![\"andy.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stevepeer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/andy.jpg?w=1000\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLao shi! Lao shi,\u201d called the old woman. I was walking across the lobby of the library building that holds my office. She was a typical Chinese grandmother, with a round, lined face, and a generous smile. Her once-raven hair was shot with grey. Her Mandarin was tainted with a Cantonese accent.<\/p>\n
I stopped. Why do I always seem to be called upon to speak Chinese when still groggy from a nap? She approached, a quick shuffle across the white tiles. Her granddaughter, a chubby Grade 2 student, stood a few paces away. Behind her, two green-shirted cleaners sat on a bench. I lifted the sunglasses from eyes, a final indicator that I was not in fact Chinese, in case my skin, hair and size had not been a give away.<\/p>\n
\u201cLao shi, xue xiao de yi fu zai na li?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t understand. The Mandarin, full of Guangdong pronunciations, and my semi-awake state had me at a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cTing bu dong,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
She waved over her granddaughter. The girl rolled her eyes, and sighed. I could almost read her thoughts: Me, talk to the foreigner?<\/p>\n
\u201cYi fu?\u201d asked the old woman again.<\/p>\n
I understood before she pinched the girl\u2019s shirt. Where are the school clothes, she was asking. The first floor of my building is often used to distribute the blue and white uniforms worn by the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cBu zhe dao,\u201d I said. It was true, I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
The cleaners piped up, one standing from the bench she had been lounging on. \u201cTa ting bu dong,\u201d she said. The other repeated the line to emphasis my lack of understanding, and stupidity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWo dong,\u201d I said, \u201cYi fu, bu zhe dao.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I did what I often do in such situations: I smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cTa ting bu dong,\u201d called the cleaners.<\/p>\n
I grinned like an idiot and shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cLao shi,\u201d said the old woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cTing bu dong,\u201d I said, admitting defeat and allowing for an easy escape. For once I had understood. She didn\u2019t understand me. Such is my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An English teacher in China struggles to speak with a Mandarin speaking grandmother over where to buy the clothes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,46,58,18],"tags":[164,352,477,746,780],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-language","category-teaching-esl-teaching-overseas","category-teaching-overseas","tag-grandmother","tag-language","tag-mandarin","tag-putonghua","tag-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n