Saturday morning I went out to run a few errands. One of those errands was to pick up a gift certificate for Mother's Day from a local nail salon. I figured it would be pretty easy. Go in, tell them what I want, then leave. You'd think that would be pretty easy, right? I didn't consider the language barrier.
I walk in and every chair in the place is full, plus about 8 other women waiting. It's very nice, with LCD televisions on the walls. Looks like they're watching Big Mama's House 2. I'm the only male in the place, so I'm automatically drawing attention to myself. I hear "Can I hep yooooo?" from one of the employees and I say that I want to get a gift certificate. The manager (I'm assuming he's the manager) comes from the back and asks "Can I hep yooooo?" I tell him that I want a gift certificate. Here's where it gets dicey.
The bride, in her sly, helpful way, had laid out a sheet of coupons from a new nail salon a couple of days before Mother's Day. On Friday night, the sheet of coupons morphed into a single coupon. So I give the manager the coupon and say that I want to get a gift certificate for a spa pedicure. The next few minutes were a bit of a blur for me. I was able to pick up words like "pedicure", "coupon" and "no" a few times. At the end of each sentence I would stare at him in silence, my brain trying to process what he'd just said. I said, "I'm sorry, can you please repeat that?" He stared at me in silence for a moment, then rattled off the same sentence back to me again. This time he added a slight gesture towards the coupon and the gift certificate.
I know at this point I had the ol' "deer in the headlights" look". So naturally he repeats himself again. (I guess that's the universal response to anyone who doesn't understand your language - repeat yourself and say it louder.) This causes everyone to focus their attention even more on me. Some of the looks on the ladies faces were like I was trying to rob the place. I'm frustrated. By now I'm willing to pay double just to get out of there. So I pay for the gift certificate (full price, not discounted) and leave.
On the way home I finally understood what he was trying to tell me. Apparently you pay full price for the gift certificate, then when you go to redeem it you give them the coupon and they refund the difference. Seemed strange to me. Maybe that's the way they do it in Korea, I don't know.
I may go back there someday to purchase another gift certificate, but it'll be awhile. And I definitely won't be armed with any more coupons.....
No comments:
Post a Comment