An interesting encounter

So Miss Expatriate and I went out to dinner the other night. We chose one of our favorite budget restaurants, which happens to specialize in Turkey Rice, sat down and were engrossed in our food when we had a visitor.

A mother had come in with her son, approximately 7 years old. He immediately came up to our table, picking his nose the entire time, and inquired of me:

吃飽了沒? Chī bǎu lè méi? (Are you full?)

Miss Expatriate gave a quizzical look (probably because of the extended nose picking), but I answered:

吃飽了,謝謝。ChÄ« bÇŽu lè, xiè xiè. (Yes, I’m full. Thanks.)

Satisfied, he ran off to his mom.

Moments later he came back. He pointed to my glasses on the table (I had taken them off because it had been raining and they were wet) and said something I didn’t understand. Miss Expatriate pointed at me and said something. She then told me, “He wanted to know whose glasses they were, and I said they belonged to you.” So, I picked up my glasses, put them on, and stared at him. He said something that sounded like:

你很帥! Nǐ hěn shuài! (You are handsome!)

and ran off. They left shortly after that.

Just an interesting encounter I had.


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One response to “An interesting encounter”

  1. Nathan Avatar

    Just keep it up!
    I lived in Japan for 10 years – the same thing happened during the first 4 years then it just kind of disappeared. Just remember you are the one in command – the better your Chinese gets the more you will be able to control what is said and in what language. For me I am on cruise control now – I dig the English spoken here – but I am studying a lot myself.

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