No Hablo

Today was Official Address Rita's Character in a Foreign Language Day.

It's happened before. There are a surprising number of Spanish-speaking players on my server, several German-speakers, and some Italians and French. It is, after all, Perfect World International.

I asked a guy to join my squad because I noticed we seemed to be killing the same things. He was helpful, but I quickly became frustrated when he wouldn't answer any of my questions. I tried common chat, squad chat, and even personal messages, and he didn't say a word. I'd already killed my quota, and if he was done, too, what was the point of going on?

Finally, he stopped running around. I stood directly in front of him and, calling him by name, I asked in common chat (which makes the words float above your character's head), "HOW MANY MORE OF THESE THINGS DO YOU NEED KILLED?"

He responded with a request to carry me. I was dumbstruck. Was he stupid or just a jerk? But then he said, "Si o no?"

This explained much. I was sorry I'd been mad at him, but what could I do except say "No hablo espanol" and leave the squad?

Later on, while I was playing as the same character--Siloam, my elf Cleric--some guy in Plume randomly whispered "hi." I'm always apprehensive when people whisper me for no reason, so I said, "Hi..."

"Wie gehts dir so" the guy replied.

No hablo German, either!