Chinese Tales: Culture Confusion

Every week part of my Chinese homework is to prepare a short spoken piece about my week. It only occurred to me this week: why not combine blogging with my weekly Chinese dialogue? My stories are still the sort of thing I'd post here. So from now on, every week I'll write one interesting (or not objectively) thing about my week in English and translate it into pinyin (phonetic Chinese). And, if I have enough time/ can get a Chinese keyboard, translate into character later.

Note: the English part is going to be grammatically structured in a way that will let me translate directly into Mandarin more easily (for example I'll write something like "yesterday I went to the cinema" rather than "I went to the cinema yesterday"). It's going to look a little strange, but thinking with Chinese grammar from the start is much easier than thinking with English grammar and then having to rearrange everything, trust me on this!

Here we go! This week's story: Culture Confusion.

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My friend looks Chinese, but was actually born in India, so waiters in Chinese restaurants will often speak to her first, and speak in Mandarin: so my friend always has to say "I'm sorry, I can't speak Chinese," and the waiter will always look confused.

Last Thursday, myself, my friend and her boyfriend went to a hotpot restaurant to eat dinner. The waiter immediately spoke Chinese to my friend. "Wanshang hao, ji wei?" he said. ("Good evening, how many people?")

My friend said, "I'm sorry, I can't speak Chinese...", and the waiter looked confused. But he looked even more confused when I suddenly said "san wei, xiexie!" ("Three people, thanks!")

He looked at my friend, her English boyfriend and myself. "Oh!" he said. "Are none of you Chinese?"

My friend said "Er... no..." I thought, "I'm half Chinese", but I didn't say this out loud because I wasn't confident! However I did try to order food in Chinese: but not the dishes that were too difficult!

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Wǒde péngyǒu kànshàngqù xiàng Zhōngguórén, bùguò tā chūshēng zài Yìndù, suǒyǐ Zhōngguó cānguǎn de fúwùyuán chángcháng tā shuōhuà. Suǒyǐ wǒde péngyǒu zǒngshì dĕi shuō "duìbùqǐ, wǒ bù huì shuō Zhōngwén," hé fúwùyuán zǒngshì kànshàngqù yī diǎn kùnhuò.

Shàng ge xīngqísì, wǒ, wǒde péngyǒu hé tā de nánpéngyǒu qùle huǒguō cānguǎn chī wǎnfàn. Fúwùyuán mǎshàng gēn tā shuōhuà: "Wǎnshàng hǎo, jǐ weì?" tā shuōle.

Wǒde péngyǒu shuōle, "Duìbùqǐ, wǒ bù huì shuō Zhōngwén..." Fúwùyuán kànshàngqùle yī diǎn kùnhuò, dànshì wǒ túrán shuōle "Sān weì, xièxiè!" de shíhòu, tā kànshàngqùle gèng kùnhuò!

Tā kànle wǒde péngyǒu, tā de Yīngguórén nánpéngyǒu hé wǒ. "Oh!", tā shuōle. "Nǐmen shì bùshì Zhōngguórén?"

Wǒde péngyǒu shuōle "Er... bù..." Wǒ xiǎng, "Wǒ shì yībàn Zhōngguórén," bùguò wǒ méi shuōchūkǒ, yīnwèi wǒ méi zìxìn! Bùguò wo shìshìle shuō Zhōngwén diǎn cài: dànshì bù tài nán de cài!

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