I’ve been the intended victim of some skulduggeries, you will understand no details here but they didn’t succeed as I have been here too often. It’s been a long day & I’m a little bit in need of some western company so I felt rather skittish tonight and decided to go to the local supermarket and fully use my Canto skills. I normally do this sparingly but I needed to relieve some tension so I went to the supermarket with all guns blazing, deliberately spoke Canto whenever I heard someone speaking it, joined in staff members conversations, admired children, excused myself, used formal & informal language, made funny comments – in other words I deliberately showed off. Here’s a strange thing, when I hear Canto and speak it they suddenly change to Mandarin because they assume a Westerner can’t speak it. Then I persist and they are amazed people turn around, expression of surprise & open mouths. Then there is a huge shock as they mostly speak Canto, they change to Mandarin to accommodate me and then I become the first Westerner they have ever heard speak Canto, they burst themselves with pride about the local culture and bombard me with questions. I have to say I enjoy this, even one or two words will bring gasps. If you could do it wouldn’t you? The inevitable result when I go back there is those staff who were on tonight that I spoke to will greet me in Canto, & I’ll reply. Whenever I come back to this shop for years to come, those staff who were here will always remember and call out. A couple of days ago someone who met me years ago stopped me in the street in this city of 10 million, I guess I do stand out.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:23:02 +0000
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