Ok. So with the recent arrival of Pepe Q-tip, I've been kinda distracted by this small white whirlwind of fluff, shit, piss and newspaper. So time to get back to whining about trivial issues. And this one is about as trivial as it gets, but deserves discussion nonetheless.

I'm studying Chinese here. That said, I like the fact that when I go out, I'm fully immersed in a Chinese-speaking environnment.

I still like to go to Walmart for groceries though, as it's the closest and most convenient place in my neighbourhood. But here's what pisses me off about Walmart. Sometimes, when I ring in my purchase at the checkout, it's as if I've stepped back into the Silent Era of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and other such voiceless wonders. Some of the cashiers don't bother to say the price in Chinese (example: Wushi san kuai liu mao) but merely rotate the display screen of the cash register so I can read it myself. Thus they make our pleasant transaction completely free of spoken words.

"Shuo ba" I say. "Speak."
"Wo yiwei ni tingbudong" is the cashier's reply. "I didn't think you'd understand."

Ya, ya, ya. Now, I know what you're thinking. He's only trying to help. Maybe so. But the principles behind such an action are about just as fucked as... (searching for appropriate simile...) Mu zimei. Now that's fucked...

This assumes that all laowai are "fresh off the boat" so to speak, and that no non-Chinese looking person has the ability to understand spoken Chinese.

Here's my new sentence for responding to this kind of treatment:

Cashier: "I didn't think you'd understand."
Me: "That's because there a Great Wall in your mind."


Tags: China, Chinese, Walmart, Dalian, Newfoundland, Wal-mart, newfie, Muzimei, pandapassport, chinese language study