One-Time

Masa

Louie, what does “time” mean when ordering?

What?

Masa

Like, “One time cappuccino, one time latte, one time special morning set…”

…What in the world? “Time”? Who said this? Are you sure they said “time”? Where were they from?

Masa

I don’t know. But… ヨーロッパ style.

Hold on. Let me think about this.

two minutes later Me

OK. I understand. In German, people order things using “einmal” kind of like 一つ. When translating literally, it could mean “one-time,” so when Germans speak English, they might say “one-time cappuccino, one-time latte, one-time special morning set.” It’s not normal English. You don’t have to remember it.

Almost every day in my little local café, there are a decent amount of tourists, because it’s one of the only places nearby that serves breakfast, and at an earlier hour than anywhere else. The tourists are often from Asia, North America, and Europe. Not everyone speaks English natively, but it might be their second language. That makes English the lingua franca in the café for all non-Japanese tourists.

Being the resident English expert, the staff often asks me to help them with English. I’m all too happy to help, but this one was so bizarre. My initial thought was that there’s no variation of English I know where this would make any sense.

But now it makes sense. It’s not really English at all. When ordering sets of things in German, “mal” can be indicative of multiplication. Like “one-time” or “one of the.”