December 26, 2008

We don’t look Chinese?

Incident 1
We were in the playground when a Chinese lady came with her daughter and son. Yiu Yiu was on the swing and her daughter saw the bicycle and asked her mother if she could ride. Her mother turned to me and asked, “Basikal awak punya ke?” A short while later, her daughter joined Yiu Yiu in the see saw and the little girl spoke to Yiu Yiu in Mandarin. Her mum reprimanded her, asking her to speak in English to Yiu Yiu, as we only know English and don’t know Mandarin.

Incident 2
I had been going to the gym regularly and arrived early at the class one day. There was only me, the gym instructor with another gym regular there at that time. They were chatting in Cantonese when the gym instructor suddenly turned to me and asked,
Instructor: Do you understand Chinese?
Me: Of course I do
Instructor: Oh sorry, you don’t look like Chinese

Incident 3
I was buying lunch at one of the coffeeshop one day and the stall owner mumbled the price in English. I can’t hear him clearly and asked him back “How much?” in Cantonese. He was so taken aback and stared at me for a few moments before mumbling the price in Cantonese to me again.

So tell me, don’t we look Chinese?

7 comments:

michelle@mybabybay said...

at least u r better than me. I had a few times people bla mandarin to me n I looked at them blank!

LittleLamb said...

I would like to wish you n family a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009.

A Mom's Diary said...

Mybabybay - hahaha...can't decide which one is worse.

LittleLamb - Happy New Year to you and your family too.

Liew said...

Hahahaha it nvr happen b4 wo

Anonymous said...

Hahaha...a bit of adventure in life eh?

Dropping by to wish you A Happy 2009!

And invite you too join in the Read-A-Book-A-Month Challenge :-)

Dreamer said...

WL dear,

Aud wuz here (finally)! ----<@
Great stuff you've got on your blog! Goodness, where do you find the time??

Happy ushering in 2009 :-).

XOX
A

A Mom's Diary said...

Kittycat - Blessed 2009 to you and your family. Read-a-book-a-month? Hehe...sounds like mission impossible to me.

OMG AUD!!! How did you track me down? :-) Blessed 2009 to you and Loh too.