This evening was nuts. I decided to get some sushi from one of my favorite spots in the city. I know the owners pretty well, and everything time I go there, I always get to practice my Mandarin and Cantonese with them.
Today was no different.
I was waiting for my girlfriend's and my sushi to be done, and I was making small talk Feng in Mandarin. As I was going to sit down, this dude and girl start giving me a look, and the guy asks me, "What language were you just speaking?" Of course I told him Mandarin, and if course I knew where this conversation was going to go.
He was like, "How do you know Mandarin??" I told him I'm teaching myself, and Mandarin is one of 32 languages I'm working on.
You know I got the "Holy shit" look; something I still am not used to, lol. Then his lady friend chimes in and is like, "So do you know Russian?" I answered her in Russian, and she looked at me with these crazy-ass eyes! Like, how in the world is this guy not only speaking Mandarin, but Russian too? At the drop of a dime.
That look was priceless!
So she and I start talking in Russian, and I asked her how she learned, and sure enough, she was born and raised in Russia. I should have known when she said her name was Oksana. Her guy friend kept calling me insane and the two and I talked for a bit.
Shortly after, the food came, and all I hear is Mandarin being spoken to me, so I had to jump back into that mode to respond, thank them, and say my goodbyes, then revert to English to tell Brandon (Oksana's friend) goodbye, ans THEN I get bombarded with Russian, and it all was fantastic.
This is why I'm a polyglot. I walked out of there with a grin, some hot sushi, and more drive to keep learning.
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