Language Barriers in Vancouver Restaurants

[tokyogurumegal]

I love going to Chinese restaurants with my Chinese friends, they can introduce interesting dishes and teach you their custom like the finger tapping and history behind that. When I go out for dim sum, I try to order in Cantonese but I learned that you have to be 100% sure you have the proper pronunciation and intonation. We all know har gau, siu mai, char siu bau... well I was getting quite good, ordering non obvious dishes and servers actually understaning me. One day I was getting rather over confident and ordered a particular type of dumpling and the server had this shocked look on his face, then my friend almost spewed his food as soon as he heard me say the word. Apparently, the way I said it meant thick *^%$#@. To my Japanese ears, it still sounds the same but apparently my intonation was all wrong. Now I make a point of ordering that particular dumpling in English.

It must be frustrating not being able to order exactly what you want in English in a local restaurant, but then isn't it wonderful you can experience what one might overseas without spending hundreds of dollars on a flight ticket?! I love Vancouver for those moments.