I don’t know how impressive this is, but:
I was in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, living in a village and all that jazz. Eventually I picked up Russian, but it took some time… in the meantime, living in a village and not being able to talk to anybody is a bit mentally taxing, not to mention that Kyrgyzstan has an extremely foreign culture to your average American.
Anyway, I was wandering around the bazaar, feeling a bit tired, but otherwise just fine. A little overwhelmed. I needed to buy something, but I don’t remember what it was. All I remember was that it wasn’t tomatoes, because there was this tomato salesman yelling at me. Not in a mean way, just, you know, people in bazaars hawk their wares.
“Tomatoes!” he said. “Young woman, tomatoes!”
I looked at him for a moment and then burst into tears.
This, of course, prompted shock and horror from all the vegetable salespeople and a torrent of alarmed Russian (the national language in Kyrgyzstan is Kyrgyz, but if you’re white they assume you’re a Russian speaker) while I tried to explain to them that, um, I guess I was just having a moment.
So, that was extremely embarrassing. But everybody was nice to me once I mostly managed to explain that yes, I was fine, and no, I didn’t need help, and no, I wasn’t Russian and yes, I know it’s weird that there’s an American crying in front of your vegetable stand. Sorry about that.
Some lady gave me an apple.
Nowadays, though, this story makes me laugh, because it’s ridiculous.
Read other answers by Laura Hancock on Quora:
- What was the biggest cultural shock while you were in Russia?
- What was your biggest culture shock going to Europe?
- In your country, are there any dark historical incidents that you can't even talk about?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2dociTd
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