shops, the office etc), I was told to stop mangling the language (in perfect English & in a much more polite fashion of course).

 

[RooFlyer]

I was in Ghent for 3 months for work … every time I tried even the simplest pleasantry in Dutch, I was told to stop mangling the language (in perfect English & in a much more polite fashion of course).

That reminds me. I had a local field assistant who walked through the countryside with me (safety and he carried the rock samples ).

I told him he'll be my language teacher. As we walked about, he'd give me words and phrases which I would repeat and build on.

After 3 days he said

"Ah... Rooflyer, I don't think we will do this any more"

"Why is that Louis?"

"Your pronunciation is so bad I can't do it any more"

 

[CaptJCool]

That reminds me. I had a local field assistant who walked through the countryside with me (safety and he carried the rock samples ).

I told him he'll be my language teacher. As we walked about, he'd give me words and phrases which I would repeat and build on.

After 3 days he said

"Ah... Rooflyer, I don't think we will do this any more"

"Why is that Louis?"

"Your pronunciation is so bad I can do it any more"

Oui Oui

That’s me in Tahiti

 

[rbjhan]

In Quebec. Trying my best to speak the local lingo, my French was constantly corrected to Quebecois.

Until the last day I worked there .... a year later. But by that time of course they were correcting my Quebecois

I just cannot deal with Quebecois.....one time I was listening to an interview of a Canadian cyclist, his answer was so hard, even though I'm 100% familiar with the topic.

 

[kileskus]

On the other hand when I was in Paris they were correcting my Anglo-Quebec French accent...

In Dnipro I was at a pedestrian red light but I wanted to cross when the cars stopped instead of waiting for a green light. But I was looking in the wrong direction because the Ukrainians drive on the other side of the road, so it looked all clear to me. Then someone grabbed my backpack and pulled me back just as a streetcar came by right in front of us. That was my first day in the country and I'd already gotten myself a scolding in Ukrainian.

A couple of days ago in Hiroshima at a teppanyaki place I ordered okononiyaki and after it was made tried to move the whole pancake onto my little plate. The chef stopped me and showed me how to cut it into pieces that would fit onto the plate. I didn't know that's how it worked, just thought he'd accidentally made it too big so I was trying to put it all onto my plate because I didn't want to bring attention to the fact he made it too big.

 

[n7of9]

The waiter looked at his friends a bit horrified then came over and mixed it all up and said "eat like this".

If I had perfectly separated food in front of me and some muppet came up and mixed it for me, I'd have a fit.

...

I was in a Paris bakery, standing in front of a display case of lots of croissants. I pointed and said in my non-existent French accent uuoohh croisaaaa silvoupleeehh, and she pretended she had no idea what I was taking about. So I walked out and into another bakery where I asked for one in English and got it. I learnt that everything they say about the French is true.

 

[AIRwin]

When I was in uni, I flew to Europe during my holidays to meet up with my best friend from high school who was a student at Oxford and we then went backpacking together.

We visited Switzerland and ordered fondue one night. The waiter must have been watching us the whole time. My best friend and I looked at each other wondering what to do with the basket of bread and were just about to tip the entire contents into the fondue when the waiter came over to stop us exclaiming no no no and then showed us how to use the fork to dip each individual piece in one at a time.

 

[elanshin]

If I had perfectly separated food in front of me and some muppet came up and mixed it for me, I'd have a fit.

Ah see Bimbimbap is literally called mixed rice and the whole point is that you're supposed to mix everything and then eat.

 

[drron]

Any where in France when we would go to a restaurant and in my best French say to the waiter - Bonjour, une table pour deux s'il vous plait. The answer was always the same - And the English menu for monsieur.
Now I only speak English.

 

[n7of9]

My best friend and I looked at each other wondering what to do with the basket of bread and were just about to tip the entire contents into the fondue

I love this so much

 

[AIRwin]

I love this so much

We thought it was Swiss hot pot

 

[Gladstone Tim]

How timely…today in Tokyo my daughter who currently resides there corrected something I was about to do in an omakase sushi (chefs’ choice) for nine courses of sushi and ngiri. I had taken a slice of the pickled ginger from my dish to add to the ngiri (raw seafood) prior to eating it. Apparently this is offensive as it indicates to the chef you don’t like the taste and the ginger’s purpose is to be a palette cleanser between courses.