It doesn’t pay to know English here

I began to run out of cash after a few days in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, so I tried every bank within a mile of my hotel only to have my card immediately rejected or the transaction eventually canceled.

A resident American suggested an ATM at a local bank. I approached the ATM, put in my card, entered my PIN and chose the amount of currency I wanted. The machine whirred; my hopes escalated. The ATM spat out my card with a receipt that said “Transaction canceled.” I tried again. Same result.

I went into the bank and approached an employee. In broken French I communicated my problem with the ATM. With a knowing look, the employee asked whether, on the ATM screen, I chose English or French as the language in which to proceed.

“English,” I replied.

“Well, you must choose French,” she told me.

Back at the ATM, I pressed “French” when offered the choice, navigated the ATM’s choices in French and, sure enough, out came the money.

Sometimes the Francophile thing is taken a little too far.

John Anderson

Granada Hills