As my mind was wandering today at work, i remembered back to an experience i had at a bus station in China....Beijing I believe. (As a side note, don't you just love how the word "Beijing" looks in print? All those dots above the Is and J form such a nice
super-vocable elipsis of sorts...very pleasing). At any rate, my brother and I were trying to discern which bus would most delightfully take us to our intended destination (and there were so many to choose from!). Fortunately, my brother spoke Chinese (fluently, to my ears, though i he often denied it). One young girl, probably 16 or 17, we asked directions from (rather, my brother asked directions from), after ostensibly telling my brother where we would find our intended destination, proceded to attempt to engage me in conversation. Being wholly ignorant of any form of communication in Chinese, I responded with a blank stare and a deflection to my brother. My brother kindly explained that I dont speak Chinese (he said his exact translated words work out to be something like: "my brother is a dumb monkey, he doesnt understand" or something to that effect. He continues to assure me that this is just how the Chinese say "H
e doesn't speak your language" but I still have my doubts.) But this explanation didnt satisfy this persistent young lady, who fruitlessly attempted to continue to engage me in conversation. She eventually gestured for me to lend her my note pad, in which she wrote what my brother explained was likely her name and phone number. At that, we parted ways, and I, of no contribution of my own, ended up with some girls phone number. If you know me well, you will be firmly aware that at that time in life I was about as ignorant of talking to girls as I was of the Chinese language itself, which makes the whole experience doubly confounding. The thing that really puzzled me for some time after that was the hilariously outlandish notion that I would somehow be able to call this person on the telephone, and have a more successful conversation with her than I did at the bus station! I guess you cant blame her for trying to defy all odds, however unfortunately, she seriously picked the wrong
la-whye (*aka, ignorant foreigner).
As my mind was wandering today at work, i remembered back to an experience i had at a bus station in China....Beijing I believe. (As a side note, don't you just love how the word "Beijing" looks in print? All those dots above the Is and J form such a nice super-vocable elipsis of sorts...very pleasing). At any rate, my brother and I were trying to discern which bus would most delightfully take us to our intended destination (and there were so many to choose from!). Fortunately, my brother spoke Chinese (fluently, to my ears, though i he often denied it). One young girl, probably 16 or 17, we asked directions from (rather, my brother asked directions from), after ostensibly telling my brother where we would find our intended destination, proceded to attempt to engage me in conversation. Being wholly ignorant of any form of communication in Chinese, I responded with a blank stare and a deflection to my brother. My brother kindly explained that I dont speak Chinese (he said his exact translated words work out to be something like: "my brother is a dumb monkey, he doesnt understand" or something to that effect. He continues to assure me that this is just how the Chinese say "H
e doesn't speak your language" but I still have my doubts.) But this explanation didnt satisfy this persistent young lady, who fruitlessly attempted to continue to engage me in conversation. She eventually gestured for me to lend her my note pad, in which she wrote what my brother explained was likely her name and phone number. At that, we parted ways, and I, of no contribution of my own, ended up with some girls phone number. If you know me well, you will be firmly aware that at that time in life I was about as ignorant of talking to girls as I was of the Chinese language itself, which makes the whole experience doubly confounding. The thing that really puzzled me for some time after that was the hilariously outlandish notion that I would somehow be able to call this person on the telephone, and have a more successful conversation with her than I did at the bus station! I guess you cant blame her for trying to defy all odds, however unfortunately, she seriously picked the wrong la-whye (*aka, ignorant foreigner).
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