McDonald's in Czech

I just had some McDonald's for lunch today and I thought I'd share about my experience. First of all, I had received a coupon to use there, which was my motivation for going. Instead of being a normal value meal (or menu, as we call it here) coupon, it was for a double cheeseburger, a small drink, and of course, a pack of Mentos. They actually forgot to give me my Mentos and I didn't ask for them.

I always get thrown off a bit at McDonald's. It's an American place where I feel like I should feel comfortable, especially with language things. After all, you can go in and order a "hamburger" or "cheeseburger." That's where culture shock comes in here. If I would, however, order a "hamburger" with my typical American accent, I will only succeed in getting blank, scared, or ever annoyed looks from the nice McDonald's workers. What the cash register people want me to say is the word "hamburger" with an incredible number of rolling r's and oddly pronounced vowel sounds. I have learned to form my mouth to do those things in order to get my greasy burger, but it's tough. After I had finished ordering and was waiting for my food to be ready, I listened to the guy at the register next to me. I knew he was ordering McDonald's food and I vaguely recognized that they were the same words as in English, but it was amazing how fast he was spitting those words out, and with an entirely European accent. Almost unrecognizable. But that's one of the neat things of living here. I'm not only learning Czech language, but also how to say some American words with a good, ol' Czech accent!