One of the side effects of looking for a car is that I've met a couple of car dealership people lately. For years, I felt that all of them were the classic 'used car dealer', not to be trusted. I've learned that while its possible some of them are still like that, most of them seem decent and honest. (Which perhaps is like the old joke: Sincerity is the most important thing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.) But even with that, one of them really impressed me.
The dealer at Ford had a trainee, a woman who was in her late twenties, just learning the ropes. She seemed bright, and we got to talking while my wife talked to the guy who was her boss. I found out that she spoke French, badly, and it turned out that this was because she had lived in New Orleans for several years. She had told me that she had a twelve year old daughter, so I said something about how perhaps her daughter had learned to speak French a bit, too. Oh no, she said. My daughter speaks French fluently. I had her in a French immersion school for several years. She'll be able to travel easily in France, I said. Now all she needs is a knowledge of cheese and wine to fit right in. She then rattled off four or five cheeses, saying that she missed being able to eat them, but they weren't imported to the US. Is it one of those things where the US thinks they aren't aged/pasteurized enough? I asked. No, its just that the French like them so much, they export very little. Unlike their wine, I suggested, and she said True, they export a lot -- we're probably their biggest market. At least, we were when I was getting my wine importers licence. You import wines? Used to, she replied, for about two years. But then I moved to Pennsylvania, with its archaic liquor laws, so I had to find something else to do. Why did you move here, I asked. She smiled. My daughter was accepted to the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. I know them. Despite their yokel-sounding name, they're very, very good.
Amazing who you can find at a dealership....
4 comments:
These are the fun encounters. Makes you realize the world is both bigger and smaller than you think.
Also that even in the US, muttering in another languagee doesn't necessarily guarantee that you won't be understood by someone else....
I usually enjoy talking to strangers. People who just sit there absorbed in their little devices and ignoring the folks around them miss out on a lot.
I'm sorry, Roz, I was checking my email - did you say something?
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