Articles
China Elevator Stories
“Mum, She’s A Foreigner”
A little girl starts to talk about me in an elevator in Shenzhen.
21/11/2012
Ruth Silbermayr-Song
Author
A young woman and her three-year-old daughter enter the elevator right after me. I press the button for the 18th floor; the little girl stands tiptoe to press the button for the 15th floor.
The girl asks her mother: “Mum, why is the button for the 18th floor pressed?”
Her mother replies: “Auntie is living on the 18th floor.”
The girl then says: “Mum, she’s a foreigner. A foreigner.”
Her mother answers: “No, she’s not.”
The girl insists: “But she is a foreigner! Look, she’s a foreigner!”
Her mother, seemingly embarrassed, answers: “Okay, maybe you’re right. Come on, let’s go.”
Have people ever talked about you thinking you wouldn’t understand their language?