So Cork is full of foreign students again all over here to learn English. I don't know why as they cant understand Cork people! Of course this also means a hard time for me as everyone thinks I'm foreign! I have posted about this before about it happening in Germany but over the weekend it bugged me on two occasions and three occasions where it was hilarious! I have blogged about mistaken nationality before, just ignore the bit about the bad German!
So to add to that list we have Hungarian! Yea, I know, a completely new one to bring the total of mistaken nationalities to 15!
So thats story was one of funny ones. One of the lads who works in the Savoy Centre was in with a relative. I was in one of the other parts of the shop and they asked her where did she think I was from, she thought for a while and came up with Hungarian. The lads said yea, but he has great English! So to play along the lads called out to me as "Stefanov", now I didnt hear the name I just say them waving at me. So I came up and they asked me to check to see did we have something in a 32" waist. I replied "I think I have alright upstairs, give me one second there and I'll run up and check". You could catch flies in her mouth! The lads then told her I was actually Irish!
So thats one funny occasion, onto the annoying ones, they are kinda similar so will get them out of the way. On Friday I was out in Rubys and I was a bit drunk having being in instinct before hand. This guy (who I have had encounters with before) stopped me with a hand out for a handshake and introduced himself. I replied, "I'm Stephen", he looked disappointed as I confirmed to him that I wasn't Italian!
Then on Saturday I was using the facilities (i.e. taking a piss) in Instinct when an old guy (I do mean old!!) stood next to me (I hate it when they do that) and asked "Where are you from?" I replied in a thick Cork accent "I'm from Cork", and got the same response! Thankfully I wasn't interested in either of them!
So back to the funny ones! On Saturday I was working when a group of foreign students came in. One of them wanted to try on a shirt. He spoke to me in his native tongue. I replied "Sorry , I don't speak Spanish". He replied by informing me that he was speaking Italian, not Spanish! Most foreign students in Cork are Spanish and I would have recognised French so it was an honest mistake. I of course replied as any Cork person would, "I don't speak that one either!" They actually thought I was Italian!
Then today, I came back up to the main shop from the shoe shop, (try saying that fast) when again the guy from the centre was there with more relatives, this time he asked me "What part of Italy are you from again?". I replied in a thick Cork Accent! "I'm from Cork, like". "Say something in Italian" he asked. "I can't" I replied, "French or German I can do". Then he turned around to his relatives and said, he actually is from Cork and they didn't believe him! I was in stitches!
I also have stories about people thinking I'm straight, but thats for another time!
arrivederci per ora! :D
Steve
