Embarassing Moments in Mandarin: The Song

When I lived in Sydney and worked in its Central Business District (CBD) at least once a week for lunch I would go to Water and Tea on Sussex Street. Water and Tea was a Taiwanese place specializing in home style Taiwanese food and bubble tea. (If I can find some pictures of their food in my Aussie photos I'll do a post on it) The restaurant usually played in the background easy listening types of Mandarin songs.

One day I went to lunch with two Chinese women from work. I had been going to a Mandarin class once a week for a few months and the women asked me how my classes were going. I said it was going pretty well and I was learning how to read and speak about 15 to 20 words a week, and my listening ability was getting better.

With that I suddenly understood every word that was being sung. I excitedly told my co-workers I had just understood every word in the song, as if it was English. They looked at me and said "that was English" and laughed at this poor lao wai's expense. Doh!!