After our Saturday adventures with Mr. Ma, I decided it was
about time I tried a different method of communication. I needed to let
him know that I was trying to blend in with the culture, and did not want to
have another scream at the American session. So I decided to pull out my new
best friend, my iPhone.
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| Meet my new best friend, my iPhone. |
Yes, I know it may seem odd that I referred to a cell phone
as my new bestie, but one needs to understand how instrumental this phone has
been for my survival in Shanghai. If I
need to get dinner, the Smart Shanghai app will give me a screen I can show cab
drivers so they can whisk me away to my restaurant of choice. If I am lost, I can use my Google Maps app to
lead me home. If I need someone to
interpret my bills, I whip out my Pleco app that scans the Chinese characters
and the phone gives me a rough interpretation of what I am reading. (That is, if the text is clear enough to
scan.) It also has Google Translate, an
app that will remove all language barriers. So I thought.
As a result of the weekend mess, we were promised the dryer repairman
would install the dryer on Tuesday. Mr. Ma arrived at 9:00 am as promised, and we
greeted each other with ni haos. He
pointed towards the dryer and started speaking to me in his native tongue. I pulled out my iPhone, fired up Google
Translate, and went to town.
In order for this to work, I would have to train Ma on how
to use the app. I said, “Hello” into the
phone. “Ni hao” popped up on the screen.
Perhaps this was going to work. I continued.
“All you have to do is speak into the phone, and it will translate what
you say to English.” More characters
popped up. Ma started laughing
hysterically. I knew something was
up. I pressed the microphone button, and
let Ma take a turn. He barked into the
phone.
“We’ll be done after Jack is swimming in lasagna” appeared
on the screen. I started laughing like a
hyena. We tried it again. This is what we got:
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| Okay, first Jack then Charles...this is REALLY working! |
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| We were both laughing so hard we were in tears after this. |
Ma then resumed his crack up
session and went to work on the dryer.
After realizing he could not install the dryer because one of the feet
and the manual was missing, we shared a few more laughs. Here’s why:
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Oh I get this one! I can't get the dryer installed, so the delivery man will phone up when he is about to deliver the good dryer!
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