Last week, I celebrated my two month anniversary in China. During that time, I’ve stitched together a small, but useful amount of Mandarin that gets me through day-to-day life here in Beijing. However, my ability to communicate drops significantly once I stray from typical activities.
For example, I was walking through the Xi’An’s Muslim quarter last weekend (pictures soon) when I felt a tug on my bag. I turned to see someone walking very close to me; I looked at my bag and noticed that one of my zippers had been opened halfway.
Although I’ve been in many areas that are prone to pickpocketing, this was my first encounter with an attempt (successful or not). Ideally, I assume the right thing to do is to yell, find out what (if anything) was taken, then forcibly turn the person in to the authorities.
If only I spoke better Mandarin.
Instead, I tried (and failed) to swear and demanded “What are you doing?” in an angry way. He avoided eye contact and quickly walked away, losing me in the crowds. Not that I could have done much anyway, since I was walking alone in strange city and have the language skills of a shy toddler.
As I prepare to travel around China, my swearing needs more day-to-day practice. In the best case, I said the word for “straw” or “grass” instead of something stronger — but I said it in a very mean way which will probably scar him from life.
2 Comments
Man, I’m glad it was unsuccessful! I’ve never quite understood why chinese swearing involves eggs (turtle egg, bad egg, zero duck egg) particularly because eggs are used in like every chinese dish and dessert.
1. eggs are used in swearing because they are indeed a beautiful part of life. They are vital, necessary and representative of life itself. However, when an egg goes bad, it can destroy and even kill. Thus, swearing in a negative situation reflects the “evil” of the moment at hand.
2. Why swear at all? I’ve lived in China for four years now and I haven’t found swearing to be necessary. I didn’t swear in my home country either. To me, swearing reflects a lack of culture and more or less, the same lack of control as the situation that you are frustrated with. Granted, I get angry and irritated just like anyone else (and yes, I’ve had attempted thefts before also), but swearing doesn’t help. I good swift “kick in the pants” as well as a shout in any language can do the trick!