Extraordinary? I don’t know, but apparently I’m pretty fly for a…
This is exactly what I am saying has happened to me on numerous occasions, because I’ve often ordered a dish using proper pronunciation (that I don’t mess up or overextend. If I don’t know, I ask afterwards in Chinese, what is this dish called?). Exactly. That’s what I meant with “enthusiastic replies”, a flowing, flurry of a response. I wouldn’t say “gibberish”, but it’s beyond what I can keep up with and that’s when I say: “wo zhi zhidao yidian Zhongwen” (or something similar. Hey, give me credit, I know enough to change it around from time to time) Then the discussion continues, usually in English or a bit of Chinese and English, from there. The nicest compliment came from a young waitress at a short-lived place in Rowland Heights. I asked for a menu, in Chinese, and she responded with a flurry I couldn’t keep up with. So, I said what I usually say - my version of your “ting bu dong” - and she replied: “You pronounced that so well, I thought you knew more. You said that very well.” And we had a short discussion about my Chinese, mainly in Chinese. What was cool is she didn’t treat me like the proverbial unicorn, complete with jaw drop and shocked and stunned disbelief.
A colleague of mine has mentioned me at restaurants I’ve visited and said they invariably remember me and say: “Oh yeah, the white guy that knows a bit of Chinese.” When I said they probably think it’s pretty lame, my colleague replied: “No, they think it’s really cool.”
Are you sure you aren’t the one assuming here? 