two stories about nationality-
yesterday when i was taking a cab home, i told my cab driver to take me to the russian embassy, as usual (my building is right across the street from the embassy). as is often the case, the driver assumed that i was russian, and so he asked me "you russian people, how do you say hello?" now normally, i would very quickly and huffily tell the driver that i'm american. but having just learned a few words in Russian, i decided to show off my new vocabulary.
"you say 'priviet'," i told him, which is guess is more like "hey" than "hello," but close enough. "pi re wee te?" i told him that was exactly right, although what he had said sounded more like pirouette. "ah, thanks, and also i wanted to ask..." at this point i got a bit nervous, because i actually only know four words in Russian. if he asked a word that wasn't one of the remaining three, i would have to either make up a word or confess that i had misled him into thinking i was russian. i hate correcting a misunderstanding that i have already allowed to continue, and it always ends up being kind of embarassing and confusing, so i decided i would continue the lie. i had started to think of russian sounding words as he continued this question. "... i knew a russian woman, she told me how to say 'your welcome.' is it [i forget what he said]?" "yup!" he seemed satisfied, so then i taught him how to say goodbye, and tried to find out what he thought of americans, but he didn't have much to say on the subject.
the second story is from earlier that day, when i took the bus with dan-dan to go buy some dvds. i have vowed to only buy dvds when in the company of chinese people from now on, because she saved me about 20 kuai bargaining with the seller. i bought scrubs, six feet under, and weeds, and i'm very excited to watch them. i gave her some recommendations- the sopranos and project runway. today she reported that she was already hooked on project runway. ah, what a great show.
anyway, i didn't have any small change when i got on the bus, so i told dan-dan that i could probably just avoid the ticket guy and wouldn't have to pay. she then told me a story about being in Holland and getting a fancy haircut with her friend, highlights and everything, and then finding that they had lost their credit card. "we pretended we didn't speak the language," she giggled. "first we told them we were korean, and then later on we told them we were japanese." i laughed too, then realized this didn't make any sense. "why didn't you just say you were chinese and didn't speak the language?" i asked.
"we didn't want to lose face for china."
yesterday when i was taking a cab home, i told my cab driver to take me to the russian embassy, as usual (my building is right across the street from the embassy). as is often the case, the driver assumed that i was russian, and so he asked me "you russian people, how do you say hello?" now normally, i would very quickly and huffily tell the driver that i'm american. but having just learned a few words in Russian, i decided to show off my new vocabulary.
"you say 'priviet'," i told him, which is guess is more like "hey" than "hello," but close enough. "pi re wee te?" i told him that was exactly right, although what he had said sounded more like pirouette. "ah, thanks, and also i wanted to ask..." at this point i got a bit nervous, because i actually only know four words in Russian. if he asked a word that wasn't one of the remaining three, i would have to either make up a word or confess that i had misled him into thinking i was russian. i hate correcting a misunderstanding that i have already allowed to continue, and it always ends up being kind of embarassing and confusing, so i decided i would continue the lie. i had started to think of russian sounding words as he continued this question. "... i knew a russian woman, she told me how to say 'your welcome.' is it [i forget what he said]?" "yup!" he seemed satisfied, so then i taught him how to say goodbye, and tried to find out what he thought of americans, but he didn't have much to say on the subject.
the second story is from earlier that day, when i took the bus with dan-dan to go buy some dvds. i have vowed to only buy dvds when in the company of chinese people from now on, because she saved me about 20 kuai bargaining with the seller. i bought scrubs, six feet under, and weeds, and i'm very excited to watch them. i gave her some recommendations- the sopranos and project runway. today she reported that she was already hooked on project runway. ah, what a great show.
anyway, i didn't have any small change when i got on the bus, so i told dan-dan that i could probably just avoid the ticket guy and wouldn't have to pay. she then told me a story about being in Holland and getting a fancy haircut with her friend, highlights and everything, and then finding that they had lost their credit card. "we pretended we didn't speak the language," she giggled. "first we told them we were korean, and then later on we told them we were japanese." i laughed too, then realized this didn't make any sense. "why didn't you just say you were chinese and didn't speak the language?" i asked.
"we didn't want to lose face for china."
posted by Amanda at 11:06 PM
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