Last night I went to Late Night because I wanted pizza. I shortly realized that I wanted two slices of pizza. So, I asked the lady for another slice of pizza. She put a fat slice on top of my first slice. But I wanted the smaller slice for my second slice of pizza.

"Could I have the smaller slice of pizza instead?" I asked politely, pointing to the desired slice of pizza.

She promptly picked up the slice of pizza that I pointed to and placed it on top of my two slices of pizza that were already on my plate. So I had three slices of pizza on my plate. Obviously she did not understand my request. Or maybe I spoke too softly. I felt bad for troubling her with my picky nature. I guess I could have walked away with three slices of pizza and never attempted to communicate to her my wishes. I usually let things slide like that. I figure it's too much trouble to make people understand what I mean. But this time I thought that I should at least try.

So, I asked her if I can switch the top slice of pizza with the one in the middle. She did not seem to understand because she was about to give me another slice of pizza! Then she yelled something in Spanish to the other lady in the back who was busy putting pizza dough into the oven. I think she told her to come over here and take care of this wacky customer. Then, I thought, why not speak in Spanish?

"Quiero solamente dos pizzas." ( "I want only two pizzas." )

"Pero esta pizza es mas grande que esta." ( "But this pizza is larger than this one." ) I pointed to the fat slice in the middle.

Then her face brightened up and she said, "Si, quieres pequena." ( "Oh, you want the small one." ) The tone of her voice was the why-didn't-you-just-say-so-in-Spanish-in-the-first-place-but-how-would-you-have-known-to-do-so-but-I'm-glad-that-you-did-so-we-can-finally-take-care-of-this-pizza-crisis-oh-you're-so-cute-trying-to-speak-Spanish-in-your-Korean-accent-but-thanks-for-trying type of tone. I walked away with a smile, happy that my four years of Spanish did not go to waste and that I decided not to let communication not happen.

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