Last weekend my local laundry didn't return my drawstring laundry bag (linen) with my clothes. It's a really nice bag that I stole from the Shangri-La hotel in KL, so worth keeping.
This morning I went back to the laundry and asked her if she had it. She had no idea what I was talking about. So I performed a mime, using a bag (plastic) as a prop. Still nothing. Act 2 was based on the theme of "last week". Nowt.
This needs to be done in Vietnamese. So today I asked my colleague to write down a phrase to ask for it. I told her maybe it would be good practice. This is what she wrote:
Cho tôi hỏi chị có thấy cái túi giặt là của tôi để quên tuần trước không? Cái túi vải (không phải nhựa) và màu trắng.
This is fucking ridiculous. I do no know what one of these words means. Surely there is a shorter way to say "Where's my laundry bag?".
Nevertheless, I have printed it out and I am going back there tomorrow. I am going to take out that phrase and make her listen to me struggle through every syllable until she understands. I am not going to show her the paper. As I've always (always) said, if the laundry lady keeps your linen bag you must be sure to make her next counter experience as painful as possible in order for them to never do it again.
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