Jun 13
Watch? Bag? DVD?
I told almost the exact same story on another blog years ago when I first started learning Japanese. If you read that story, this one is almost the same, but it’s 100% true!
The first thing that hits you when you walk down Shanghai’s picturesque Nanjing East Rd (南京东路) is the people trying to sell you stuff. “Watch? Bag? Dvd?” They are really annoying. Even if you say “no” they just keep pushing their business cards at you.
Since I started learning Korean, I was sure that I’d be able to confuse them. If I obviously didn’t understand what they were talking about, they’d ignore me, right?
I replied the first person who started hassling me the other day thus:
“아니,아니. 이미 있어.” (No, no, no. I already have one.)
Without missing a beat, the guy continued pushing his business card on me.
“시게? 가방? 여기와!” (Watch? Bag? Come here!)
The bugger spoke Korean too!
You have to give these annoying salesman credit when they are due. When I tried to be a Japanese tourist, they let me know in stilted Japanese that their fake bags and watches were the best in all Shanghai. When I spoke in Korean, they replied in Korean! There’s no getting rid of those crafty bastards.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Pashto? A Bantu click language? Don’t give up.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Next time I’m going to jump backwards like they have surprised me and start frantically doing sign language at them.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Just give them something to read (any name card of a shop or hotel) while you walk away.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
When asked if I want to go to “lady bar” I replied “no, I like boys” but then they said that’s no problem they can arrange it. I give up!
June 17th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
ありがとう ございます！ For the support :)) It’s kind hard keep studying when almost everybody keep saying you “why, why… why are you losing your tiiimeee… looosing.. tiiimeee” with their voice like Voldemort’s one! かれらは とても うるさいですよ！ ^___^”
June 17th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
No problem Angie! And don’t worry about Voldemort!
June 21st, 2008 at 6:41 am
You should say “Sing nyak!” (I don’t want it) or “Sing nawang!” (I don’t know). They’re both from Balinese. And to sound really convincing, the second word should have more prominent stress, i.e. “sing NYAK!” or “sing na-WA:NG!” BTW, the word-final [k] is unreleased at the end of “nyak”.