Sometimes being Chinese outside of populated cities brings some interesting "adventures". Here`s 2 stories that happened to me recently in Alma that I would like to share...
1) This happened on the first Saturday I was here (which was just last week, haha). I was walking down a street in downtown, trying to find the mall. I walked past a building where the entrance kind of dips inside, and it provided a little shelter for smokers to hang out (believe me when I say there are lots of smokers in Quebec...). There was this middle-aged man smoking, and as I walked past him he looked at me and started asking me something in French...I couldn`t fully understand what he is saying but I caught fragments such as "chinois" and "koreanne"...which I summed up to "What kind of asian are you? Chinese? Korean?" So I just quickly answered him "Je suis Chinois" and continued walking...he laughed and said something like "ah chinois! Le Chine!"...or something like that...he could have also said "la chienne" which pretty much means bitch, I cannot decide. But the idea of people stopping you and asking that is just strange...which brings me to my second story...
2) This happened yesterday after I got off work. Again I went to the mall and entered into a store called "Potpourri" which is like this kitcheware store that sells lots of funky kitchen gizmos (I am into stuff like that, haha). So I go in, and the lady was like (in French), "hello, how are you, can I help you with anything?" And I said, "no, I am good, I am just looking"...and she goes, "ok". But this is where it gets interesting (everything is pretty much said in French):
Lady: Just wondering, are you Chinese?
Me: Um, yes...
Lady: Excellent, can you help me with something?
Me: Um...sure...
(Lady drags me to almost the back of the store, which there is a bunch of cheap Chinese knives hanging. She pulls one out and flips to the back, which there is Chinese writing on what the knife is for)
Lady: Can you read this? And can you tell me what it means?
Me: Ok...(starts reading...I was done in 30 seconds)
(Me at this point is thinking how I can tell her the information with my lack of French)
Me: Can you speak English?
Lady: No, not at all...
Me: Ok that`s fine, I will try to explain...(whips out a English/French dictionary. Lady starts laughing)
Me: Yeah, I have to...(thinking how to say "stainless steel" in French)
Lady: (perhaps getting a bit impatient) Can you just tell me what this part of the knife does? (points to a funky blade on the knife)
Me: It`s for scaling fish (only I don`t know how to say "fish scales" in French, so I summed it up to fish skin instead)
Lady: Grubwejrk?
Me:....oui....(I have no idea what she said but it sounds about right, so yeah...then for verification I looked it up in the dictionary and showed her)
Lady: Oui, grubwejrk
Me: oui..
Lady: Ok, what about this? (points to something else)
Me: That`s for opening wine
Lady: This?
Me: For cutting open the chicken`s stomach (l`estomac de poulet, hahaha)
Lady: l`estomac de poulet???
Me: Oui (giggling)
Lady: And this?
Me: It`s for vegetables, fruits...
Lady: (Finally satisfied) Thank you very much
Me: Your welcome, it was...interesting...
- Fin - (for now, let`s see what happens in the future...)
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