Chapter 24: Hate Cultural Differences the Most
Xu Wei Yu’s funny moment from studying abroad no. 1
Because Westerners don’t eat chicken feet, it’s sold cheaply in Western supermarkets. Once, he bought a big bag of them back to the dorms to stew them. A Westerner friend saw it and curiously asked what it was.
At the time, Wei Yu had just gone overseas and his English wasn’t very good. He couldn’t find the right word to use so he said, “This is finger“, immediately scaring the Westerner off. Wei Yu told me at the time, he really looked down on them, “Their KFC and Mcdonalds are pretty much chicken feasts but yet they don’t allow Chinese people to only eat chicken feet huh.”
I thought about it, KFC and Mcdonalds really didn’t sell chicken feet.
I asked: “Are there really no Westerners who eat chicken feet?” Since chicken feet taste so good.
Wei Yu: “None from the people I know. However, after I finish cooking it, they all say that it smells good! Then I eat it while asking them ‘smell good, smell good?’ hehehe.”
“……”
Xu Wei Yu’s funny moment from studying abroad no. 2
Once, when eating oranges, Wei Yu was using an orange peeler. However, a foreigner watched as he moved his hand and the orange skin peeled off as if he was watching a monster. Wei Yu introduced his cla.s.smate to this device and his cla.s.smate expressed that Chinese people were too scary. Cla.s.smate Wei Yu felt very gratified.
Xu Wei Yu’s funny moment from studying abroad no. 3
The University of Oxford has a very cheap buffet style dining hall. The food was very good and the prices were cheap but they required you to dress formally. What is meant by formal wear is to add a cloak to your suit.
Once, when Wei Yu went to that school to play with a friend, he was brought to this dining hall to eat.
Xu Wei Yu: “At the time, I nearly thought I had time travelled to the world of Harry Potter!”
Then he said that his friend was also extremely depressed over the dress rules, often, for the sake of not being dressed so embarra.s.singly, he wouldn’t go eat. Xu Wei Yu was very sympathetic, “Luckily I don’t go to Oxford.”
I said: “It’s more like you can’t get in right?”
Wei Yu: “Pft, if I put in effort, Oxford, Cambridge and whatever are all a piece of cake!”
Me: “Then how come you don’t put in effort? It’s still that line, it’s more like your effort isn’t enough right?”
Wei Yu: “It’s because I’m scared that you’ll be stressed to be with someone of a much higher social position.”
“……” I said, “You think too highly of yourself.”
“Darling don’t leave ah! I’m wrong, almighty one, little me will never dare to say such exaggerations again!”
Once, Xiao Di phoned me in tears, “Didn’t mom send me Jinhua sausages to school? Then when my cla.s.smates saw it, they asked what it was so I said leg ah leg*, then someone nearly phoned the cops and got me arrested!”
*[In China, ham sausages are called huotui which literally translates to fire leg]
“Then?”
“Sis, you have no compa.s.sion!”
“It’s you who didn’t learn English properly.”
“There are some Chinese that are very hard to translate okay?”
“Isn’t it just Jinhua leg?”
“……”