PART 5 (Genre: My Failure Story)
– The Bathroom Accident –
“I’m surprised you communicate with people in English nowadays. Back then I thought you could only speak ‘hello’ and ‘thank you.’”
As much as my American friends tell me this jokingly, my English skills when I first came to U.S. were REALLY TERRIBLE… The story below is about a BATHROOM ACCIDENT which happened to me, a Japanese guy, and a GIRL at this period of my life in U.S.:
It was a college dorm in the middle of summer. As you probably know, a college dorm’s maintenance is usually performed during summer when the most residents are back in their hometown for vacation and the dorm is empty; this dorm was undergoing some maintenance.
This dorm usually has about 50 residents (25-ish men and 25-ish women) in a school term. It has a men’s bathroom on its 2nd floor and a women’s bathroom on its 3rd floor; all the residents share these big bathrooms separated by gender……
But women’s showers had been experiencing some troubles and weren’t operational, so the women’s bathroom were temporary closed for maintenance. Female residents were instructed to use the men’s bathroom during this period. There was a few amount of residents living at the dorm this summer (around 10), so this instruction was supposed to work even if we could use only one bathroom… Yes, this would have worked perfectly if a SILLY JAPANESE GUY LIKE ME wasn’t one of the residents LOL
We the residents got instructions about the usage of the men’s bathroom to avoid a situation that men and women accidentally use the bathroom at the same time, but I COULDN’T UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS BECAUSE IT WAS ENGLISH.
One day I casually walked into the men’s bathroom at the time male residents were not supposed to use it, and then the drama started:
AT THIS VERY MOMENT, ONE OF THE FEMALE RESIDENTS WAS TAKING A SHOWER IN ONE OF THE SHOWER BOOTHS THERE……
She soon noticed it was weird that she heard the sound of the bathroom door-opening, because she was the ONLY FEMALE RESIDENT at this point; the sound meant that a non-female resident opened the door. She asked me who I was through the curtain of the shower booth, and shouted as she figured out that I was a guy:
“You can’t be here!”
But here was the problem… BECAUSE IT WAS ENGLISH:
I COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE SHOUTED.
Can you imagine how panicked I was at this moment? I kept calm somehow and analyzed what was going on, but I got it wrong.
Because it was the MEN’s bathroom… How could I expect that she was taking a shower there? I thought she was probably some sort of PLUMBER and maintaining the men’s showers……
Then she probably got impatient with my silence and shouted again:
“You can’t be here!!!!!!”
BUT I STILL COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE SHOUTED, so I decided to WALK CLOSER AND ASK TO REPEAT WHAT SHE NEEDED. I stopped at the RIGHT IN FRONT of the shower booth across the curtain:
“Pardon? Could you repea—”
“YOU CAN’T BE HERE!!!!!!”
I STILL COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE SHOUTED, but I could catch a SCENT OF DANGER from her voice tone which was almost like a SCREAM. I got the situation on my INSTINCT and turned back the way I’d come.
So don’t worry, I wasn’t peeking during her shower time after all… That was LITERALLY CLOSE though LOL
That day, I learned that we all humans have the same biological habits even though our first languages are different; a girl’s SCREAM is the global language to warn us of her DANGER.
Boys, remember this universal rule:
If you hear a girl’s SCREAM as you walk into a bathroom, say “sorry” and turn back immediately. That’s the wrong place for you.
– END –
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