One word Chinese

Today, I returned to my new favorite hole in the wall restraunt while my friends had another night in town. Again, I was greeted with giggles from the little Chinese girls who knew that their Chinese was better than mine.
Into the restraunt I went; this being my third time to eat there. I was shown to my table of one, and pulled out my tusted pocket-dictionary (thank you Whitney). The other day we had gotten this potato and chicken dish that was very good. I decided that I want to try to take a stab at it, and see what the results were. I said the word for chicken-- she got it on the first try. I said the word for potato-- again, right on the first try. I felt very proud of myself. She kind of looked at me funny, and went over and yelled the order to the cook. About 3 minutes later she came back, and said something in Chinese. It extended beyond my one word Chinese. I looked around the restraunt for an interpreter and so did she. She leaned over to the table of three young men who had just walked in, and I guess asked to translate. Evidently she wanted to know if I wanted anything else. I am not sure why, I thought she had understood me just fine. She was very persistant in finding something out. So, I ask the three young men what their favorite dish was. After only a few short minutes, I asked them if they would like to join me for dinner. They discussed some more with the waitresses, and we ended up with 5 plates of great Chinese food: chicken and potatoes, tofu and peppers, mongolian beef, "la (Chinese for hot) lamb"- a classic Wuhan dish, and a beef and hot pepper dish. I came to find out, they are in a special advanced placement high school, where if they do well, they can go to a top university in the UK, Australia or America. We had a very good meal and discussed things from the tones of Wuhan Wa, me teaching at the University, to Kierra Knightly and the movies she had been in.
At the conclusion of our meal, they were curious if I was interested in playing PS2 down the hallway, where we could play for a few yuans per game. I had no other plans, so I agreed to. I got dominated in two matches of football... even when I was Brazil and he was Vietnam. Then, he, Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets dominated the Dallas Mavericks in a little NBA 2006. Of course, the match was a video game, and not true to life.
Thanks to my one-word-Chinese and the friendliness of the people in Wuhan, I had a great time with some new friends.

Comments

  1. Derek31/8/06

    Patrick, it's good to see that those thumb excercises are helping you to meet people in China. Who would have known how important that would be? It's good to hear from you. Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. steve H31/8/06

    It is good to let new friends win at first! We look forward to your next entry. I read your adventures as a bedtime story to j
    Joan!

    Take care!

    Steve

    ReplyDelete

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