Wait, this isn't like the other stores. I'm not sure how to find what I need, I thought as I walked into the air conditioning. I knew it would be in the home goods section of the store, which I found eventually. And once there, I thought, Hey, they speak my language! I'll just ask for help.
As soon as I thought it, I did it.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for ...um...you know..." I had the word. Now I don't know what to call it. And the lady is looking at me like I'm a foreigner. Oh, I have a language-learning strategy! "I need a packet of those wooden things you can use to hang wet clothes up with so they can dry. What are they called?" as I spoke I mimicked hanging clothes on a line: pinching an imaginary clothespin, holding imaginary laundry up to an imaginary line and fastening it there.
"Do you mean clothespins?" the woman asked me in a bit of confusion.
I wonder if she was thinking Wow, her accent is really convincing. I wonder what country she's from. Yes, my friends, the trick I teach my students to use the words they know in English to describe the item they can't remember the English word for came to my rescue. I guess it's a good thing I'm practicing language learning strategies as it's only a few months before I'll be studying Bulgarian again!