Wanna see my menu?
There’s a rumor that this place has Mexican food. And I’m Jonesan for a juicy burrito – hold the rice please.
I enter and approach the hostess. I motion by opening my hands like a book and presenting it to her. “Menu please?”
She looks a little puzzled. I once again present her with my imaginary menu. She smiles uncomfortably and motions me to follow her.
She doesn’t give me a menu, but she does show me to the toilet.
What about my hand gesture signified my needing to use the restroom, I will never know.
I don’t speak Chinese. They don’t speak English. Either I suck at hand gestures or they suck at reading them. Probably a little of both.
By the way they didn’t have Mexican. The search continues.
ha – that’s funny… one of the common terms for potty in Mandarin is “wash hands room.” Shanghai has it’s own dialect, but I bet that’s why she thought you wanted the potty.
Maybe she thought the hand signal meant “open the flood gates”
Joel, that’s a relief. I was afraid I had propositioned her. China is great because they don’t understand us and what we do and we don’t understand them and what they do. I’m not sure I would want to live here, but I’m glad you are and blogging about it.
Kent, (insert golden shower joke)
Well, speaking of propositioning people in restaurants… just fyi:?the word for “Miss” in Mandarin (xi?o ji? – ??) is also how you address a waitress, but it’s also means prostitute. So there are xi?o-ji?’s, and then there are “xi?oji?”‘s, if you know what I mean. It all depends on context – how you use it and where you are (like in a restaurant or a skanky karaoke bar).
???(careful!)