So, I may need to pick up a little Chinese, or, was that a date?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

As some of you may know, I am now living with my aunt in the city of Peterborough, about 1.5 hours’ drive outside of Toronto. It is the city where I was born. I’ve been helping my aunt ever since she was in the hospital last summer.

Yesterday I sent my friend A. a message. He lives in Toronto, and a couple of months ago, I learned that he has a new girlfriend. Yesterday, he messaged me back saying, “Come on down! You can meet my new girlfriend! And she’s bringing a friend!”

Well, today we met. My friend’s new girlfriend turns out to be a pleasant lady from Shanghai. I’ll call her L. However, we didn’t meet right away.

A. and I agreed to meet at a Tim Hortons (of course) near the corner of Dundas and Spadina in Toronto’s Old Chinatown. When I arrived, L.'s friend was also there. I’ll call her Z. All I knew about her was that she was in her forties and from Hong Kong, but she turned out to be very pleasant indeed.

The Tim Hortons was small and crowded, so we decided to go down the street to a McDonalds that had lots of room.

There was one tiny little problem, which A. totally forgot to mention: Z. speaks no English, and I speak no Cantonese or Mandarin. My friend has picked up enough Chinese that he can sort of interpret, but without L. to interpret, we were basically reduced to body language, bus schedules with maps, and drawings in my sketchbook.

However, everyone involved has a phone, and after some monkeying around, I discovered that mine has Google Translate. So she could speak, write, or type in Chinese, and it would do its best to translate into English. And I could speak or type in English and it would do its best to translate to Chinese. The translations were rough, but helped to get the sense of things.

Eventually, L. arrived. (There had been some streetcar issues.) She is learning English, but was able to translate between Chinese and English for Z.

We went to dinner, the four of us, at a local restaurant. There was much chatting and translation and taking pictures. Z. was very friendly. After dinner, we went back to the McDonalds to sit before I had to catch the streetcar to go back to the train station. Z. took my arm as we walked down Spadina. In the McDonalds we all lamented that we could not connect to the local WiFi, but someone had a data plan with space left on it and we looked part of a Chinese soap opera (I think that’s what it was).

When it was time to leave, Z. walked down to the streetcar with me and we held hands and hugged. Then the streetcar arrived.

This was extremely unexpected, to say the least. I mean, I’ve heard that people could connect without a language in common, but never, ever, expected to experience it. “Dear SDMB, I never thought it would happen to me…”

2

…and now you’ll have a whole new appreciation for the “Elevator” episodes from Season 4 of Louie.

3

Yep, it happens. When I was a teenager, I went with my (Hispanic) friend to his GF’s house.

When we get there, my friend and his GF retreat to a back room leaving me in the living room alone whit wheat I guess was GF’s friend. The only problem was, she didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish.

To keep each other company we flipped through magazines together. She would point at a picture and say it in Spanish then I would say it in English. (We were teaching each other)
Eventually, the girl gets up and goes to the back room to say something to my friend’s GF. About a minute later my friend comes out looking a little frustrated and says to me: “Dude, come here.”

So I followed him outside of the apartment:

Him: Dude what’s your problem?

Me: What? :confused:

Him: Dude, are you gonna make your move on this girl or what?

Me: Whaddya mean make my move? She doesn’t speak English. How the heck am I supposed to make my move?

Him: Well, she’s in there bitching at my GF that you’re not making any moves.

Me: Oh, well then…[Walks back into the apartment]

We didn’t have actual sex, but we did have one hell of a make out session like teenagers often do.

Not quite a Penthouse moment but almost! :smiley:

4

My wife is Chinese and grew up in HK.

Trust me, women are all the same.

5

Lemme see if I got this straight. You’re in Chinatown–Chinatown, mind you–and your first choice of where to meet is Tim Horton’s and your second choice is McDonald’s? Sure, you then went to an unnamed restaurant, but how am I supposed to know it wasn’t a Harvey’s or a Wimpy’s? And then you went back to Mac’s?

Forget it, Jake. It’s Canada. :wink:

6

There’s a McDonald’s that is prominently placed on the corner of two major streets (Dundas and Spadina) which would make it a reasonably good meeting place. I don’t know if that’s the location being referred to, though.

7

The McDonalds we went to was prominent at the corner of Queen and Spadina, about a block south of the edge of Chinatown. It had an upstairs with extra seating.

The restaurant was Chinese, of course.

I just can’t get Z out of my mind. I need to learn some Chinese phrases. And find out more about her. If she can converse as well as she kisses…

8

我隻氣墊船裝滿晒鱔 (ngóh jek heidínsyùhn jòngmúhnsaai síhn)

9

Reminds me of when I was 17 and spent a couple of summer months working on the border in Presidio. I went to a small local bar that first evening, ordered a cerveza, por favor from the pretty, young Spanish barmaid and when I reached over to hold my beer she reached over and put her hand around mine. Singles… they figure it out.

10

Okay, but what if she doesn’t like seafood?

11

Chinese food without seafood? That’s like… that’s like… Tim Hortons without donuts!

12

Oops, memory lapse on my part.

13

Since Tim Hortons has begun pushing sandwiches, soups, and other meal options, I’ve always assumed that the donuts displayed are for looks only. :slight_smile:

Good luck, Sunspace! Keep us informed.

14

Yeah, time to bone up so to speak, on some Chinese.

Take her to a Chinese restaurant and watch her laugh as you stumble around with chopsticks. And then challenge her to a game of ping pong. I promise she will kick your butt in it.

15

Heh, I remember being in Poland one summer watching a college boy learning enough to be able to get by according to his personal stadards. Lesson one was how to order a cerveza, por favor, from a local:

“Piwo, prosze.”

The next lesson was tacking the word for “two” onto the end of it (which is as grammatically awkward in Polish as it is in English, and therefore quite endearing from a foreigner) and that was it, the college dude was off to the races. :smiley: Standard wisdom is that if you can order a basic meal and ask where the bathroom is located, you know enough to manage. But if you can order two beers, you can get laid too!
That’s a sweet story, Sunspot. Let us know how it goes. :slight_smile:

16

Just don’t accidentally order dinner #69

(Spicy beef with pork fried rice and extra egg roll you pervs).

17

An episode of Call The Midwife featured a couple with about 12 children. They were long and happily married, but could only communicate through their bilingual children. He spoke no Spanish, she spoke no English.

In my more cynical moments, I wonder if that isn’t the secret to marital happiness.

18

Sounds like you have already picked up a little Chinese!

I’m American and I’d laugh, too. You’re not supposed to use them as crutches:p

19

:wink:

Depends on how big they are… :slight_smile:

And I just signed up for a free online Cantonese course.

20

I wonder if Asian women find western men as exotic as we find Asian women?