Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Lost in Translation

The second floor of our library is the quiet floor.
There was a family at one of the microfilm machines today that were speaking a bit loud. I waited for awhile, but they didn't stop, so I finally went over and spoke to the mother.
"Hi, I was just wondering if you could whisper? This is the quiet floor and we try to keep things as quiet as possible for those who are studying."
She sort of looked at me blankly so I kept going,
"Sorry, you were being very quiet already, but if you could just whisper that would be great." [smile]

She kept looking at me, but took her pre-teen son by the shoulder and shook him a little, and he finally said, "Shhhhhhhhhhhh."

She smiled and laughed and said, "Ah, okay, okay!"

Well that explains the blank look. But something tells me that some of what I said might have gotten lost in the translation...

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