Ken's little friend (China)

An English friend Ken [http://chinabilityblog.blogspot.com/], who had graduated from Leeds University with a degree in Chinese back in the 70s, was in China on a business trip.  Those were the days when they didn’t have taxis in China, or at least they were not very common. 

One day he was waiting for a bus and it was taking a long time coming.  He saw that there was a little boy playing near the bus stop, so he thought he could kill time by talking to him.  

The conversation was conducted entirely in Chinese.  

Ken said, “你好，小朋友，你叫什么名字 / nǐ hǎo, xiǎo péngyou, nǐ jiào shénme míngzi / Hello, Little Friend.  What’s your name?”  The little boy told him.  Ken then asked him if he had any siblings, where he lived, how old he was, which grade he was at primary school, and the little boy answered all the questions.

Then the boy noticed that Ken’s hair was brown, his eyes were blue and his nose was rather large, so he asked Ken, “你是哪里人 / nǐ shì nǎlǐrén? / Where are you from?”  Ken said, “我是英国人 / wǒ shì Yīngguórén / I am English.”  

The boy’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open.  He ran off in the direction of home, shouting excitedly, “我会说英国话! 我会说英国话! / wǒ huì shuō Yīngguóhuà! wǒ huì shuō Yīngguóhuà! / I can speak English!  I can speak English!”

(China, 1970s)