Bored No More

FINALLY! I had had absolutely no yam cha (afternoon tea and dim sum) since September 14 and was starting to see double. Although I had plenty of deep-fried, comforting Southern food on my blaze-through of the southern states, I missed my chives and prawn dumplings and fried bread stick wrapped in rice flour roll like… like a heroin addict misses his syringe in rehab. But yesterday, October 9th, I could finally indulge, and how.

At another table were about ten HK Chinese and a foreigner. I could hear the black-haired people talking away in Cantonese, while the foreigner was so bored I could see it from behind. Once in a while a colleague (?) leaned over to explain something to him, but for the most part it seemed that he was left to his own chopsticks.

Why would I care about some stranger? Well, I didn’t, especially not when my food arrived. But I could sympathise with him. I’d just come back from Mexico where the people I met, although very kind and solicitous, naturally preferred to speak Spanish with one another when we were at a party or dinner. The solution for me would have been to learn Spanish.

Instead of hoping, or worse, demanding, that your local colleagues will learn more English and conduct meetings and lunches in that language, why not learn Cantonese? Even if you only learn survival level Cantonese, your lunches with locals will change completely. They’ll know you’re interested in their language and will take the time to explain the ins and outs of the food, they will speak more slowly and the conversations will include instead of exclude you.

Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau offers crash-courses in 飲茶 (yam cha) among other specified topics, as well as regular courses for individuals and groups.

九月 (Gau yuet – 9th Month/September)
黑頭髮 (hak tau fat – black hair)
陌生人 (Mak saang yan – stranger)