A Real Conversation

When you are talking with a foreigner, please, please be nice and patient. They are working very hard to learn a new language. It isn’t easy, and it can make even the simplest tasks difficult and tiring.

This one took place at the market, I was buying some ground pork. Of course this conversation was in Chinese. I don’t think I would make this mistake in English. Although it’s possible.

Kristie: (shouting my order over the hubbub of the busy market) I’d like two half pounds of ground pork.

Butcher: How much would you like again?

Kristie: Two half pounds.

Butcher: (very sweetly and politely, as though she’s the one confused) But two half pounds is one pound.

Kristie: Huh? Oh, uh, what I want is two pounds plus another half pound.

Butcher: Gotcha.

Kristie: How should I say that?

Butcher: Two-and-a-half pounds.

Kristie: Riiiiight. (And that would be lesson four from my very first Mandarin book.)