1762 | LESCANT

Language

Contributor: John C Bell

Country: China

City: Beijing

Description

One of the best places to see the language idea of LESCANT was the pearl market in Beijing. With such difficult language barriers between the vendors and the customer, other tactics of communication had to arise. Here, the language differences between Tristan and the saleswoman led to the universal translator that we all became familiar with: the calculator.

Comments

In addition to English...

As I walked away from one of the vendors, I noticed how she quickly switched to Russian when an eastern european couple showed up. Clearly if there is money to be made, the vendors will learn new languages.

Mon, 03/28/2011 - 14:03 — David R Isquick

I, too, was impressed by how

I, too, was impressed by how much English the vendors knew. However, it was apparent they all knew the same important phrases, "best deal", "we friends", and "business is serious". It was interesting to see how as we became better hagglers, we also began using these phrases.

Sat, 03/26/2011 - 16:21 — Kimberly D Bailey

Language

The pearl market was an interesting place to observe the differences in language. I was surprised how much the vendors did speak English, but loved that when it was time to negotiate prices, the calculator came out! And when you wanted to not be bothered the Chinese word "Bu" was more helpful than any English.

Sat, 03/26/2011 - 12:00 — Laura Shaham