It’s no doubt provoking when someone cuts in front of you in line, but, in most cases, it isn’t worth wasting breath over. This is certainly the case for most expats in China, for whom the language barrier makes it difficult to deal out a dose of scorn.
For one foreigner in Wuhan though, this was not the case. He recently confronted a pair of queue-jumpers and reasoned them out of line in three (yes three) Chinese dialects.
The incident occurred in a take-out line, when two girls cut in front of our linguistic hero. “Could you please wait in the back?” the man asked in perfect Mandarin.
Getting no response, he raised his voice a little, “Hello? Hello? Could you please wait in the back?”
One girl then replied in Wuhan dialect, “What is this ‘zebra’ talking about? I don’t understand him.”
Then, in Wuhan dialect, the man reprimanded, “You don’t jump the queue. Wait in the back. You understand now?”
The other girl burst out in Dongbei dialect, “What are you doing? With which eye did you see me jump the line? What’s wrong with you?”
So, without missing a beat, the man then took her to task in Dongbei dialect, “What do you think I’m doing? Jumping the line makes you in the right? Let’s ask others to judge?”
“Something is wrong with this guy. I don’t want to eat. Let’s go.” Giving up, the first girl took her friend and walked away.
While it is entirely possible that this exchange was staged, we still find it wildly entertaining.
Watch the video below (VPN off):
[Image via Sohu]
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