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None of Your Business in German
Written by Elisabeth on Tuesday, March 16, 2010
After a very pleasant breakfast with my girl friend (we talked also a bit about tunnel vision of some men in my life), an older man stopped me and asked with a heavy accent: "Vhy arre you in a wheelchairr?" So with a similarly heavy accent, I replied: "Vat is that yourr business?"
The man proceeded to ask if I was Russian. After I replied in Russian where I was from, he said he was Austrian. So we continued our conversation in German. He said that because I was young, he wanted to know the reason for my wheelchair. I said that he doesn’t even know my name, so that is not a question to be asked. He appealed that in America one can ask those personal questions. My answer? "Even in America you should not ask those questions." Then he wished me a long and happy life and I ended our conversation with "same to you."
My friend was laughing. She said it was a cherry on top of our conversation today. She laughed about my flexibility with languages. She loved the way how I used mental reservation. Yes, our laugh was the cherry on the top.
Tags: Wheelchair
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1 On 17 March, 2010, Chloe said:
It’s very annoying when people ask about your disability as the introduction to conversation. The implication is that it’s surely the most interesting thing about you. Kudos to you for responding with humour.
This morning one of the nurses asked if my leg was getting any better. I smiled and said “No, it isn’t.” She said “That’s too bad.” I almost replied “No, it isn’t”, but I held my tongue.