A Visit to Chinatown

Since the China trip is yet three months off, why not visit Chinese people in Chinatown to practice the language? After lunch (next time we're going for lunch), we headed down to the square. We found a bakery with sweet bread and coconut stuffing. We ordered a large coffee, ate and listened. There were a couple of old Chinese men playing Chinese Chess or Xianqi (pronounced ShanChee). It's nothing like regular Western Chess. Even the pieces are different. They look like checkers with different animals or characters on them. Anyway a Chinese woman came in, ordered coffee and a sweet roll and sat down at the table next to us. Ruth leaned over and asked her what the old men were playing. She explained it was Chess. "Very similar to Western Chess." she said. Well, soon she and Ruth were in a discussion and she was talking away, but not in Chinese. Ruth asked her if she could practice her Chinese on her but the woman said she was born and raised in NYC and was trying to learn herself. Ruth gave her her sentence but the lady didn't correct her on anything. She just made the point that you don't need to be a professor to speak Chinese. In fact, just speak regular words. Sometimes when she visits China the people look down on her because she looks Chinese but doesn't speak the language. She tells them: "Look I will teach you how to treat other people. Even though you can speak your own language, you still need to learn how to treat others with respect." She doesn't let them get away with it. We exchanged numbers and promised to link up again but I'm not sure we will, unless it's here in Chinatown. We snapped a picture of her and her nephew before we left. He spoke not a word of English. I asked him what his name was: 你叫什么？ nǐ jiào shénme? (What's your first name?) He didn't seem to understand me. He looked at me puzzled. Then she chimed in and asked him: 你叫什么名字？ nǐ jiào shénme míngzì? (What's your full name?) He eventually understood what I meant and gave me his Chinese name. It's so strange that with all the study we do I wasn't even able to ask someone's name correctly. It just goes to show that practice is key. We parted with the standard: 我很高兴见到你！ wǒ hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nǐ! (I'm very happy to have met you!) ...dave Life is like a hot bath. It feels good while you're in it, but the longer you stay in, the more wrinkled you get. -Robbert Oustin