Bilingual People Share Their Greatest “I Didn’t Know You Spoke the Language” Stories

SuperMom

My wife and I have adopted two kids from China on two separate occasions. We had some time to wait before the first one so we learned some basic Mandarin to help with our trip and connect a bit with our daughter’s birth culture.

While there, a day or so after we got her, we were in the Walmart (yes, Walmart) in Zhengzhou,

When a younger woman walks by, sees a large American guy with a pale redheaded wife carrying a Chinese toddler in a sling, doubles back and with a fake smile says, “ni bu xihuan ni de mama, ma?” which works out to “You don’t like your mom, do you?”

My wife spins around and, in Mandarin, basically says, “Oh yes she does.” The look on that woman’s face carried me through the day.

f0rkboy