It Pays to be Bilingual


This photo of a sign in Argentina was posted by Dan Harris. Link -via Digg

Funny stuff but in reality, really Effed up. It reminds me of those signs people put up in their businesses such as "price subject to customer's attitude" and all that. As a business owner, I would not pull that crap on people. No need to use my business as a platform or bully-pulpit for my bitterness against the Human race.

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, including those not of our own tribe" might be more accurate to this post. But at least that Argentinian was honest...
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Not to be a stick in the mud, but you don't have to be bilingual to know the difference between 4 and 5. Unless you're assuming that they're in two different currencies, and that's just over-thinking it.
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I saw a few of those at the street market in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, and at first I thought it was an instance of street vendors unabashedly charging the tourists higher prices. It turns out, however, that it was four pesos for a regular orange juice, and five for a large. The positioning of the prices is incidental. A wider shot of the cart would reveal two stacks of cups of different sizes.
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In Venice we heard about a three-tier pricing system in cafés and bars: Tourist, Italian-Speaking Tourist and a (virtually free) Venetian rate.
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Do they give you the price based on the language you order in? Or the color of your skin?

Works even better when the local language has it's own numbers: http://www.thailandvoice.com/content/view/89/44/
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