Mr Gu is learning English

Mr Gu is my driver. (I know it seems fancy to have a driver, but in China, it’s normal for expats to have them. Think about the liability for the company if an expat (especially me as the expat) has a car. Note: traffic laws are non-existent in China. Well, I take that back. If traffic laws exist, which they might, nobody follows them.)

For my first several weeks in China, my communication with Mr. Gu consisted of smiles/nods (hellos, goodbyes, and thank yous), sign language (tonight: fast pointing downward; tomorrow: rounded pointing to the right; lunch: moving your hand toward your mouth as if you are eating soup; and sleep: clasped hands placed on your cheek and tilting your head sideways), and numbers (for pick-up times: seven-fifteen, eight-thirty).

Then, about 2 weeks ago, Mr. Gu started using a few English words. He started saying, “Pick-Up” and “OK” and, when he is late (which is rare), “So sorry.” Oh, one more thing, when I started to use my Chinese he would give a slight giggle, shake his index finger, and say, “Rebecca, no try.”

But this morning, there was a major breakthrough: Mr. Gu started speaking to me in full sentences.

(As background, Matthew, Lena and I were in the office all day Sunday, working on a presentation. We were hungry for dinner and couldn’t order in food because we don’t speak Chinese and couldn’t spend the time to go out to dinner because of the deadline. We ended up calling Lena’s driver and asking him to pick up a Papa John’s pizza. Surprisingly, the pizza was pretty good!)

(Oh, one more point, Matthew's, Lena's, and my driver are all pals. They work for the same company and, as we have found, chat (gossip?) with each other about what’s going on with each of us)

Here is my conversation with Mr. Gu this morning:

Mr. Gu: I hear order pizza yesterday
RLP: Yes, work late. Very hungry
Mr. Gu: I very love pizza. I very love KFC.
RLP: (smile)
Mr. Gu: This why I very fat.
(aside: he’s not fat. But he’s also not string bean skinny like most other Asians. I’d say he could spare to lose maybe 15-20 lbs)
Mr Gu: My wife kill me. She say I pig. (this is followed by Mr. Gu making funny, snorting noises.)
RLP: (laughing aloud now)
Mr. Gu: I also very love football on TV. I drink beer while football. I very love beer. My wife kill me. My wife say, “Gu! Tea. No beer. Beer bad. You fat Gu!”

We both laugh aloud now as we pull up to my office. I wonder where the conversation would have gone if I lived further from the office…

Perhaps I should have told my Mandarin teacher that instead of learning how to say, “This is not a red book,” I should have learned to say hamburger, pizza, and fried chicken. At least then I could have started speaking to Mr. Gu weeks ago about something he is interested in!

Nothing like American fast food to break the cultural barriers.