Supermarket gaffe 超市笑話

上星期到超市購物，結果在那裡上了一堂有趣的課。

The other week I went to the supermarket to do my weekly shopping, and ended up learning a rather interesting cultural lesson.

那天買了不少東西，預計結帳時會比平時花多一點錢。但我並沒有那間超市會員咭所以並不能集點。當時我就用以往在英國時的想法，可以把點數轉送他人，因為在英國這是大家常做的，沒什麼特別。加上平時在臺灣常常遇到的人都很友善，那就算是回報一點小小心意，很正常的想法吧！
I knew at the checkout that my shopping would be more expensive than normal, and I didn’t have a membership card to collect the points.  So I put on my UK thinking cap and thought, instead of letting the points go to waste, why not benefit somebody else.  After all, people do it in UK all the time, so it just seemed like a natural thing to do. Also, everyone in Taiwan is always so kind, its the least I can do to repay a little kindness.

那麼我就跟排在我後面那位男生講，我買了不少東西，沒會員咭，把點數集在你咭好嗎？他望著我發呆好像我跟他說外星語（我中文雖然還未十分標淮，但也不至於那麼差噢！），過一陣子他才以帶點疑惑的表情把會員咭交給收銀員。在整個過程中他並沒有正面看我一眼或向我道謝。施恩莫望報，我當然不介意，況且這根本談不上是甚麼恩，只是舉手之勞。但基本禮義也應該有點吧？！
So I turned to the guy behind me, told him I didn’t have a membership card and asked if he would like my points to go on his.  His starred at me with a blank face as if I was speaking in double Dutch (ok, my Chinese isn’t perfect but its not that bad!) and then slowly handed his card to the cashier with a bewildered look. Throughout the  whole process, he didn’t thank or even acknowledge me,  not that I really minded, but manners ? !

之後我在回想這事件，還向些本地朋友請教。原來臺灣人對陌生人比較敏感，尤其如被要求拿出些甚麼証件或資料，因為他們很怕被騙。再加上這裡超市集點優惠其實不算太吸引，所以大家也不會太著緊這方面。怪不得那男生反應那麼奇怪噢！
沒碰過釘子又怎會知痛呢？鬧出這小小笑話，以後就知道了！
I thought about this incident afterwards and asked some local friends of their views on it. Apparently, it turns out that unlike UK, this isn’t a common practice in Taiwan. People are quite sceptical when strangers approach them，especially when asked for personal details, for fear of being scammed.  Also the reward points at supermarkets here are pretty mean, so they don’t really bother to cross transfer points between strangers. No wonder the guy acted is such a weird way!

Well, that was an interesting gaffe.  Next time I will know better.