Ok I have to share a couple of funny language confusion stories.
A day or so after we arrived here in Taiwan, my family and I were kind of hanging outside our apartment building, trying to figure out which mailbox was ours (everything - including the numbers on the box is in Chinese).
We soon saw the mailguy, clad in a green short jacket and matching green pants, wearing a green hat. It's so cute - they deliver the mail by scooter. Anyway we saw him ringing a buzzer - and when no one answered, he looked up and yelled what sounded like, "SUSAN!" So, we thought, oh, he's calling me! We told him that I was Susan, and he looked at the letter, then looked at me, with a puzzled look on his face. Still, he let me sign for it...we thought it had something to do with our ADSL/phone service. We asked him which buzzer/mailbox was ours, and he showed us.
A few days later, when Sujoy went to work, he showed the people in his office the letter and asked them to translate it for him. Turns out the person's name is Soo-jin! So they all had a good laugh. Ok it doesn't sound that funny, maybe you had to be there! We later found out that she owns a lock and key shop down the road. I went to buy a lock and told her who I was and she was all excited and even gave me a discount.
The walls in our apartment here are so thin. One night I was lying in Anjoli's bedroom and I hear a man's voice calling "Sue!" so I said "Yes?" and ran to Sujoy's bedroom,(it sounded urgent) but he was sleeping...so it was actually Soo Jin's husband calling her!
Another cute story: We went shopping at a huge Costco like department store called Carrefour one day. (It's kind of cool - you can take your shopping cart up these escaloter-like ramps). We were in the checkout line and I had to use the restroom, so I had to go down a few flights. Sujoy said he'd meet me near the cashier's stand.
Well, when I went back up - he was gone - and I was all a twitter, as usual. Turns out he forgot that he told me to meet me upstairs, so he went downstairs looking for me - ack! So he left Anjoli at the information booth, and he asked the woman: "please watch her for me, I have to go find my wife." So the lady turned to Anjoli and told her:"you stay with me, your papa's going to find some rice!" hee hee. We finally managed to bump into eachother...phew!
I'm so glad you all found eachother
ReplyDeleteand did not get lost afterall.
That was a very rice story!Hehe!
Here's a quick one as told to me
by an old veteran irish waitress
named Rosie that I worked with in 1982.She said that she went to China for the first time with her little dog and forgot to bring dog
food with her so she stopped in
a restaurant and asked the waiter
if they can feed her dog so he
smiled and asked for the dog and
went to the kitchen with it,well
about 45 minutes to an hour goes
by and Rosie keeps asking where
her dog is,only for the waiter
to come out with it fully cooked
on a silver platter tray with garnishes around it and an apple
in it's mouth.CRAZY!!! Whether this
was a true story or not,she never
wavered a second in telling the story so I have assumed that it
was true 23 years after writing
about it here.I think I'll keep
my doggies at home thank you,lol.
Have fun in NYC in June,Rufus is
a great songwriter and unique
artist,you have excellent taste,Sue!!