If you happen to be in Nice any time soon, go to La Petite Syrah for a drink. But not if you’re feeling grumpy – the price of a coffee is 7 Euros if you just demand ‘un cafe’. However, if you say ‘please’, it will only cost 4.25 Euros. And if you are friendly as well as polite, and say ‘bonjour’ as well as ‘s’il vous plait’ – well, you’ll be charged only 1.40 Euros.
It’s the wedding season in India, where the majority of weddings (up to 90%) are arranged. This a source of fascination to many foreigners, and they want to know how it all works. Ravi, a young Indian guy (married, with a baby daughter) offered to explain to his German colleague Gerd. He related how his parents had chosen a suitable bride for him (same community, similar education, family background etc), how the young couple had been introduced, agreed to the match, and were then married after meeting five or six times.
Gerd: OK, I understand all that. But what about love?
Ravi: Well, in the West love comes before marriage. In India it’s different, we say ‘pyaar ho jaega’ – ‘love will come’ – after marriage.
Gerd: Yes, OK, but when? When will love come?
Ravi (thinks for a moment): Love will come….after about three years.
Gerd: Hummph. In a Western marriage, that’s about when it goes….
Invited to Russia, composer Giuseppe Verdi was convinced he wouldn’t enjoy the food. So he did the obvious thing – reserved two railway carriages for the trip. One for accommodating him and his wife, and the second for supplies: hams, eggs, Parmigiano Reggio, Italian breads and flour… Then there was the problem of what to drink. French wines were the great man’s favourite, so a third carriage was stocked in Lyons and sent to Berlin where the Verdis waited for it. The whole entourage then proceeded to St Petersburg, where they presumably ate and drank to their satisfaction for the whole of their trip.
“Experience is not the kindest of teachers, but it is certainly the best”
(Spanish proverb)
We’ve all been there. A place where we can’t speak the language – so we smile. Because smiling is universal, right? It shows we’re friendly, want to connect, in fact, that we’re all round good guys.
Er, yes. And no. Smiling is universal, agreed. And in general people who smile make a good impression. But not always, not everywhere. A Russian student, after being interviewed by Americans, wanted to know what ‘all that smiling’ was about. Because ‘it’s just so insincere’. And in a recent study researchers found that although smiling people were seen as more intelligent in some countries (Germany and China for example), in others, such as Iran, they are judged less intelligent. And the title of the research study? ‘Do only fools smile at strangers’. Ouch.
travelling frogs 