Adventures in supermarket shopping

This week's column is by Audio Editor Rita Forbes.

I've lived in Germany for almost three years now, and it's gotten to the point that I often experience culture shock when I go back to the US. Last time, however, everything seemed to run smoothly — until I went to the supermarket with my brother.

Going grocery shopping is a very everyday experience — and the general mechanics are the same whether you're in Munich or Missouri. But still, walking into the Price Chopper in Pleasant Hill felt like entering an alien world. The details were all different. We didn't have to deposit a coin to get a shopping cart. Browsing the beer selection, I found signs informing me that if I looked younger than 40, my ID would be checked before I could buy any alcohol. That's a far cry from my Bavarian supermarket, where signs proudly proclaim that the store will not sell beer to anyone under the age of 16!

Later, in the jam aisle, my jaw dropped. "Look!" I shrieked, as my brother edged away. "There are 50 kinds of peanut butter!"

At the checkout, one cashier rang up our purchases while another employee packed everything into bags. They both smiled at us sweetly. To be honest, I felt a little uncomfortable. I've gotten used to a certain level of brusqueness from cashiers.

On the way home, I had to apologize to my brother for any embarrassment caused by the peanut-butter outburst. The shopping trip had been an adventure into the unknown.

*In the Everyday English section of the March Spotlight, Dagmar Taylor invites us into the world of the British supermarket. These two pages offer four dialogues, four exercises, and nearly 20 tips on informal, spoken language. Not only do we learn useful words like "shopping trolley", "conveyor belt" and "semi-skimmed milk"; we get a feeling for what it's like to walk through the aisles.

Each month, you can also listen to two of the dialogues performed by native speakers on Spotlight Audio. So the next time you go to a supermarket in a foreign land, it won't feel quite as foreign.