Things don't always go as you planned...

As most of you know, last Sunday was… well, yes, it was Saint Valentine’s Day, but it was also the Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger. I sent HNY messages to all my friends and even did a small piece on the event here. And I planned to make some Chinese food in the evening, but that was postponed as my better half had already planned something else.

Never mind, on Tuesday I was told we would be driving in to Eskilstuna, our nearest town, and I took the opportunity to suggest that we go in the afternoon and stay for dinner at our favourite Oriental – actually Mongolian – restaurant, Bamboo House, which has an unbelievable oriental buffet. This was cheerfully agreed to, and I printed out a little cheat sheet of Chinese phrases in pinyin, which included the Mandarin for Happy New Year, gōng hè xīn xǐ.

For those of you for whom the term pinyin is new, this is a way of representing languages which use Chinese characters in latin characters, with accents over the vowels to show how they are to be spoken. The straight line over the ‘o’ in gōng means that the vowel is pronounced on one note, whereas the ‘e’ in hè slides down the tone scale as one says the word.

As we arrived at the restaurant I took a last quick look at the cheat sheet. Inside we were greeted by a young lady of oriental appearance, to whom I said “nǐ hǎo“, or “good day”, and received the same back. This was a good start. So, with the phrase fresh in my mind, I tried “gōng hè xīn xǐ” to be met by a blank look of misunderstanding.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Chinese,” she explained. “I’m from Thailand. But I know “nǐ hǎo“.

OK, we had a good laugh and I explained what I had intended to say, which, of course, had no significance for her.

A little later I was on my way to take a second helping and saw a young chef refilling the buffet. Out with the cheat sheet again, then I tried once more in my best Mandarin. Again a look of total incomprehension. And I thought I had a talent for language! Once again I explained what I had tried to say, and this time met with another reaction. This guy was very grateful for my good wishes, as he shared the Chinese New Year, but he himself was from Vietnam, and didn’t understand Mandarin.

And the moral of this story? Don’t assume because you’re in an Oriental restaurant, even one with Chinese associations, that the staff are necessarily Chinese.

Actually, I should have been warned. You would be amazed at the number of pizzerias in Sweden where the staff talk arabic or farsi amongst themselves. It’s enough for the blonde Swedes that they have black hair and work in a pizzeria, and everyone assumes they are, if not from Napoli, at least Italian. But don’t greet them with “bon giorno” unless you’re very, very sure!

© James Wilde 2015