TigerMan
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
At the City Hall Subway Station, an elderly man was selling hand painted tigers in special cloth. The tiger prints in different poses of attack were quite impressive and I decided to buy one. But I don’t have enough Korean money so I showed him my ten dollars. Quite clearly, he showed me the equivalent in Korean money, and I got the impression that the tiger prints cost thirty dollars apiece but I pretended to be confused whether my ten dollars is less or more than his asking price.
The old man painfully explained his situation in Korean and I pretended to be more confused. Apparently, we were both enjoying the confusion and we laughed at our mumblings and body language. Finally he gave in in frustration; took my ten dollars; rolled the tiger print; put it in a paper bag, and hand it over to me. I took a deep breath smiling broadly saying kamsahamnida (Korean Thank You). He shook his head and waved his hand at me. He mumbled something in Korean. I guess I know what he meant: “Forget the thank you wise guy, you can have the tiger at a bargain price.” I felt triumphant when I walked away and the old man was still shaking his head.
Now, the tiger print proudly hangs in my office wall in the Philippines. Every time I see it, I am reminded of the Tiger Man at the subway in Seoul, Korea. It never fails to bring a smile to my lips.
Previous Comments
Ahhh Useful strategy… haha 
when I was stationed in Okinawa we had to be careful of buying with American money, most shops would price objects in yen as well as USD and lots of times if we actually did the conversion buying in yen was cheaper, the shop owners knew most Americans wouldn’t take time to convert so there would be huge differences in the prices.
Posted by Johnny at July 31, 2007, 11:41 am
That was actually very nice of the Tiger Man.
Posted by Lola at July 24, 2007, 11:07 pmI should try that strategy sometime and see if it will work for me too.