my muppet experience - English 1

Learning language is a never ending challenge - I still don't feel like I've perfected English and I have French to worry about at the moment.  But I do enjoy learning languages.  I am fine at work and I love reading - daily papers, paperbags magazines and watching films and TVs. I used to make loads of mistakes in English, it still makes people laugh.


Let me tell you what my Scotish colleage did to me, in a winter 1997.

It was when I was planning a trip to Edinburgh with a friend who's from Japan.  I've heard that it's a great place to be and luckly, I have an expert in the pub crawing - so he told me to make sure we'd cover all the pubs on Rose Street. 


One day, as he entered the office after a meeting, he asked me "What are you going to do with the currency, when you off to Endinburgh, Zzie?"  I replied "I'd exchange it at the airport."  
He said, " No, no, no, don't you know? we have a currency called [TARTAN NOTES] and you have to book it in advance" 
It was a Friday morning, and I am supposed to be flying the next day, so suddenly I felt panicked. "Oh, I didn't know that.  Where can I book it?" 
He said " Call Royal Bank of Scotland"
"OK"  So I called the telephone directory and asked for a number for RBS in London. The operator gave me the number at Piccadily Circus Branch - I can pop in after work (from Croydon!)
So, I rang the RSB.
"Hello, I would like to buy some [Tartan Notes]. It's very urgent, as I'm flying tomorrow. Please can you put me to someone who can deal with?" 
"What?? Tartan Note, is that what you've said?"
The person on the other end seemed ... rather puzzled but she passed me onto someone else.  I still had to explain what I needed...strange they didn't seem to know.

That's when I realised!  It was a joke!

It was a small office and all my colleages were very good friends back then. - They were giggling and the very person who told me to call the RBS, he was hiding behind the desk. I chucked all the papers on my desk at him! He was really naughty. That's how you trick foreigners in the language, I guess.