Honestly, I don't know what the deal is, but whenever I successfully speak Chinese, I want to laugh. I am not sure if there is some sort of psychological phenomenon behind this occurrence, but whatever it is, it is really funny.
We were on the way home today, and the driver asked if he should turn here to get onto Baise. I went with a dui, which means correct. Not enough to make me laugh. Denis and I both knew what was coming next. The driver starts pumping his brakes, not sure where to stop. If you make the further motion that we usually make at home, the driver stops all together, and getting him to move again is quite a tast. So we have learned not to do that. I haven't figured out how to say "go straight for two lights and then turn left right after the second," but today, I did come up with an alternative, compliments of HuaBing, our new tutor. I said, "jiu bai ba shi jiu." (our street number)
The confused look on his face was instantly replaced with a wo zhi dao (I understand) look. This is when the first giggle escaped. The second one came after I added a hao to my number (hao is the measure word for number, so he understood what I meant without it, but it was more correct grammatically with it). After I said the hao he smiled, and then I laughed, and then he laughed. And it was good : )
Some of the cab drivers are really snarlly and dour, but a lot of them are really happy-go-lucky and sort of goofy. This guy was a happy one, and they always make me a lot happier, especially after a good day, and today was a good China day. As I was getting out of the cab, I wanted to day hao wanshang, but I wasn't sure if that was appropriate as a departing phrase or if it was only used for a greeting. So I just went with a well-toned zai jian and it was enough to make him smile again and wave as he drove off.
Time to grade the papers.
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circling
16 years ago
2 comments:
Awesome when a cab ride turns into a chess match. You won that game. Happy and healthy holidays. You have been there for almost half a year. Yeausssah!
Not to worry, when you come home We'll take you on your word. You'll be able to say anything to us in and we'll just smile and non our heads. We won't know what you're saying. This should make you feel at home. Ha! Ha!
Seriously, I'm so impressed that you can communicate with everyone. I'd be very hard pressed. Unless sign language would be considered another alternative language. Ha! Ha!
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