Monday, August 18, 2008

Lost in translation #2

After our first day at the rowing I was hanging around while the Boy was fulfilling his need to buy various Olympic items of kit when two middle-aged Chinese ladies came up to talk to Eve. They were two of the cleaners for the venue and were happily chatting away in Chinese while Eve gurgled and smiled at them (she is turning into a real little socialite). My Chinese is non existent but, via the method of sign, I managed to figure out they were asking her age and held up 7 fingers. In return, in sign language, they expressed how healthy and strong she looked. I nodded and smiled. Then, one of the ladies, without a moments hesitation poked me in my nipple and looked up at me questioningly. I took this to mean that she wanted to know whether I was breastfeeding, to which I nodded. They smiled and nodded knowingly in return.

To anyone who read this a bit too quickly, yes, she poked me in my nipple.

Sometimes I forget that the concept of personal space isn't quite the same in China.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ew!

Or it could have been an even less PC comment about your rack??

Your comments on lack of privacy and boundaries in China have unpleasantly brought back memories of toilets in Yunnan. Yuk!

LottieP said...

Priceless. I now feel remarkably lucky to have got away with only being subjected to people in the lifts at work standing on my feet in their headlong urge to breach my personal boundaries...

Anonymous said...

But didn't GP have beer massaged into her chest recently by a complete stranger? I forget the exact details....

Unknown said...

ah yes. funnily enough I've also blanked the episode from my mind (but resolved to wear higher necklines)

Anonymous said...

ah yes, it's all coming back to me now. Main Street, Stanley, post Dragon Boat......