Language Barrier

You'd think that in a country with the biggest culture change to the US I'd have a tough time with the language barrier. Believe it or not, not being able to speak the same language hasn't been a huge issue. There's a lot of pointing, acting, and shrugging but we somehow get our point across.

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“We’re gonna stop at KFC, how about you guys?” –Group 1
“Um, I really don’t want fast food. I think we’re gonna try and find a Chinese place down this road. Meet back in 45 minutes?” –Group 2, mine
“Sounds good – Good luck!”

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“This looks good. Hopefully they have pictures of the food – you can’t really look up characters in this dictionary.”
“Hey, they have forks here! That’s kind of weird, actually…” [Waitress hands us menus]
“Um, George Washington is on these.”
“Did we seriously walk into an American restaurant?”
“[Chinese]” – Waitress
“Think that means drinks? I mean, we usually start with drinks, right? [To waitress:] Fanta?” [pointing at menu]
“[Chinese for Fanta – yeah, I still can’t remember]?”
“[Repeated Chinese with a nod]”
[laughing], “Hǎo”
[Others order using same method]

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“[Chinese]”
“Um, can we have a minute to look at the menu?”
[blank stare]
“[pointing at watch] One minute?”
[both parties laugh as the waitress shakes her head not knowing what we said]
“Let’s just order… Oh, chicken wings! And steak!”
[All order using picture pointing method]
“[Thumbs up] Yeah?” – Waitress
“Yes, that’s enough”
“[Chinese while looking at us expectedly]”
“Does anyone have any idea what that means?”
“No idea. [To waitress] I’m sorry, we don’t understand you. [To group] does anyone know how to say that in Chinese?”
“[Repeated Chinese]” – Waitress
[Shrugs]

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[Waitress and two others come back to the table]
“[Waitress #2 goes over our order in very broken (but good) English]” [other two laughing]
“Yep, that’s right, xiè xie”
“---- yuan”
“Oh! That’s what she was saying! We pay first here.” [All laugh, nod and smile]

[To each other] “You all realize that we left a group at KFC, found an American restaurant and ordered chicken wings, right?”

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“*sigh*, uh, how you say, [Chinese]” – waitress #2
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
[Waitress 2 racking her brain to remember the English for whatever she needs to tell us]
[To each other] “I have my journal; maybe she could draw it for us?” “How is she going to know to draw it?” “Maybe we could act it out.” “Act what out?”
“Um, your order, ah…how you say…” – waitress
“A mistake?”
“Yes”
“With food or money?”
“Total for money, mistake”
“Oh, how much?”
“1 yuan more, so sorry.”
“1 yuan? Hah, no problem at all. See? We can totally work this out!”