Eliot's Travels

Alstublieft

The one store custom that took me a month to even realize I was doing wrong and then another month or two to get it right was the interaction when paying for something. I noticed that everyone said "yes" or "ja" when I handed them the money. I thought they were just being polite that I had in fact pulled the right amount of money. When Gina and I talked about the custom, we decided that they didn't know what else to say. The conversation is supposed to go like this in money transactions:

I hand the clerk the money and say "alstublieft" (if it pleases you; here you go)
The clerk replies "Dank je wel"
The clerk hands me the change "alstublieft"
I reply "dank je wel"
The clerk hand me my item (food, houseware, etc.) in the bag with an "alstublieft"
I reply "dank je wel"
Then I say "good-bye" or "tot ziens" as I leave the store (it is impolite to not say good-bye when you leave a store)

Here's someone else's description of the word/phrase:
http://www.geocities.com/stevenedw/alstublieft.html

Often times, instructions or notices on buildings are followed by A.U.B. I thought this was shorthand for "the management." One day I finally figured out it was short for alstublieft!

posted by Whitney @ 5:05 AM