Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Because maybe if you keep calling me, I'll magically speak Chinese!

Seriously... does the Chinese guy working in the building next to me honestly think that if he keeps calling me and repeating, "Wei, wei,.... wei" (wei is the standard telephone greeting), that I will suddenly develop a fluent ability in Chinese?

He has called me three times in the last 4 minutes. The only other thing I could understand is he wanted to know if Zhang Wei (David) was here. I've repeated the same conversation 4 times. I told him, "Ta bu zai jar. Wo bu zhidao ta zai nar. Wo bu hue shua Putonghua, wo shua Yingwen. Dui bu qi." (He is not here. I don't know where he is. I don't speak standard Chinese language, I speak English. Excuse me.) How much more clear can I be?

Maybe if I call him repeated and say, "You're an idiot" he'll suddenly start speaking English fluently!