Monday, March 14, 2016

asia speak

one of the unfortunate things some people pick up here is asia speak. i'm not too proud of it, but i can't stop it and hey i'm not he only one.
the asia speak is when you kind of asianify your phrases to make them understood. like i said, i'm not the only one who does this! everyone does and you kind of need it to get by!
so an example is when you are ordering shan noodles and you'll say
"i'd like one order of shan noodles, and can you please put the spicy sauce on the side?"
and the waitress will stare and look down at her hands, or in many cases get scared and run away to find someone else who might speak english, but that person will probably end up doing the same thing so if you want to make your order understood it's best to just say
"me (and point to yourself) shan noodle no spicy"
and well, it works.
for the taxi it's kind of the same thing.
i'll say "central train station"
and if the guy just repeats "central train station" in zombie monotone with no comprehension, it's not a good idea to get in at this point because he will just drive aimlessly until you're like, hey where are we? like i said, zombie style.
so you say "centraah tray stashio"
and if you're lucky he'll say yes yes yes! tray stashio! and then you go.
sometimes i'll say "shine condo?" and then he might even know that, even better!
and well, if none of these things work, then it's taxi charades: i pretend to put on a train drivers hat, pull the throttle and sound effects: chooo choooo! chugachugachugachugachugachuca choooo chooooo! and that, works every time.