Fuddland

Walking home from school the other day, having finished for the day before my colleagues, I popped into Mama & Baba’s, our local hang-out, to see if any of the other foreigners were around. Mildly disappointingly, none was to be seen, but not wanting to appear rude by simply turning around and walking back out the door, I sat down with Baba, who had greeted me with a friendly “Dawid!”, and supped at the hot cup of jasmine tea that was immediately placed in front of me, warming myself up after my short trudge through the snow. Soon Mama appeared and handed me a tangerine.

This was before I had mastered the art of mouth-blink-spit, so I was apprehensive about tucking in, and protested that I wasn’t very hungry [which was true], but Máma was insistent that I accepted it. Fortunately, forcing myself to take my time with each segment, I got through it all relatively mess-free, despite being under the eagle eye of Baba across the table from me, and finished off the last of my jasmine tea [which was prompty re-filled—in order to indicate that one is finished drinking, one must leave a full cup]. Getting up to leave, and eager to try the one and only Chinese phrase I had gotten anywhere near mastering, I asked how much I owed. Or so I thought.

The phrase literally means, “How much does it cost?” Such is the generosity of M&B, the thought never entered their minds that I was asking to pay for the tea and tangerine—which, remember, had been handed to me without my first ordering it—so they assumed I was asking how much a single tangerine would cost me, should I want to purchase one at some later date. Some discussion with the other members of staff ensued, before Baba got out of his chair, put on his jacket and motioned for me to follow him out of the restaurant.

Down the street we went, and down the stairs, to the sprawling food market near my home—where I had been several times already since I first arrived. Baba had clearly decided I didn’t yet know where to buy food from, and took it upon himself to give me a tour of the market, pointing at various items and telling me their names in Chinese [which I promptly forgot], or, confusingly, pronouncing them in English when I was expecting more Chinese. [“Ape-pull? That sounds almost like the English name! Oh wait, he is saying ‘apple’.”]

We arrived at a stall selling tangerines and Baba ordered me five yuan’s worth, which I happily paid for—plenty more supplies for my then still on-going mess-free citrus fruit-eating project, and I got more for my money than I’d normally have walked away with because the stall-owner wasn’t going to rip me off with Baba present. I tried to offer Baba two, which he of course refused [for some reason he was allowed to refuse gifts of fruit but I was not].

Next time I’ll simply accept whatever Mama and Baba give me, and keep my wallet firmly in my pocket.

#1

Em | 2006 / 03 / 09 – 01:45

Brilliant, sounds like something straight out of a film! :) You really can’t fault them for friendliness and generosity, the full cup thing is weird - must take some getting used to.
Glad you got the tangerine thing under control too!

#2

felicity | 2006 / 03 / 09 – 04:27

sounds like baba thinks you need some looking after… ;o)

#3

bsag | 2006 / 03 / 09 – 20:30

That’s so sweet. You don’t get that kind of service in Starbucks!

I agree that the ‘leaving the cup full to indicate that you don’t want any more’ thing is very odd. You’d think it was a bit wasteful, wouldn’t you? Perhaps that’s the point (shows the generosity of the host)?

#4

the manly smell | 2006 / 03 / 09 – 22:07

Ahoy there Tangerine Boy, here’s a link which may be of interest:

http://www.2wheels.org.uk/blog/index.asp

He’s cycling from China to England, the loony. You’ll probably bump into him anyway - China’s not that big.

Re #1 & #3; I believe finishing your cup/plate infers that your host did not provide you with sufficient produce to satiate you. This I learnt from years of cultural study with monks/that HSBC advert with the big eel(take your pick)

#5

David | 2006 / 03 / 09 – 22:30

Re #1 & #3: Thankfully the full-cup thing doesn’t appear to apply to beer, only tea. ;)

Re #2: Don’t we all, sometimes? ;)

Re #4: Thanks for the link, I’ll have a read of the loon’s efforts over the next few days.

Wanky English teacher aside: I think it implies, not infers, that your host did not yadda yadda satiate yadda. :P

#6

the manly smell | 2006 / 03 / 09 – 23:57

I liked you more when you were a mathematician.

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