30
August
2009
August
2009
幸福3
幸福：就是看着你老婆最爱的男人第一次学会了在抽水马桶里撒尿。
10
August
2009
August
2009
the funniest fuck-up in my life2
I have a Chinese colleague in my team who told me his first name is xin（昕）. He grew up in Guangdong but his Mandarin is OK since his father was in the military and he grew up in 军队大院.
Tonight, my Indian team lead, for reasons beyond the wildest of my poor imagination, was asking how to accurately pronounce his name in Chinese. My Indian partner (who is my Indian team lead’s boss) confidently said it’s pronounced as “sin”. I smiled and gently said his pronunciation was close enough. He insisted his pronunciation was precise and bet his house on it. Well, although I never had the illusion of winning a partner’s house over this seemingly un-loseable bet, I certainly cannot get over the pride of a native Chinese who faces an Indian claiming he can pronounce Chinese better than myself. So the bet was on. (Don’t worry, my dearest, the bet was finally settled on a few drinks instead of our beloved stone house in McLean.) Guess what, I lost the most certain bet in my entire fucking life.
So we went to this Chinese guy and asked him how he’d pronounce his first name. I was smiling contently until this guy ruined my night by confidently uttered “Sin”. I cannot believe my ears even when the Indian partner was jumping up and down celebrating his victory. Then I realized that this is a Cantonese guy. So naturally, I asked him whether he can HEAR the difference in “xin” from “sin”. After getting a positive (and somewhat disdainful look) answer, I persisted in asking him to pronounce “星星”. Sure enough, he said “sing sing”. God damn me. 
Here comes the drink!!!
