"I went for a haircut in Bulgaria. The lady who gave me the haircut did not speak a single word in any of the languages I knew. Even “yes” and “no” in English was beyond her, which meant that I ran into the perennial problem in that country: Bulgarians shake their heads when they mean “yes” and Nod when they mean “no”. This had hilarious consequences. When she offered to also cut my eyebrows by holding the scissors in front of them and looking at me with a questioning expression in the mirror, I said “Yes, please”, nodding my head, which resulted in her putting the scissors away. Something similar happened when we tried to negotiation the size of my whiskers and whether or not she should cut my nose hair or put perfume in my hair. We both saw the humour of the situation, and finally came to a perfect understanding: if I said “ok” with thumbs up, that meant “yes”, whatever the movement of the head. If I waved my arms in front of me, saying “not ok”, it meant “no”. Because I had enjoyed the whole “communicative” situation so much, I left a large tip, which made the lady grab my hand and press a kiss on it. Curious country, Bulgaria…"
(reported by Dutch man)
http://www.worldenough.net/picture/English/tn/400_sortedout.htm
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