Scene One Part One:
2:30 pm on a Thursday afternoon. In the grocery store, in the dairy section. I need milk. I know it comes in small bags and I like the blue kind, but I'm surrounded by unfamiliar brands of things and can't find exactly what I used to buy in my other city. There's a lady there offering samples of the brand of milk she has, and I try one and it's good, but it's a little expensive. I roam around deliberating for 20 minutes, and finally buy a set of little bags of dairy.
I get home, and pour myself a glass. Not milk. It's yogurt. The character that turns the word for "milk" into "yogurt" was written all fancy and I've made a mistake. Drat.
Scene One Part Two:
Now it's Saturday morning, and I'm still hunting for milk. I go into a tiny little convenience market and ask the guy, "Do you have cheese?" He looks at me funny, and says no (only specialty stores have cheese, not little shops like this one), then I say "Oh, no, I mean...(insert long pause while I frantically rack my brain for the word)...milk!" "Yes, we do. Back there." Milk buying, after over 48 hours and a few humiliations, successful.
Scene Two:
A week later, Sunday morning, 10:30 am. I am at the huge fabric/clothing/anything made out of cloth market, picking up my new curtains I'd ordered the day before. I've already successfully used Chinese to find the particular stall where I ordered my curtains (using the business card she gave me) but they're not quite ready yet, so I have half an hour to kill in this huge place. I start to wander, and get to a part where they sell ribbons and lace, and I think: I want some more knitting yarn! So I go to a saleslady and tell her (in Chinese) "May I ask you, I like to knit. (Make knitting motion to clarify my poor tones on that word). I want to buy (show her my phone dictionary where I'd looked up yarn a second ago)." She says "What do you want to make?" I respond, "a hat, or (motion gloves on hand)." Oh, you want YARN (she says the right word, not the dictionary word). Wait a moment. She writes the Chinese on a piece of paper and hands it to me, saying, go that way and when you get down there ask them, they'll help you. I do and I find the yarn lady. Not only am I able to buy the yarn, but I chat for awhile with two nine year old kids hanging out there, and find my way back to the curtain store, chat with the curtain lady, and get home.
All this in about a week's time. I'm right at that dangerous stage where you win some, you lose some, all in the course of every day life!!
2:30 pm on a Thursday afternoon. In the grocery store, in the dairy section. I need milk. I know it comes in small bags and I like the blue kind, but I'm surrounded by unfamiliar brands of things and can't find exactly what I used to buy in my other city. There's a lady there offering samples of the brand of milk she has, and I try one and it's good, but it's a little expensive. I roam around deliberating for 20 minutes, and finally buy a set of little bags of dairy.
I get home, and pour myself a glass. Not milk. It's yogurt. The character that turns the word for "milk" into "yogurt" was written all fancy and I've made a mistake. Drat.
Scene One Part Two:
Now it's Saturday morning, and I'm still hunting for milk. I go into a tiny little convenience market and ask the guy, "Do you have cheese?" He looks at me funny, and says no (only specialty stores have cheese, not little shops like this one), then I say "Oh, no, I mean...(insert long pause while I frantically rack my brain for the word)...milk!" "Yes, we do. Back there." Milk buying, after over 48 hours and a few humiliations, successful.
Scene Two:
A week later, Sunday morning, 10:30 am. I am at the huge fabric/clothing/anything made out of cloth market, picking up my new curtains I'd ordered the day before. I've already successfully used Chinese to find the particular stall where I ordered my curtains (using the business card she gave me) but they're not quite ready yet, so I have half an hour to kill in this huge place. I start to wander, and get to a part where they sell ribbons and lace, and I think: I want some more knitting yarn! So I go to a saleslady and tell her (in Chinese) "May I ask you, I like to knit. (Make knitting motion to clarify my poor tones on that word). I want to buy (show her my phone dictionary where I'd looked up yarn a second ago)." She says "What do you want to make?" I respond, "a hat, or (motion gloves on hand)." Oh, you want YARN (she says the right word, not the dictionary word). Wait a moment. She writes the Chinese on a piece of paper and hands it to me, saying, go that way and when you get down there ask them, they'll help you. I do and I find the yarn lady. Not only am I able to buy the yarn, but I chat for awhile with two nine year old kids hanging out there, and find my way back to the curtain store, chat with the curtain lady, and get home.
All this in about a week's time. I'm right at that dangerous stage where you win some, you lose some, all in the course of every day life!!
