A New Calling Card

Three weeks into the visit I have calling cards that can speak two languages! As you can see from the photo, the Armenian side is pretty unrecognizable due to their unique alphabet script. Thank goodness for the transliterated words and street names that are often posted beside the script. Those signs use a western alphabet like ours to spell out what the word "sounds like." Except when I listen to the computer speaker say the words, I am more than befuddled about how he got what I heard from what I can see.

Our street name, for example is Alex Manoogian. In Armenian that looks like this:  Ալեք Մանուկյան. Transliterated it looks like this:  Alek’ Manukyan. So to the cab driver I try to say it crisply and add "tahss" for the number 10. It usually takes two tries before he can hear what I am after.

A small trick I have found successful in trying to communicate even in English is to say the words like an Armenian speaker would say them. So "Cascade" (the name of a beautiful part of town) becomes "cahs-cod" to the cab driver and Bob's your uncle, we are on our way.   When I asked for the Marriott Hotel the way I would in the U.S., it took several rounds before I remembered to try it as "mah-ree-oat."

I continue to work on trying to memorize some basic, basic words that I could use daily--like the numbers, right, left, more, less, yes,  no. In this I wish I had the abandon of preschoolers who count numbers and sing the alphabet, not worrying about whether they are right or wrong but just practicing, practicing, practicing...without fear of making fools of themselves!