It's a typical day. You're sitting at your desk in the office that you share with 11 other 7th grade teachers. You are minding your own business and doing some last minute lesson planning for the day. A few of your office-mates are having a conversation, in Chinese of course, and as usual you ignore the incomprehensible sounds. Next thing you know, you hear your name, as well as the name of the other foreign teacher at your school, being thrown into the mix of seemingly cryptic words. To you, the conversation sounds like: blah blah blah NIKA blah blah hahahaahaha. blah blah NIKA blah ASHLEY blah blah hahaahahahaa. Blah blah blah NIKA blah. *hysterical laughter* What do you do?
At this moment I had NO idea what to do, so I just sat there continuing to do my work as if I had heard nothing. It immediately brought me back to the United States where I remember sitting in the nail salon, getting a pedicure and having the nail technician talk about me right in front of my face. I'm not exactly sure what my office-mates were talking about, but this was one day (of many) when I wished I knew more Chinese.
- FBG