She's sure she's Cher?

[Gharial]

I was in my local Chinese takeaway the other day with my brother, ordering three of the number 150, when I decided to dust off my Chinese, as the lady taking our order seemed a bit confused (maybe it was the fact that we were ordering three dishes for what appeared to be just two people, or maybe she thought we wanted 150 lots of the number 3 LOL). She was surprised that I could speak Mandarin (well, some Mandarin) and we started nattering about basic stuff like how I'd learnt it, where she was from etc. Anyway, after we'd left my bro remarked on how the conversation had sounded to him - like the thread title LOL. Anybody had similar experiences, of how relatives or friends who haven't studied Chinese "hear" it or think it sounds?

[stapler]

That's how it still sounds to me!

[somethingfunny]

Some friends of mine visited me in China once and after two weeks of going around visiting markets and eating in restaurants they declared that they pretty much had the language down.

 

Basically it involves pointing (at a menu, selection of items etc.) and saying the following:

 

这个是什么？

这个呢？

那个呢？

这个呢？

那个呢？

那这个吧！