Studying For Vacation

The menu in front of me was all in Chinese with no pictures. Too flustered to look for characters I recognized, I told the waitress “Wo xi huan niu rou.” She showed me the beef section of the menu and I pointed to the first item.

More confidently, I said “Wo xiang yao Qing Dao”. The waitress replied “Ni bu yao, Qing Dao. Tai ---“ I missed the end of it. She was saying that I didn’t want Qing Dao beer because it was too something. I thought she was saying it was too expensive, but that didn’t seem possible.

When she brought the beer, I realized she said it was too big.

It was only a short walk to my hotel, so I was able to enjoy the whole beer and still find my way back.

I could tell by people in the streets staring at me that I was not in the section of town that catered to westerners, so my Chinese immersion experience was not a surprise.

One afternoon in Xi’an though, I went to a restaurant that the Rough Guide listed as having good Szechuan, and again the menu was all in Chinese. I thought a restaurant listed in an English language guide book would be prepared for English speaking customers, but the waitress looked worried until I started speaking Mandarin.

Supposedly in preparation for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing all cab drivers were being required to learn English. But in September of 2006 I did not find one driver who spoke English. Then, and I suspect now, your choices for getting around in China were to go with a tour group, stay in hotels with bilingual doormen to direct the taxi drivers or learn Chinese.

Naturally I took the third option as being the most practical.

There were times I had to find English speakers for help, and times when I had to ask the same question in different ways until I got an answer I could understand. But I have found my own way around China.

Suddenly all countries are a little less foreign.