“Excuse me miss, do you have a moment?”
These are now my most dreaded words to hear from a stranger on the middle of the street. Forget about the “wanna buy drugs kid?” or even the “give me your money”, this is worse.
I have nothing against people who have to sell something, like religions, some sort of household item, or even a membership for whatever group, by approaching you on the street. I understand they are all people and everyone’s got to make a living somehow.
But seriously. I have a mind of my own. If I am interested in something, then I’ll look it up and get it. I’ve just so many fliers by now. And that’s not even the main issue, fliers make sense and are bearable. I mean, how can I get whatever it is they are selling if I don’t know about it? But – with fliers or no fliers – why do those people have to follow me and harass me all the time? I’m starting to feel really paranoid about it, it’s like they’re all out to get me.
Not wanting to be mean or anything, but I do wonder… What are they trying to achieve approaching people like that, anyway? With religions, for example, do they expect to convert people right there, in the middle of the main avenue? Or when they’re trying to sell something, an apartment for example (no way I’m giving you my phone number, funny mustache man), do they expect the person to rent the apartment right there and then, without discussing prices or seeing the damn thing?
It can even become scary at times, when you try and walk away, and they follow you. You speed up your pace, and they are still there! It completely freaks me out, specially if I’m alone.
I have to say it used to be worse though. Before coming to University, I would be approached less times, but when they got me, they got me. I had no excuse to leave, and there were usually more of them. Not wanting to be rude, I’d just have to stay and hear whatever they had to say. Now, I have the two wonderful excuses: “I have to catch the train, sorry” and “I have a class, sorry”, depending on which way I’m headed. Then I run off looking really apologetic and busy.
Those are the times when I wish I had a more confrontational personality. I have friends who start speaking in German, as if they couldn’t speak Portuguese, in order to make the said sellers give up. And the funny thing is, they don’t even speak German.
Maybe I’ll try and do the same next time. I probably won’t have the guts, but still. I need a more polite and safe strategy. I’ll let you know if I ever think of one.
Depending on the “deal”, I can say “Not interested” or “I’m late for something, I have to go”. I never say why, I just say that I am, as if I would say “It’s my life, I do not accept questions about it so leave me alone”.
But you can get funny situations with those stuff, like a lady approaching me an Alfa one day, saying “Oh I feel like talking to random people in the street, and then I saw this cute little couple *points to us*”, I thought “religion”. She starts to talk about random stuff and then finally starts with the religious talk, with me and Alfa nodding and smiling without hearing a thing. Then she asks “Are you religious?”, me: “No” Alfa: “Yes”. She kept smiling and talking, but I would almost LOL when she asked something about christianism to Alfa and he just replied “yes yes”. The inverted papers made me lol a lot later XD
But it’s not that simple. What about the guilt that comes afterwards?
That sounds really funny. If it ever happens when we’re together, I want to try it! xD
I had my palm read once. That was funny because I wasn’t expecting the woman to ask for money. She did the entire reading, but at the end she said I had a curse on me and needed to get rid of it. So, if I gave her some money, she could light a candle for me and take care of the said curse. Still didn’t pay her. And yeah, besides all the awkwardness, it was funny. x3
[...] found another one worthy of mentioning. And I just remembered… About my rant on people who approach you on the street because of anything/everything? Well, I now know how to respond to the religious kind of [...]
I am confronted with Mormons quite often. It is funny how easily you can please them. They are more than happy if you tell them you are religious and even more if you tell them you are a Christian.
The story of their bock is quite strange though, but they are nice.
Anyways, if you need some German phrases to scare people of, tell me.
[...] Crazy, Funny, Old, Ramble, Random, scary, WTF) I wrote a post once, ranting about people who approach you on the middle of the street to try to sell you something. Heck, I’ve had my palm read by a gypsy woman who told me I had to give her money so that [...]
Ok. You got me. I’m the one who says some german words when they come to me… and it really works.
*happiness*
First, you just stay there, trying to understand what they want from you…if it is about something that bores or that you just don’t care about/don’t want to hear you just need to say something like “Geisteswissenschaften” [gaiztez-vissen-schaften (I don't really feel like using fonetic symbols now X_X] or “friedazarrdenaftaziden” (“portu-german”, that means “Feridas ardem, aftas idem”, with some German accent) and you’ll see their face change, as if they were thinking ” WTF?, foreigners…*pfff* “. And guess what? They leave you alone!
Eh eh :> *Sara iz a behd persan*