I visit Yufo Si (玉佛寺; Jade Buddha Temple) again today and go to the second floor above the main gift shop, where there are beautiful things like Buddhas and dragons made of jade and wood. The man who paints landscapes with the side of his hand is there and he recognizes me from last week and gives me a smile.
There's a beautiful wooden low table for tea behind him, and he invites me to sit and join him. He compliments me profusely on my Chinese, although I know I am still just a beginner. I am humbled every day by this dragon of a language. But he isn't used to seeing laowai who speak Chinese. His coworkers join us, and as we talk, hen kaixin (很 開心; very warmly), tourists who don't speak Chinese walk in to browse.
The girl who works there gives me an English blurb about Pixiu (貔貅) the big-bellied dragon that they display in the store, and I am happy to translate it from Chinglish to English. So, we continue our exchange, and I work on editing the paragraph in between drinking tea and speaking with them. I learn that it is good luck to rub the dragon's belly.
A middle-aged man wearing a motorcycle helmet walks in with his kid, a boy of around eight, who is also wearing a helmet. He watches as we all talk. Then he looks at my friends and says, "His Chinese, he learned it in Taiwan."
I turn to him and tell him he is right. We all talk for a while longer, but after I leave the temple, I am still tickled by the guy's observation and I call my Taiwanese friend Chi up and we laugh.
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intersting experience:) When i talk with German, they can also figure out that i learnt German in Bayer, although i think I speak German with Chinese accent....So, you see, That's exactly native speakers
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