Let me lay out the scene for you. Running errands one night and I'm getting ready to check out at the register. There is a woman in front of me. It's pretty obvious to me that she's getting ready to put her items on the belt. There is a space between the cart and the register. She's fishing through her handbag for her membership card and credit card. A man comes from the side and proceeds to put his items right onto the conveyor belt. The woman tells the man,"Excuse me, I was on line." Which means, take your stuff off the conveyor belt and get in line. The man proceeds to say .. "Dui bu qi, wo bu shuo ying wen. Wo bu dong." Well, that moment brings me right back to the days of living in China. Locals cutting in front of me and giving me that toothy grin. Well, hell no. We're not in China now. That's where I come in. Obviously, the man speaks Mandarin. What do you know, I can speak Mandarin too! I proceed to tell him in Mandarin, that he cut the line and he needs to get in back of the line. Well, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. The woman who is at the center of all this, doesn't understand what is happening because the man is now yelling at me in full blown Mandarin Chinese. He proceeds to spit out the following " Wo mei yao cha dui. Wei she me ni shuo wo cha dui? Ni bu ming bai." Translation, "I didn't cut the line. Why are you saying that I cut the line? You don't understand." Hmmmm,uh, hullo....I know what I saw. He clearly cut the line and pulled the I don't speak English card. Hey, I understand. I pull that card out when I'm walking through the mall and don't want to deal with the vendors who are hawking their goods. I proceeded to reiterate in Mandarin, "Yes, you cut the line and you need to follow the rules here in the U.S., you are not in China." As if on cue, a child is having a meltdown two registers over, the man is yelling at me and a store manager comes to ask what has happened. The woman proceeds to tell the manager that the man cut in front and I must have obviously translated and then the man started yelling at me. She doesn't understand what happened since she doesn't speak Chinese but it's pretty obvious that the man is very ANGRY with me.
Long story short, the screaming child was removed from the store (by the parent, not the store manager), the store management removed the mans items from the belt and asked him to pay at a different register, the woman in front thanked me for helping and I was hit with dagger eyes - three registers away from the man. As I was walking by his register, he was pretty much yelling at me. I was waiting for him to jump me in the parking lot.
So, I am glad that I still have my Mandarin skills and can hold my own. If he did want to jump me, I would have hit him with the paper towels and practiced some cool kung fu moves that Matthew has taught me.
Don't know if I would be banned from the market going forward but I know I did the right thing. Who said I can't go anywhere without causing a scene?
