Silly American

Okay, so I deserve a good smack in the head. I realized something today that took too long to realize. So, I’m use to the fact of Moldovans not understanding me since I don’t speak their language. And somehow in my comprehension of this fact, I began to assume Moldovans don’t understand. If that’s too confusing to understand, let me explain what happen…

If I am paying $11 for something and I have a $1 bill and a $20 bill, I give $21 to get a $10 bill back. Well, I have wanted to do that type of thing when making purchases here in Moldova, but I haven’t because I thought they wouldn’t understand and would give me weird looks. But when I was riding the rutiera and I owed 6 lei, I realized that just because I can’t speak their language and Moldovans don’t understand my language doesn’t mean they don’t understand math. So I gave the driver a 10 and 1 lei bill, and he gave me back a 5 lei bill without thinking twice.

I could just kick myself. I had unknowingly been thinking that since they don’t understand me, they didn’t understand simple math or something. I might as well had been thinking they were dumb. Growth opportunity one…check. Now to continue to get rid of more of my stupid ways of thinking. Good thing I have 2 years ahead of me!