Life imitates satire
Abstract:
Another Wyszical adventure.
Body:
On Wednesday, September 7th, the Onion Radio News
ran a story called "Cocky Attempt To Operate
ATM In Spanish Backfires" about a man who is unable to withdraw cash
during an ATM session after selecting the Spanish language
option.
Tonight, I drove up to a touch-screen Bank of America ATM, because there isn't a Commerce location down here and I wasn't close to a Wawa either. The first menu asked me to choose a language, and my finger hit the screen while on its way up to English, throwing the ATM into Spanish with my card inside. My first instinct was to try and start over, but there was no obvious "back" button, as I suppose they don't count on people changing their mind as to which language they prefer.
So, I bravely went on to use my six years and one semester's worth of knowledge gained from Spanish class for the second time in a real-world situation. The first time I used Spanish was in the Madrid airport. The security officer asked me, "¿Habla español?" I admitted, "No," so she asked, "¿Habla inglés?" I told her, "Sí. Yes," and the rest of our conversation was in English.
I was able to tell the automated teller that I wanted to make a withdrawal from my checking account:
Feeling confident, I even chose to withdraw in the form of an otra cantidad instead of a preset amount. I always feel compelled to do stuff like this with anything electronic when I have the chance to avoid a template or preset. The final screen was a bit confusing, and I'm still not sure what it was asking, but I think that I was specifying whether or not I wanted a receipt. I did want one, and after showing a screen that I'm pretty sure indicated that the receipt wasn't able to be printed, one came out along with my card. The receipt was also in Spanish:
Tonight, I drove up to a touch-screen Bank of America ATM, because there isn't a Commerce location down here and I wasn't close to a Wawa either. The first menu asked me to choose a language, and my finger hit the screen while on its way up to English, throwing the ATM into Spanish with my card inside. My first instinct was to try and start over, but there was no obvious "back" button, as I suppose they don't count on people changing their mind as to which language they prefer.
So, I bravely went on to use my six years and one semester's worth of knowledge gained from Spanish class for the second time in a real-world situation. The first time I used Spanish was in the Madrid airport. The security officer asked me, "¿Habla español?" I admitted, "No," so she asked, "¿Habla inglés?" I told her, "Sí. Yes," and the rest of our conversation was in English.
I was able to tell the automated teller that I wanted to make a withdrawal from my checking account:
Feeling confident, I even chose to withdraw in the form of an otra cantidad instead of a preset amount. I always feel compelled to do stuff like this with anything electronic when I have the chance to avoid a template or preset. The final screen was a bit confusing, and I'm still not sure what it was asking, but I think that I was specifying whether or not I wanted a receipt. I did want one, and after showing a screen that I'm pretty sure indicated that the receipt wasn't able to be printed, one came out along with my card. The receipt was also in Spanish:
Posted: Friday - September 23, 2005 at 11:18 PM
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Published On: May 06, 2007 09:05 PM
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Published On: May 06, 2007 09:05 PM