I made a mistake in the Chinese supermarket today. I was buying some food (obviously) and then this old guy came up to the lady and asked a question. I had my earphones on so I ignored. The lady answered him, saying that she does not understand Chinese but the old man was very persistant. I got him to repeat the question again and he asked: 味精 (wei jing) 在哪儿？
You know what I did?
I translated as "He's asking for tissues."
The lady thought the guy wanted tissues. And handed him a roll of toilet paper.
The old man was really confused. He must be thinking, this Chinese-speaking girl must be crazy. Tell her 味精 she tell the person 纸巾 (zhi jing).
He repeated it again but this time, he was clever enough to say it was for cooking then... A light bulb shone on top of my head... However I was still blurry and stupid enough not to translate BUT I do know Ajinomoto!!! Remembered the very annoying song from the commercial, "Cap Cap Cap, Cap Ajinomoto!"
Luckily the check out person was not as blur... She knew what was Ajinomoto and was able to direct the guy to the right aisle.
Imagine: 味精＝纸巾
Esther, Esther... What were you thinking?
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