„You pay together or separate?“.
The two Asian men are looking at each other in confusion. Then, one of them points at the clothes which are lying in two separate piles on the desk. He is smiling and bowing slightly, but he doesn’t say a single word.
“You pay together or separate?” The sales person is repeating her question two more times in a very harsh way. But even after the third time the tourists don’t get enlightened and they still don’t understand her Teutonic barking.
Irritated by the obstinacy of the two Asian men to refuse to understand the German language, the lady scans the articles of one of the two piles and one of the men is paying with his credit card. Then she is scanning the second pile and the same man wants to pay again and – of course – with the same credit card.
“But I’ve asked you three times if you want to pay together or separately”, the sales lady is grunting at them. But that the two men didn’t understand her is flying in the face of her logic. “What shall I do if I ask three times without getting an answer”, she is asking the couple standing behind the two tourists in the waiting line. By the way she is looking at them you can clearly see that the is hoping for a confirmation of her behavior.
When finally all the things are packed into plastic bags, the man is bowing slightly and smiling again and asks: “Tax flee?”.
I can clearly see the pulsation of the cervical artery of the sales lady and that she would like to scream out aloud. But without saying anything she gets the necessary papers from a drawer, slams them on the counter and starts grimly to fill in the form. I couldn’t have had a better start for my holiday in Germany than this scene in a clothes shop in Berlin.