Who taught: Mike

Haggling (source: http://girliegirlarmy.com/)

Today’s expression is very fresh. I just learned it from my friend, Mike. Yesterday night, I made an offer on a house that Jessy and I like. And, as we expected, there was a counter offer from the owner. And…. I am now in the middle of negotiation over the price. It is actually happening pretty fast. I thought it is going to take a few days but it looks like it will take only a few hours to either reach an agreement or not. Speaking of negotiation, there is a saying in America, “Everything is negotiable.” There are so many things you can negotiate in America and the most common items that you have to negotiate in America are cars and houses. To be able to negotiate, it is important to do your own homework and of course be able to speak English. 🙂 Which one is harder? I am sure speaking English could be harder for many non-native English speakers.

Frankly, it would be actually advantageous to not be able to speak fluent English to negotiate. You can simply say, “This amount or NO!” Sounds easy, isn’t it?

Going back to my conversation with Mike… I told him the story of my negotiation for the house price and he said, “No body is really buying a house now. So, you can probably haggle over a price easily.” As I hear, I showed my trademark, a curious face. Then, Mike realized that I do not know the word, haggle. So, he started to explain it to me, saying “Haggle is like bargaining.” What an easy word. Everybody knows what bargain means, right? Well, now I added another word in my vocabulary. 🙂

So, what should I haggle over? Hmm… How about my salary? 🙂