This morning the cleaning lady came, and she didn't speak English (which is fine) but I thought for some reason my basic Chinese skills would help. Nope. Totally useless. You should have seen us, we were like, playing charades in the hallway xD
She came in and pointed at the towels and I was like 'bu (no)' buy she kept talking and pointing so I just kept saying 'duibuchi (sorry)' but finally I got that she wanted the dirty towels.
Tonight I'm going to review my Chinese xD
Niki - the same thing happened when I first went to Paris (tried to speak French) and then Austria (tried to speak German) - normal people (those not paid to serve you - e.g. Waiters) have a different accent and speak too quickly and use words or phases that are different then in the textbook. The language on the street is always different. This is the primary cause of wars (my theory).
ReplyDeleteWe had similar problems in Punta Cana with our limited Spanish. Oh dear.
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