Today I was at The Bookworm for the first time to get some inspiration. It was all that I expected it to be, except the coffee was a tad bit expensive for my taste.
In any case, I spent three hours trying to draft a personal statement, but failed miserably.
As I was leaving, I saw a stand full of Time Out China magazines. There was no price, so I assumed they must be free, but I just stood there by the doorway reading the latest issue about what to do for National Day. Since I didn't want to write anything down or take the magazine, I noted down some things on my blackberry that can't read or write Chinese.
Suddenly this Chinese man says, "你在练习你的英文啊？" Then I turn around and say to him back in Chinese, "不是！我只在看看。 我是美国人." Suddenly it didn't even matter that I spoke Chinese because the man started just speaking in English to me. He spoke quite well.
"Oh, I thought you were practicing your English. Ha, ha." He takes the magazine out of my hand. "I saw you writing down notes"
"我只是在看看。。。"
No matter. Then he says, "Oh I see. So you know English and Chinese?"
I gave up and just spoke English. "Yeah."
"What other languages?"
"Um, I guess I do know French too."
Then all of a sudden he starts speaking some really fabulous French and I tell him, "wow, vous parlez très bien! quand je parle j'ai un accent americain."
"Non, non...en fait quand tout le monde parle, on a un accent. Comme les Canadiens, les Belges..."
I was mystified. This multi-lingual man is so multi-lingual. WHAT DOES THIS MAN WANT FROM ME? He asked me if I spoke Spanish, and then used a bit of Spanish on me (I said I didn't know any Spanish!) and then he asked if I knew German, and tried that on me too. We spoke for a little while, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to read the Time Out magazine anymore, nor was I going to be able to not feel inadequate.
"OK, so, I'm going to go," I told him. Then he bid me farewell.
Whatever.
Good thing about Beijing, though, is that there are SO MANY UNIQLO SHOPS AND MUJI SHOPS TOO! AHHHHH!
Oh, and today I noticed that in my classroom's map of China, Taiwan is included. I'm not saying anything else.
In any case, I spent three hours trying to draft a personal statement, but failed miserably.
As I was leaving, I saw a stand full of Time Out China magazines. There was no price, so I assumed they must be free, but I just stood there by the doorway reading the latest issue about what to do for National Day. Since I didn't want to write anything down or take the magazine, I noted down some things on my blackberry that can't read or write Chinese.
Suddenly this Chinese man says, "你在练习你的英文啊？" Then I turn around and say to him back in Chinese, "不是！我只在看看。 我是美国人." Suddenly it didn't even matter that I spoke Chinese because the man started just speaking in English to me. He spoke quite well.
"Oh, I thought you were practicing your English. Ha, ha." He takes the magazine out of my hand. "I saw you writing down notes"
"我只是在看看。。。"
No matter. Then he says, "Oh I see. So you know English and Chinese?"
I gave up and just spoke English. "Yeah."
"What other languages?"
"Um, I guess I do know French too."
Then all of a sudden he starts speaking some really fabulous French and I tell him, "wow, vous parlez très bien! quand je parle j'ai un accent americain."
"Non, non...en fait quand tout le monde parle, on a un accent. Comme les Canadiens, les Belges..."
I was mystified. This multi-lingual man is so multi-lingual. WHAT DOES THIS MAN WANT FROM ME? He asked me if I spoke Spanish, and then used a bit of Spanish on me (I said I didn't know any Spanish!) and then he asked if I knew German, and tried that on me too. We spoke for a little while, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to read the Time Out magazine anymore, nor was I going to be able to not feel inadequate.
"OK, so, I'm going to go," I told him. Then he bid me farewell.
Whatever.
Good thing about Beijing, though, is that there are SO MANY UNIQLO SHOPS AND MUJI SHOPS TOO! AHHHHH!
Oh, and today I noticed that in my classroom's map of China, Taiwan is included. I'm not saying anything else.
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