Talking to Otto's assistant

[mrissa]

"I mark it down for you! Okay! I mark it down for you! What next? Okay! I mark that down too!"

"Now I read your numbers in my good English accent, okay? Okay? I speak five languages, they all sound like Hungarian, so what does it matter, okay?"

"You come to California, you come see us! It is much warmer here, okay? Today maybe eighty degrees! Maybe more! You come see us!"

"I will get this to you today, okay? Only maybe one hundred fifty orders before yours, I get it out today, you will have it by Mikulas, okay? You maybe want the chocolate for Mikulas, for the little ones, maybe the big ones, too, okay? We get it to you. No problem. Because I like you. You come see us next time you here, okay?"

Okay!

ETA: I almost forgot my prize piece of Hungarian-on-the-phone wrangling: we were having trouble with the street name. "Ess as in son," I tried, and he said, "Eff as in Frank?" "Ess as in sunrise." "I do not know this word." "Ess as in syrup? Or sour?" "What? What are these words?" (He had successfully marked down and repeated back to me "sour cherry syrup.") Finally I had a brainstorm: "Esh!" "Oh, you say esh! Esh as in Shamuel!" "Yes! Esh as in Samuel!" "You should have said!" Oh. I should have said. Well, now I know.

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Oh dear....maybe I need to have you call for me? LOL

I can't wait to order from this store!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You can fax in an order form if you like. There's a $50 minimum on phone orders.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

That might be wise, since I speak NO Hungarian!

I saw so many thing I want, I'm going to have to be careful not to OVER order. After all, there's only one of me.

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

I think I bought a car from this guy once.

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

I met this guy when I bought the fabric for my wedding dress. He (correctly) predicted my first child would be a boy. I understood about 1 in every 4 words, but he kissed me on my cheek and told me to have a wonderful life.

Charming gents, aren't they?

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I deeply envy you these phone calls.

Working in the department where I get calls from, apparently, everyone who has a question no one can answer that in any way involves Judaism or the Near or Middle East, I've been struggling with spelling words out for people who do not know my language. I can't do, "N as in Nancy, F as in Frank," because for many of them, these are nonsense sounds, not names. Today's success (with someone calling from Hamburg, and he was something of a loon but that's beside the point) was "'s' like 'swim.'" That worked. I've also settled on "m like mother" or "m like milk" and "n like name." I can't remember if I've had any good successes with "F." I think I got away with "F like friend," but I'm not sure that would work for a lot of people.

It's an on-going test of ingenuity.

But I want to call Otto's for something, now. I will need chestnut paste!

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

See, I can't have conversations like this, because I always give up and lapse into Hungarian. Which sometimes makes it worse, come to think of it.

[redbird]

I've done well with "g like green" but I suspect that non-native speakers might not find my "z as in zebra" useful.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

"Zebra" is Hungarian for "crosswalk," so at least in this case I wouldn't expect much problem.

[regyt.livejournal.com]

Eheheheheheheh. I think I would have tried "Esh! Esh, like edes!".

(Linked to this by rosefox.)

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I've done well with "g like green" but I suspect that non-native speakers might not find my "z as in zebra" useful.

...I suppose my first impulse, which was, "Z like in ShaZAMM!!!" might not be optimal...

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I love the Otto stories. I remember when you ordered from him last year.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I speak exactly two words of Hungarian, translating as "wooden spoon" and "rotate." But sometimes a girl needs some paprika sausage, even an utterly Scandosotan girl. Maybe especially an utterly Scandosotan girl.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You will need chestnut paste! Otto was correct!

My mom: "What will you use that for?"
Me: "There's a recipe on the site for pressing it through a ricer and topping it with a dollop of rum and a dollop of whipped cream."
My mom the sudden convert: "We have really good rum in the cabinet we hardly ever use...."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Why does that make it worse?

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

I occasionally pronounce things with a muddled American-Szegedi accent, which gets really confusing for people who don't expect Hungarian to come out of my mouth. :P

[ckd]

I am geeky. I would have been using the NATO standard phonetic alphabet. (S as in Sierra.)

[skzbrust.livejournal.com]

The stupidest thing is that reading it made me teary eyed and sniffly. I'm not kidding. Sheesh.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I was wondering when you were going to pop into this thread! I immediately thought of you as I wandered through the website (especially in the sausages area).

[evangoer.livejournal.com]

"You come to California, you come see us! It is much warmer here, okay? Today maybe eighty degrees! Maybe more! You come see us!"

I am filing this one away to use on you in the future.

(Otto and I are totally lying, though. It's not even *close* to eighty degrees right now.)

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

I wish you'd call Otto tomorrow. That would be fun. :>

Just please do so when I can listen, because I would hate to miss it. Last time you didn't get Otto, alas!

I do love your reports, M'ris. They just rock. Steve hasn't been swapping out Corwin lately either. ;d

- Chica

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You could also make Poire Belle Helene, which is always delicious.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Are you visiting your sister?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I didn't get Otto this year, but the assistant was pretty good, too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My mom would totally share the good rum for your chestnut paste if you were here.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ah, so they're repeating, "What?" and "What is this word?" in two languages instead of one.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

None of the recipes I saw just now seemed to have any place for the chestnut puree, unless you were replacing the ice cream with it. Hmmm....

[evangoer.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no. That is a fine idea for getting back to truly warm weather -- as long as their town isn't on fire or anything.