"100%"

from Elliott
There is an element of conversation here that a certain ethnic group uses to confer agreement or signal an affirmative. The ministry is building a Community Hall at the ministry site and we have contracted with the builders supply in town to provide the glass panes and the glazing labor. It has been a less than satisfactory experience. With only seven windows it could have been completed in one trip over a half a day. Well, four trips later and three weeks passed and we still had only gotten half of the windows completed.

We logged our concern and the owner of the builders supply saw me at the store last week and he was very apologetic and said the work would be completed that afternoon. Throughout the conversation though, he kept exclaiming, “100%” to affirm his commitment or put a positive light on the conversation. I will have to say I was not that positive about the experience so far – it had not felt like “100%”. In fact, I was thinking more along the lines of 50% so it seemed a bit confusing for him to continuing saying 100%. We were both speaking English but it seemed like he was speaking another language because it simply did not translate.