I once did this in reverse- I gave the cashier a dollar extra so I could just get a 10 back, and she said “here, you gave me too much”, and handed the 1 back
I had this twice in the same day the other day. Was travelling, had cash to get rid of and the poor teenage cashiers these days can’t wrap their brain around the concept at all cos they never had to. Both times I get a “this 20 is already enough” and I said I’m trying get rid of coins. I could watch their brain rebooting, give up, punch it in the till and then be really baffled when they hand me back a 10 euro note.
Putting 3000 yen worth of change into the 711 self-checkout for a 100 yen item while pretending I don’t understand the cashier saying “its enough” in english and japanese because gives me back useful notes.
Found the lemmite in Japan! How’s it over there?
Oh, I’m no longer there, just spent a few months there. Thinking about going back in a few months though.
It was nice, but much harder to make any kind of connection with the locals when you speak almost no Japanese. Lots of friendly foreigners though.
This is why I prefer using a card. I can’t handle impromptu math. It makes my brain perform an emergency shutdown.
It’s not that hard: sum everything you’ll give (20+1=21), then it’s obvious you’ll receive 10 back.
When you’re talking to someone who’s expressing a great deal of anxiety (“emergency shutdown”), phrases like “it’s not that hard” and “it’s obvious” become “if you struggle with this, you’re an idiot”.
You might not be an idiot but you are lacking in experience doing basic things like handling cash and talking to people and being in the world, which is fine because everyone at some point is inexperienced.
The first time I had a cashier say this to me, I was also baffled and froze up… the customs of the rapidly-moving world outside were new to me. Now it’s easy and I understand the other person’s job. Everyone gets there, it just takes exposure, not running and hiding from it.
I’m glad you had progress! Notice I’m not the one who originally wrote about actually having a “shutdown”. My comment is about how someone’s choice of words can sabotage their point, depending on the listener’s situation. It is not encouragement to avoid challenging things.
