To use my second language to gain an advantage in the Lidl queue?

[SerenYrWythnos]

I live in a town on the Welsh border. So much on the border that parts of my town are actually in England, but the Lidl is in Wales.

It's not a Welsh speaking area at all. Welsh is taught in schools but you don't hear it being spoken out and about - I honestly can't remember the last time I heard anyone speaking Welsh outside an educational setting.

But because it's in Wales, Lidl do all their store announcements in Welsh first, including the announcement that another till is opening and the number of the till.

I speak enough Welsh to know which till is about to open before it's announced in English so I just zoom straight over there when I hear it in Welsh. This gets me dirty looks from people who were ahead of me in one of the queues, but didn't twig which till was opening until it was announced in English. Lidl tends to have mega queues so getting in first at a newly opened till is a major win round here 😁

AIBU to take no notice and carry on being first at Till 5? Or should I wait until everyone has understood what's going on, or should I even give the people ahead of me a heads up?

I like your style

Don't they switch the green light on the till number as they make the anouncement? I always seem to misjudge which till will be the quickest anyway, so it wouldn't bother me.

To be fair she is only saving a few minutes. I am not sure it makes that much difference.

I would be more interested about coming across the border for the freebie prescriptions and school meals they get instead.

OP, if the people giving you evils have any sense they would have googled the numbers for eg 1 to 9 for till numbers, then they’d be fine.

If not, tough shit!

Why wouldn’t you ask the folk in front of you if they want to go first? That’s so rude. You sound quite proud of yourself. But then, I was brought up with manners.

YANBU, this is why anyone learns a second language, to understand/do stuff they couldn't before??? Also Gorky's Zygotic Mynci 4eva

Welsh enough to understand the numbers, yet English enough to worry about queue barging - perfect.

I learned some basic Welsh specifically to catch a jump on all the other English people changing trains at Casnewydd. When you only have a few minutes to get across the bridge, that Welsh-first platform announcement takes a looooong time.

Da iawn ti. Go for it. Same principle applies at Cardiff Central when they're announcing platforms 😀

I don’t speak Welsh, but if I did, I would absolutely use this to my advantage and go for it 😆

But by the time you've asked everyone in front if they care to move before you to check out 5, someone from checkout 3 and 1 are already loading up the conveyor belt. The person in front is also more likely to be starting to unload onto the conveyor belt too.

Yanbu op, it isn't about rudeness unless you're shoving people out of the waym. New line opens up, whoever wants to move moves.

I don’t see why it’s rude to respond to an announcement. Everyone else could also respond to the announcement if they could be bothered to lean even the basics of the native language of the country they are living in.

Anyway, I don’t think this really breaks any queuing rules. There’s always a bit of luck involved - each person in the queue has to decide for themselves whether to stick or twist. That’s why it’s so exciting.

@SleepingStandingUp

But by the time you've asked everyone in front if they care to move before you to check out 5, someone from checkout 3 and 1 are already loading up the conveyor belt.

That's fine with me though, it's not a game where I have to get there first, if I stay where I and and people from other checkouts go to the one that's opening it makes no odds.

Of course they would.

@ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine

I don’t see why it’s rude to respond to an announcement. Everyone else could also respond to the announcement if they could be bothered to lean even the basics of the native language of the country they are living in

I didn't say it was as rude to respond to an announcement. I said I would not be so rude as to leave the back of the queue for an opening checkout, other people are before me.

I know exactly which Lidl you're on about and I do the same...I'll race you next time 😁

I do this often, for example airports when announcing boarding groups as can speak/ understand few other languages. Knowledge is power 💪

Other supermarkets deliver, so no queuing necessary

When I lived in Chepstow (80s/90s), nobody spoke Welsh and the schools refused to teach it. I'd guess that the numbers are the first thing that get taught

Nothing at all wrong with using your smattering of Welsh. It's the same as folks who know a bit of, say, German or Italian. If you're at the airport or station waiting on a train or plane with that country's airline and they do the announcements in their language first and then English, you can be well on the way to new gate/ready to board by the time the announcement has been made in English too.
Think I've just realised why I always get greeted in German or Italian at the gate!

Why not? In my town as soon as a new till opens everyone runs for it regardless of who was first like savages.

I’ve pretended to not understand English to get out of having to use the correct train so many times (it worked a lot easier in my 20s though).

Does watching for the light going on above the till area that's about to open, not save even listening to the announcement? I thought it usually went on before the staff member arrived to start working at that till.

IME different people have radically different language absorption abilities. Some can land in a foreign country and be able to hold some kind of basic conversation within two weeks; some still won't be speaking more than a few broken phrases after 10 years especially if they're English.--No reason OP shouldn't benefit from her decent language skills though- go her.