[quote=“shifty”][quote=“Geng”]I get a kick out of this everytime…I walk into a convienence store and there’s a couple of young clerks running the shop. They spot me and you can see the panic in their eyes. They start asking each other “who speaks English”–yet no one does. I grab my snack and take it to the counter. The girl behind the counter is now in total panic and she dosen’t dare say a word. Then, you break out some Chinese and all of a sudden you see a collective sigh of relief amongst all the clerks…followed by suprise.
Just seeing how tense they get is pretty funny, but it brings up a point. They get so tense because they’re afraid they’ll be forced to speak English or will have English spoken to them and they won’t understand…which might lead to an embarassing situation for them. But anyways, it’s still kinda fun. Anyone else notice this?[/quote]
Every friggin’ day!
After 4 years I find it less than adorable having to chase someone day to pay or listen to them rip me to shreds in front of my face. However, what I do is frequent the stores and or people that treat me like a human being rather than like a monkey in a cage to gawk at and ridicule. If I have to give my money to someone I choose to reward professional or amiable behavior rather than wankers.[/quote]
Yeah, I also have my regular stores where I go to. My criteria was, the places where they seem to understand my Chinese.
BUT, to be fair…
Went to the local NT$10 store about three weeks ago and asked the lady there for charcoal to bbq. She gave me this weird look and directed me to the supermarket just down the road. Once there I asked the young lady for charcoal and she showed me their fine selection of ham. The more I tried to explain I want charcoal to bbq, the more she showed me ham. Eventually, totally exasperated I started using hand signals to show her, ‘make fire, charcoal, burn, bbq’ in the hope she would eventually understand… Why couldn’t she just show me charcoal and not the bloody ham??? :fume:
Then, like a bright light suddenly going on in my head I realised my error. I started laughing and she started looking nervous, perhaps even a little frightened. After I corrected myself she duly showed me the charcoal, I made my purchase (much to her relief) and went on my way.
I had been asking for huotway (火腿 - ham), instead of mutan (木炭 - charcoal), because for some reason my brain was getting stuck on huo (火 - fire) until it dawned on me… 
I imagine she went home with a “weird foreigner” story for the day, much to the amusment of her friends and family.
Now I wonder, don’t I sometimes ask for allsorts of weird shit, but seeing as the people know me (and what I probably want) give me what I really want anyway… Something to ponder.