Jin is Right

I gotta learn Chinese.

I had dinner in a Chinese restaurant today (and not half bad either) called Bamboo Garden, right outside JR Ueno. I must confess that I've been feeling a little overwhelmed the past couple of days, especially since my Japanese is no longer anywhere near fluent. Even given my limited vocabulary, I find myself stuttering and pausing more and more.

So I had dinner in a Chinese restaurant because I wanted something familiar in a place which wasn't insanely crowded. But even then, things are a little... different. I had tea, which happily came in one of the classic mini teacup-and-pot set. But whereas I'm used to pouring the tea straight into the little cup, spillage and all, there were this extra steps which the waitress demonstrated of pouring into a tall cup, placing the regular cup over the tall cup, inverting the cups and rubbing the tall cup before pulling it up...

But when the waitress came the xiao3 long2 bao1 I ordered, she asked me if I had eaten them before, and while I could explain in Japanese that I had, I couldn't exactly demonstrate proficiency as they came on these strange platter like hooks. Then she asked me where I came from and when I said Singapore, she looked meaningfully at her nametag.

Which of course said Chen something-or-other. And she chatted a bit in Chinese, which obviously was meant to reassure me and which to be honest, was a little reassuring.

But damnit, my Chinese is so bad...

I suppose that's the Overseas Chinese way -- when you see kaki nang (by the way, the definition below kaki nang has a truly brilliant citation from a court record, no less) -- you stop and help them by dropping into a familiar language.

But damnit, it's NOT a familiar language.

So I have to change that.

I never thought I'd agree with my Member for Parliament but I really should learn a language that is more and more useful than English for getting around in a foreign country. Learn both English and Chinese and wherever I am, there'll be someone to talk to.

Cause like cockroaches, we're everywhere and indestructible.