Languages and Looks
I look Chinese but I don't speak Chinese. I'm a msytery to the people here. Some praise me for knowing any and some admonish me (or my parents) for not teaching it to me better. In any case, I'm not what they expect.
At the bottom of TaiShan we were approached by a bunch of Chinese women offering rides to places. That is to say, as soon as the bus stopped and the door opened, a bunch of women pushed and shoved at each other to get to the front, shouting city names and sticking placards with said names into the bus. By then I was a little tired of being pushed at, yelled at, grabbed, and poked so as I got off the bus I just said "Huh?" and ignored them when they kept trying to talk to me. They came to the conclusion that I didn't speak any Chinese (since that was the whole point). But then they began to speak about us in Chinese standing right next to us. Nothing really bad but stuff like "Wow, they look Chinese but they don't speak any Chinese, they're foreigners!"
Yesterday I was shopping near Qian Men by myself. I was hungry having missed lunch so I went to eat buns at a yummy bun place. When I arrived, the place was fairly empty so I got to sit by myself at a four person table. But then the restaurant filled up and the waitress told a couple to sit with me. I didn't care, I just wanted my pork buns. But this couple was one of those disturbing ugly-old-white man with pretty-young-Chinese girl couples. They had to speak in English to communicate even though English is not either of their first languages. They were talking about if they could meet up again when he came into town again in June. Maybe they are really in love, maybe I am just cynical. My buns arrived. While I was eating my buns the guy says something about learning to eat the buns by watching me. After a few, disaster strikes and I break one spilling the soup inside. Grr... I recovered, but then the woman snickered and said "Don't learn from watching her, learn from watching me!" Apparently she thought I was local Chinese and couldn't understand her because I could certainly hear her sitting two feet away. So I finished my buns and called up my friend to tell her I was going to be late but really it was so I could show the woman I spoke English just fine. (And it worked cuz she was like "She is speaking English?!") Childish? Very. Do I care? No. Muhahahaha!
At the bottom of TaiShan we were approached by a bunch of Chinese women offering rides to places. That is to say, as soon as the bus stopped and the door opened, a bunch of women pushed and shoved at each other to get to the front, shouting city names and sticking placards with said names into the bus. By then I was a little tired of being pushed at, yelled at, grabbed, and poked so as I got off the bus I just said "Huh?" and ignored them when they kept trying to talk to me. They came to the conclusion that I didn't speak any Chinese (since that was the whole point). But then they began to speak about us in Chinese standing right next to us. Nothing really bad but stuff like "Wow, they look Chinese but they don't speak any Chinese, they're foreigners!"
Yesterday I was shopping near Qian Men by myself. I was hungry having missed lunch so I went to eat buns at a yummy bun place. When I arrived, the place was fairly empty so I got to sit by myself at a four person table. But then the restaurant filled up and the waitress told a couple to sit with me. I didn't care, I just wanted my pork buns. But this couple was one of those disturbing ugly-old-white man with pretty-young-Chinese girl couples. They had to speak in English to communicate even though English is not either of their first languages. They were talking about if they could meet up again when he came into town again in June. Maybe they are really in love, maybe I am just cynical. My buns arrived. While I was eating my buns the guy says something about learning to eat the buns by watching me. After a few, disaster strikes and I break one spilling the soup inside. Grr... I recovered, but then the woman snickered and said "Don't learn from watching her, learn from watching me!" Apparently she thought I was local Chinese and couldn't understand her because I could certainly hear her sitting two feet away. So I finished my buns and called up my friend to tell her I was going to be late but really it was so I could show the woman I spoke English just fine. (And it worked cuz she was like "She is speaking English?!") Childish? Very. Do I care? No. Muhahahaha!
posted by wchien at 9:26 AM
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