A small triumph

So I want to share a small story of happiness from this past weekend. I had the chance to use my Chinese to order pizza for people that live here on Concordia's campus.

A couple of things, first if you know me, you know that I really like to eat pizza. So anytime opportunity to eat it is good. Second, I have really enjoyed learning Chinese and finding practical ways to use it and practice it. So this was a great accomplishment in several ways.

I must say I was a little nervous, and did not know for sure how it was going to go. I mean, it is one thing to order something at a restaruant where you can point, and getsture. It's a totally different thing to order over the phone. You can only hear the other persons voice. No gestures, no visual help. Also, I was ordering for a whole group of people, so I did want to get the order right.

Prior to ordering I called my friend Mike to get some confirmation on words such as Haiwaiian, Pepperoni, Thick Crust, and a couple of other essential pizza vocab. I picked up the phone, and the first words I said were "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?"

Uhhhh. Was about all I could hear and then they told me to wait a little bit. A different person got on the phone, and she tried to speak English, but it became evident to me that the conversation would have to be conducted in Chinese.

After this initially exchange, the rest of the phone call went really well. A couple of times I had to say "Wo ting bu dong" (I hear but don't understand), but eventually words were found that could be understood. I hung up, feeling good. I was just hoping know that all of the pizzas and the kinds I wanted would come to Concordia.

And sure enough, about an hour later 3 pepperoni pizzas and 3 Hawaiian pizzas from Domino's were waiting for me at the front gate. I don't know if pizza ever tasted so good. Well, maybe, but it still was a great experience.