Beauty and the Beast

blogging on the move 2: is this guy teaching a one-to-one English class or just trying to pick up a girl...

Here I am still sitting in Starbucks waiting for my interview and doing a spot of sneaky people-watching from behind my laptop.

There's an old Western guy sitting alone at a table looking a tad shifty. A girl shows up and joins him. The American, because as soon as he opens his mouth this is unmistakable, declares to his new companion, "I have two degrees and my resume is all over with business experience. I don't know any Chinese because when I went to school they didn't teach it, haha chortle chortle". The young pretty Chinese girl sitting with him sounds less than impressed. She giggles in a nervous and insincere way as she answers his next question - "So, may I ask you what you do?" She is an English teacher but trying to start up her own business in something. Now they have started discussing salaries. This could be a match made in heaven - Beauty and the Beast. Passport and dollars meet youth and beauty. Just another normal day in China.

Oh, here we go, here's another gem...The American says to the girl, "Did you study English under a German? Why, because you keep saying "Ja" and that is what Germans say, not us Americans, oh no, we say "Yeah".

Hilarious. Although I must confess, since working for and hanging round with Germans, I have also developed a new habit of saying "Ja" instead of "Yes", as we English say.

Gem Number 2: The American asks loudly to the girl, "Suppose you have a company and you die, what happens to the company?"

Gem Number 3: "Education in America is, probably, better than education in China", declares our favourite American, loudly of course.

Unfortunately I'm going to miss out on the rest of the drama, because I have an interview to go to. But I'm sure there will be many more situations like this to amuse and enlighten me...