Jiang Hua Yi Ma?

Yesterday Gill described a story about how she encountered a person who can't speak English in her blog.

(http://cintakadabra.blogspot.com/2010/06/heran.html).

She said that it was a feeling of "Misuh-Misuh", which I don't know what it meant; but assuming from that situation, I'd say it's a feeling of awkwardness and somewhat, rejection.

Truth be told, I've encountered this situation like more than 5 times before too, so I knew how it felt like to be in Gill's situation.

One of the memorable ones was when I took a cab, but the driver didn't speak any English (or I think he could, but didn't choose to speak it with me). At first it went well:

Driver: Ci Na li? (correctly spelt?)

Will: Hyatt Hotel, Scotts Rd. Can we go by PIE, and then to CTE, then exit at Cairnhill?

Driver: Hao.

Will: Thanks

See, everything went well.

However, five minutes later, the driver started speaking to me in Mandarin about something which I had no clue on. But being a polite passenger and not wanting to feel abashed, I responded to him by nodding my head pretending to understand what he was saying (this is pathetic).

It went well for about 3 minutes. Suddenly, He asked me a question about the particular topic he was talking about....

There was this a few seconds of silence and awkwardness before I responded, and guess what I said... I blatantly told him, "Sorry uncle, I don't understand chinese."

And Ohmigod, his reaction was prizeless. You should've seen the look on his face. From this sociable, amicable man, to a non-talking weird maniac.

To make matters worst, he sped his cab like as if he was Lewis Hamilton. And when I reached Hyatt, I gave him the money, he gave me the change, and he just left, without saying "goodbye", or "thanks" or "have a nice day".

I just felt weird and also rejected somehow... Or did I reject him? I don't know.

Anyway, from that day on, I'm always driving my own car.
And I'm definitely learning chinese (help, anyone?).
Also, it would be nice if my future wife can speak chinese .. :)

William Lim