It was a funny moment-- the shuttle driver kept shouting at her in the most Beijingy imaginable 儿话, asking her what terminal she was getting off at, and she kept responding in very accented English that her flight left at 4 PM. So I asked if she spoke English and she looked at me and shook her head and said "Japanese?" So I said "Oh, 日本語" and then after a few false starts (everything kept coming out in Mandarin), I managed to find out that she was leaving from terminal three, and then wrenched my brain back into Mandarin and told the driver that. And then everyone was asking me if she was Japanese, so I translated the question, and she said she was Mongolian, and I translated back, and then everyone lost interest in her and just wanted to know why I could speak Chinese.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-09-09 12:41 pm (UTC)It was a funny moment-- the shuttle driver kept shouting at her in the most Beijingy imaginable 儿话, asking her what terminal she was getting off at, and she kept responding in very accented English that her flight left at 4 PM. So I asked if she spoke English and she looked at me and shook her head and said "Japanese?" So I said "Oh, 日本語" and then after a few false starts (everything kept coming out in Mandarin), I managed to find out that she was leaving from terminal three, and then wrenched my brain back into Mandarin and told the driver that. And then everyone was asking me if she was Japanese, so I translated the question, and she said she was Mongolian, and I translated back, and then everyone lost interest in her and just wanted to know why I could speak Chinese.