Because it is close to many embassies, our neighbourhood
grocery store serves people from a variety of cultures and with culinary
tastes in a wide spectrum of ethnic cuisines. The staff at the store is
therefore accustomed to requests that are a bit out of the ordinary and they attempt
to stock products that one would not usually find in other grocery stores.
A few years ago, I was shopping at that
grocery store and could not find the perogies I was looking for. I, therefore, approached one of the employees, a very amiable chap who always greeted me with
a smile and asked him where I could find them. I spoke to him in French pronouncing
perogies while the appropriate rolling of the “r” and omitting the “s” at the
end. The smile on his face disappeared and was quickly replaced by a look of
consternation and disbelief. After a few seconds, he regained his composure and responded, “I don’t think
we have any, but the chicken is over there.”
That rather strange response to my query
surprised me at first until it dawned on me that he had understood “parakeet’ rather
than “perogies”.
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