[travel] Un(ac)countable

[mattbell]

I learned the Arabic numbering system on my first day in Jordan by looking at the hotel room numbers on my floor. It's come in handy many times. For example. in a supermarket in Luxor, Egypt:

Me: How much does this cost? (70 in Arabic is written on the basket of nuts, but it's unclear 70 per what)
Salesguy: 400 Egyptian pounds per kilo.
Me: No way.
Salesguy: It says right there. 400 pounds per kilo.
Me. No, it says 70. Can't you read Arabic?

Comments

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

What was odd was that he was not at all ashamed at being caught in a clear lie. I was amused though.

[traumentwerfer.livejournal.com]

Just to make sure I'm getting the joke:

Isn't the Arabic number system what we use?

Was the sales guy really that stupid to think you couldn't read it?

[proctologiste.livejournal.com]

Nope. We use the arabic numeral system, but we don't use arabic *script* to write them. Most numbers look quite different in arabic script (look at the Arabic-Indic row):

[danea.livejournal.com]

You, sir, ROCK.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (Also, hi! It's been a while.)