I could say “Ni hao” for “Good morning,” and it was only polite to say “Xie xie” for “Thank you.”
That was my limit until, in a babble of unfamiliar sounds, I heard the word, “**-murr,” and then again, “**-murr.” **-murr? I thought. Do they have The Simpsons in China? But it was only “back door.”
Later, struggling to board a bus by the middle door, I heard the conductor say, “**-murr” – and I could even hear the exclamation mark – “**-murr!”, I knew this time he wasn’t talking about The Simpsons, and I had a pretty good idea he wasn’t a fan of classical Greek poetry either.
But I didn’t want to be left on the pavement when he closed all the doors and drove off. So I just squeezed in by the middle door, as if it was all Chinese to me.
I just re-discovered this on a memory stick I had completely forgotten. It dates from a trip we made to China several years ago - no, make that "many years ago." Unfortunately, My computer doesn't recognise the Chinese characters, so I have to rely on the phonetic version.