What started as a functional yet tense conversation between a customer and a supermarket employee on Friday ended in disaster after the customer pronounced the French “u” like “ou.”
Karen Aradóttir, who regularly shops at the Dudelange supermarket, was looking for items for her son’s birthday party including candles, chocolate sprinkles, and lastly, a children’s drink that resembles sparkling wine.
While with her basic French Aradóttir was able to describe to a worker the first two items she sought, when she tried for the third, that’s when things took a turn for the worst.
Aradóttir said that she wanted “champagne, but for children.” The worker did not understand, so Aradóttir said she was looking for a bottle of juice for children, but with bubbles – “avec des boules.”
She should have said, “avec des bulles.”
Although the employee, a resident of Yutz, had by that time understood what Aradóttir was looking for, she was bound by a thousand years of custom to pretend she didn’t.
Instead, she ran over to the wall and flipped a switch to raise the alarm.
“Code red,” she said in French into an intercom. “A mad woman in the shop has pronounced ‘u’ like ‘ou.’”
The manager then called an emergency meeting in the pet food aisle and ordered staff to no longer recognize anything Aradóttir said in French.
While she was allowed to continue shopping on her own, she found that even the simplest of utterances in French were no longer understood, even when she said “bonjour” to the cashier.
“Hein?” replied the 22-year-old man, expertly not pronouncing the “n” at the end of the word even though it is, without a doubt, there.
