SpeakEnglish!!!

Went out last Saturday with Ali and GB.

Seriously, I don't mind the presence of foreigners in our country. But what happened was way too much.

I was at Watson, Taka, with Ali. As usual, GB couldn't take our female bonding too much so he went around on his own. Saw Ali was trying to communicate with the Watson manager for some ginseng face product. When I approached them, Ali was having a difficult time putting across what she wanted. Not that Ali has problem with her English (she has improve her 'England' tremendously ever since she became part of the IJ family) but the manager did not understand what Ali wanted. When I got closer, I knew the reason; the manager was from China. I chuckled gleefully, leaving Ali in her messy situation.

After a while, we decided to explore Face Shop for BB cream. One of the saleladies approached us and was explaining about the product. Suddenly, half way through her explanation, she turned to Ali and said this, "Ni mingpai Hwa Yu, mah?". Literally translated, "Do you understand Mandarin?".

Ali was caught offguard and nodded her head. Then the saleslady continued her explanation in Mandarin! What the hell?!?! I was super pissed off. Weren't you explaining to both of us? How could you just switch to another language? Ali tried to explain to me later that the saleslady might have difficulties explaining in English. I turned to Ali and said, "This is town. How can you have a salesperson who is not fluent in English station in town?"

We went off to Sasa after that. By then, GB was bored having a rendezvous on his own so he met us there. Being a very cheapo person, he kept spraying perfume on himself, so I suggested to him several perfumes. One of them was Farenheit and the three of us were having problems locating it. I saw a saleslady near the perfume area and asked her, "May I know where's Farenheit?"

She looked at me in the eye and said, "I don't speak English."

What the.. I was so cheesed off that I turned to Ali and said, "You tell her what Farenheit is."

Ali looked at me and answered, "I don't know what Farenheit is in Mandarin." Piang! Trust Ali to say that. Lol..

Anyway, I found Farenheit on my own and let them smell. GB and Ali seriously has bad taste; they said it smelt of Indian. Duh!

When I walked out of the shop, I was fuming. I mean, how can a salesperson in town cannot speak English? I don't mind foreigners working in our country but if you are stationed in town, don't you think that at least, you can converse in decent English?

I told PinkMonkie my experience. But this time, Ali added her piece.

"Hey, do you know what GB said when I said I don't know what Farenheit is in Mandarin?" Ali asked me.

"You mean he answered for you?" I answered.

"Yeah, he said 'Fa-lun-height'."

"Huh?"

"Fa-lun-height is Farenheit in Mandarin."

I have weird bunch of friends.