Free Lunch

There's no such thing, right? Well, so long as you're honest there isn't. When I bought my lunch today, the checkout operator didn't zap my obento (boxed lunch). I tend to get a sushi-type obento (three kim-bap type rolls, three egg ones and a large one of rice wrapped in something tasty) and one of just meat (today, it was small, rounded hamburger patties). It makes for a filling lunch that covers pretty much every food group. XD

I realised she hadn't charged me for those items after leaving the store and determined to go back to make amends after I'd eaten my healthy Japanese lunch. I wasn't sure how to say "no charge", so I decided to look up the verb "to pay", intending to say that I paid nothing for my lunch. I also looked up the ending for past tense, which I haven't covered quite yet in my text book -- I am going through it very slowly. I just started on lesson four, which covers past tense, but haven't got past the vocab list yet. :o

I gathered all of my gaijin courage on my way back to the office and stopped in at the food store. In my simple Japanese, I spoke to the lady who had served me. I told her that I had bought some food and that I had paid zero yen for it. She was surprised. I don't know what she said, but it was probably something like, "Are you sure?". I handed over the money that I owed, repeating that I had paid nothing and would she please accept it. I also brought the barcodes to make her job easy, and so she zapped them both and there were happy parties on both sides. ^^

It wasn't just the fact that I went back and paid for what amounted from a mistake; it was my using Japanese in a real situation that made me feel good. I am an honest person, and so it was a no brainer that I pay for my lunch. However, this has boosted my courage in speaking out and attempting to communicate more with the locals.

Incidentally, I exchanged a few words with my supervisor earlier, about going through a whole lot of questions. Remember that he speaks almost no English, so it is a good opportunity for me to flex my language skills whenever I talk to him. I asked if we could go through them after lunch, but he said he had a full schedule. We decided that we would go through everything tomorrow, upon my suggestion.

My Japanese language skills are still so simple. I hope that I will have more opportunities this week to attempt to express myself in various ways. I will continue working through my text book and trying to build more of a vocabulary.

Timotheos