littlewoodenman

No! Not Six! Three! Three! A Thousand Times Three! Posted 2007.12.14 by Matthew with 4 comments

For all my humble mastery of the Spanish language, there is one thing that still knocks me down a peg or two—namely, giving out my phone number over the phone. It drives me absolutely bonkers.

I just spent almost ten minutes on the phone with a local pizza place, trying to give them my phone number for a delivery. The part of my phone number that gives me the most trouble is 33. Now, tres (”three” in Spanish) can sound an awful lot like seis (”six”), and I guess I just assumed that the “tr” and “s” sounds were enough to tell them apart. Clearly this isn’t working for me.

Every time I give out my phone number over the phone, they always get it wrong. Always. And it is infuriating. I never have this problem giving my phone number out face-to-face. But over the phone, they inevitably hear “six” instead of “three”, no matter what Byzantine technique I use to correct them.

I went through two pizza girls on the phone, unsuccessfully trying a few different strategies. 33! (Too bad treinta y tres, “33″, sounds an awful lot like sesenta y seis, “66″. Arrgh!) No, not six! Three! As in four minus one! (Why did I think math would work?) And I eventually yelled at the second girl in exasperation, “No! No hay ningún seis en mi número de teléfono, entiende?!” (”No! There isn’t a single six in my phone number, understand?!”)

After gritting my teeth and pulling out my hair, I apologized, took a deep breath and then we started over from the beginning. The gods of cell phone reception smiled on me and she finally wrote down my phone number—the one without any sixes in it. Sure enough, the pizza has already arrived as I write this post. Now the only question remains, how many slices will I have—three or six?

Peter 2007.12.15

Wow, great post. I love hearing about the peculiarities involved in learning/using other languages. And I really sympathize. We spent some on this kind of thing when we studied phonics, and it’s really amazing the way the brain hears different sounds depending on what sounds/phonemes are used in a particular language - in this case the tr/s sounds which are clearly distinct to us are not so distinct to your pizza delivery people… I can think of lots of very similar examples from places we’ve lived - here in Japan, the classic one being R/L, which most Japanese really, honestly do hear as the same sound, which means we’ll always be able to find work here, I guess. We had a problem like yours in Vietnam, where we lived on Phan Phu Tien Street - EVERY SINGLE TIME we ordered food on the phone and gave our address, the other person would ask “Phan Chu Thinh Street?”, and we’d have to spend 5 minutes and cycle through the entire restaurant staff on the phone before getting them to understand. Thank God for delivery cards.

Try this little experiment with a friend - say “dlove”, and ask him/her to tell you what you said. 99% of English speakers will say they heard “glove”, because since D never comes before L (in a single syllable), the brain processes it as the nearest logical equivalent, G. Linguistics fun for everyone!

Aaron 2007.12.17

Hey Matt, great to hear from you again.

About saying “tres”; your should pronounce it like “tress”, and not like “trays”. Gringos tend to pronounce the Spanish “E” like the English long “A”, but the true sound is more like the “E” in elephant. Hope that helps!

Christine 2007.12.17

I can’t get anyone (much less the folks at Pizza Pizza) to understand me when I give our street name…I end up spelling it for them everytime…R-u-e D-e-s H-u-r-o-n-s

We assume its because the english speakers don’t get the french, and the french people are too busy laughing at our english accents…but man, I feel your pain. I had Pizza Pizza hang up on me once, after talking to three different people…sigh.

Matthew 2007.12.17

Peter, good story. I still think you should have your own blog!

Thanks, Aaron, for the language tip. I realize now that I am brutally maiming your mother tongue. I will definitely try this the next time I order pizza! :)

Christine, just what is it about pizza places? :)