Our daughter visited us last week in Beijing and had a smirk on her face most of her stay.
Why the smirk? It had to do with the fact that her parents don´t ever know what is going on in their new expat life in China. She has seen this behavior before but thought we had outgrown it.
We got into a taxi the other night:
Me: Chaoyang Huacaiwan (the place where we live) (Note there are no stresses on any of my syllables. I believe there are supposed to be a few that go up, a couple that go down and one or two that are flat).
Taxi Driver: Something, something, something.
Me: OK. (I make a pointy gesture with my finger approximating the direction I think we need to go).
Taxi Driver: Something, something, something (emphatic finger pointing pretty much the opposite way I pointed).
Me: OK.
We make it home but not before some serious smirking accompanied by eye rolling.
And then there was the restaurant outing her third day here. Hotpot is a Beijing specialty that involves a container of broth that cooks in the center of your table and ordering several items to cook in the pot that can include vegetables, meat, tofu and noodles. The menu form has over 100 items and you check the appropriate box next to the Chinese description.
Well, my daughter was quite impressed as I completed my order in record time handing the form to the waitress who ran off to get the ingredients for our meal after asking me a clarifying question to which I responded ¨OK¨.
Daughter: So Dad, what are we getting?
Me: I have no idea.
Daughter: Dad! Really, what are we getting?
Me: Every tenth item on the menu.
Cue smirking and eye-rolling…..
And, as it turned out we had a lovely lunch with the exception of some sort of white vegetable or meat product encased in black gel. I think it was the fortieth (or maybe the sixtieth) item on the menu.
While some parents may not consider this appropriate behavior to model for children, I think we are doing a good job modeling behavior that they will never adopt which means we will not be blamed for anything that goes wrong in their lives. (Smirk).
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This so made me laugh and smirk!!! I love the fact of ordering every 10th item on the menu, when we lived in Spain my dad used to go down the alphabet, every time we went out he would just order the next letter in the alphabet leading on from our previous meal out!!!
Ah, the abc’s of ordering in a foreign language. As easy as 1, 2, 3.
Love your bravery in the menu ordering! I think I may just do the same the next time I’m at a restaurant and can read only a tiny fraction of the menu…which is often, sad to say. It’s an adventure and one that the kids might enjoy (or not!). But, fun to make them squiggle a bit or encourage them to study harder in their language lessons, ya think?