When Two Chinese Speak in Other Tongues.....

I can still remember this funny incident. It was one of those yearly vacations in Melbourne which I used to take during the December holidays. I was teaching then and with teaching, we enjoyed long vacations.

I took my uncle with me on a tour to the 12 Apostles. While we were admiring the rock formation, I suddenly felt someone tapping me on my shoulder. To my surprise, I did not know the stranger. Just then, he realised that he had tapped on the wrong person. "I'm sorry....I thought you were my wife." Then he pointed to a lady in red. I was also wearing a red T-shirt, and had almost the same build.

"Where are you from?" he asked me.

"Singapore.....and you?"

"Mauritius", he replied.

I then spoke to him in Mandarin but he said, "I only speak French and English...not Chinese".

Hence I started to converse with him in French, much to his delight.

As the bus was speeding along the highway, I smiled when I thought about the funny incident. Strange that when two Chinese from different parts of the world met together, they spoke in French and English but not Chinese!!

Gan Chau