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When I meet locals here in the UK , a pressing question burns in the back of my head ; “ Am I fulfilling the stereotype you have in your head about Americans ?” I have an obvious accent , my voice is naturally loud , I ask a lot of questions and I have five kids in tow . I always feel rather conspicuous wherever we go and this feeling had not improved by our first Christmas here !
The vicar of our church and his amazing 88-year-old
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mother in law welcomed all of us into the fellowship hall to enjoy a seasonal lunch . We exchanged niceties and he asked me , “ What are your family ’ s plans for the Christmas holiday ?”
I began to explain to him the concept of Space-Available ( Space-A ) travel , and how we were going to attempt to catch a flight back to the USA .
“ You see ,” I said , “ We compete for seats on the flight on a stand-by status only . We really don ’ t know if we are going to get on the flight until minutes before it takes off . So it ’ s really kind of a crap-shoot whether or not we will get home .”
The kind vicar and his motherin-law allowed a beat or two to pass . They just stared . ‘ Blink .
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Blink .’ Then he said , “ Okay ! We look forward to seeing you guys when you get back !”
I began to ruminate , scanning into space , thinking and wondering . What had I said ? How did this adorable Christmas conversation just get weird ?
I stewed for a while . As I walked home the lightbulb went off . Crap-shoot ! Crapshoot is not a saying here and probably not a phrase to drop into a light-hearted holiday conversation with a Vicar ; and his elderly mother-in-law .
It was done , there was no time to go back and apologise . I had to make things right , but when ? It turned out I didn ’ t get an opportunity to officially retract my locallyinappropriate idiom until mid-
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January when I was finally able to explain everything to him . Americans use the term “ crapshoot ” and it is synonymous with “ gamble .” There is a gambling dice-rolling game in the USA named Craps . To play the game , you roll the dice — you shoot the dice — you ’ re shooting craps . It has nothing to do with any other meaning the word Craps might bring to mind .
He was gracious .
Later , he even had an opportunity to apologise to us too , after commenting about President Trump from the pulpit and then pointing to the American family ( us ) in the audience . See ? I always feel rather conspicuous .
Leigh Gust
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10 theIMJIN SPRING 2018 |