Tales of the newbie McRegister monkey

[PaRaGaS]

Hey, welcome aboard!

Your English is great, but I've got two quick clarifications to ask about.

Certainly

When you say 'hypermarket', are you referring to a large grocery store? If you are, that would be supermarket in English. If not, what is it you're describing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermarket
I think this answers everything.

Also, how would you describe the term 'shopping gallery'?

"In Poland, the most common hypermarkets are Carrefour, Géant, Real (which is a brand of METRO AG) and Tesco."
The building I work in is a Real hypermarket - actually a former Géant, Metro bought the brand in Poland a while ago. About 4,300m² (or 46,285sq. feet) large.
It has a strip of some shops and restaurants attached to it. They call it a "gallery", for whatever reason. IMO it's too small to be considered anything, but I'm just a trainee cashier .
There are also two other buildings, but they're very small and you actually have to walk through a very large parking lot to get to them.

Here's a map of the complex, not accurate, as the buildings are completely far from each other. Should give you an idea of the place I work in
http://www.chursynow.pl/i.php?i=6

Also, I know that the sizes I listed won't seem large for anyone living in the US, but here
the hypermarkets are all about the same size and are pretty much the largest stores you can find,
'cept for shopping malls, those usually have one or two hypermarkets in them, plus lots of other small stores. That's large.

[Crow The Robot]

I'd recommend telling management, this woman might "prey" on Newbie like yourself and keep the change when an employee gives too much. True, it may not be much in one transaction, but over time it adds up. So just give your managers a heads up on this woman. Now, even if you aren't allowed to tel la customer you gave them too much, a person who knowingly keeps money is a thief.The only reason i suggest alerting management is because such a woman existed in the store whwre i work, she would go up to new cashiers and make 'em nervous, management caught on and supervisors handled her transactions every time she came in. BTW, your English is great, welcome aboard CS.

[JustADude]

Cool.

Hypermarket sounds, pretty much, like the way Wal-Mart is going with the Super-Centers.

The shopping gallery looks like what we here in the States call a strip-mall. Sounds better, too. Not sure which came first, though, the idea of an indoor shopping mall or the term strip mall for an outdoor shopping area.

[Bloodsoul]

We put a bit of chocolate coating on the ice cream just to shut them both up... hell, if we could fix everything this way

Chocolate coating fixes everything! ^_^

Ugh, accidently gave out more change than I should have yesterday.. I snuck five dollars into the drawer to make it even, and so far no one's noticed.

[Shabo]

The shopping gallery looks like what we here in the States call a strip-mall. Sounds better, too. Not sure which came first, though, the idea of an indoor shopping mall or the term strip mall for an outdoor shopping area.

Also known as a plaza if there are several strip malls in one generic area with a "main road" running between them.

Thank you for the clarification. And your English is better than most native speakers. (I used to tutor for my college... made me wonder how those kids graduated from high school.)

[Andara Bledin]

If I knew I gave too much change but wasn't allowed to say anything to a customer, I'd just ask them to confirm how much change I had given them. I'd claim I wanted to be certain that I had given them enough, but what I would really be doing is trying to either alert the customer or shame them into giving the overage back.

The terms mall and plaza are pretty ancient. It's just that what used to be entire districts have broken up into mere plazas, centers, and malls and become more plentiful.

^-.-^

[PaRaGaS]

Thank you for the clarification. And your English is better than most native speakers. (I used to tutor for my college... made me wonder how those kids graduated from high school.)

Why, thank you!
BTW, I think this is universal. Most Polish teens can't form a proper sentence in writing. It's just sad, and especially striking when I was browsing through my classmates' papers. Some really, and I mean REALLY have disappointed me.
In person, someone may seem really cool and intelligent, but when you see their Grono (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grono.net) profile, it's just ridiculously dumb, and the person seems shallow and stupid all of a sudden.

[Cia]

When you said the lady had 3 bottles of vodka I thought you meant that she bought the vodka at the MickeyD's. Wow the MickeyD's in Poland sell vodka. Then I reread it and realized by mistake.

The only thing I can say in Polish is 'Polska' and I'm not even sure I'm pronouncing that correctly.

[Rapscallion]

Shallowness amongst youths is usually a matter of them not having been around long enough to realise that bragging about a level 69 (fnar!) character in Dungeons and Dragons is only going to interest very few people.

Rapscallion

[ArenaBoy]

Why, thank you!
BTW, I think this is universal. Most Polish teens can't form a proper sentence in writing. It's just sad, and especially striking when I was browsing through my classmates' papers. Some really, and I mean REALLY have disappointed me.

It is universal. I don't even bother using instant messenger anymore because of this. Don't worry about your English, if you didn't have the location up I would've thought that you were in the US or the UK. The only words of Polish I know are Polska and my last name, which is Polish.

[laurenjeannie]

I have a learning disability that makes it utterly impossible for me to do simple math in my head, to the point where unless it's memorized I have to use my fingers. Every year I do festivals where we sell candy and I always end up having some 8 year old telling me how much change I owe them. It's an issue to the point that I will refuse to be the one taking cash if I don't have a calculator.

[chainedbarista]

you write english better than almost ALL of my customers speak it (most communicate in gangsta, hillbilly, idiot and pre-cromagnon), so no worries on your part.

that wench stole from you, flat out; you told her you gave out too much, yet she refused to return it, which means she knew...ugh. she took advantage of you as well; watch out for these types (the lowlives), most definitely. if their tiny little brains start to work, as a few others pointed out, they'll return, see you working and try to score another extra bit of cash.

so much for honesty.

[PaRaGaS]

you write english better than almost ALL of my customers speak it (most communicate in gangsta, hillbilly, idiot and pre-cromagnon), so no worries on your part.

that wench stole from you, flat out; you told her you gave out too much, yet she refused to return it, which means she knew...ugh. she took advantage of you as well; watch out for these types (the lowlives), most definitely. if their tiny little brains start to work, as a few others pointed out, they'll return, see you working and try to score another extra bit of cash.

so much for honesty.

I actually started writing these stories down, in a tongue-in-cheek, cynical style.
Published the first few online, got lots of positive reviews (my main target was the usenet group pl.pregierz).
I may have a bookwriting project at hand, not sure yet. Need to gather more stories.

"Just Because I Serve You... Doesn't Mean I Like You."
(a cookie for whoever gets the reference).

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Soooo...I'm guessing you still live in Poland? Sorry for the stupid question.

[Starlord]

Your English is very good, probably bettter than mine. Welcome to the greatest site going, you will get a lot of good laughs here.