Fu Manchu

In the Pearl Market, I was accosted by a very persistent little old man, who was extremely keen to improve his English pronunciation. At least, I presume that's what he was after, as he was clutching a huge (of course) Chinese/English dictionary to his bosom.

He held out a tiny (wow!) tape recorder, opened his dictionary, and asked me in Manglish to pronounce pages of the words for him. Beginning with the letter X ...

Ignoring my two new friends laughing themselves silly and hiding behind a pillar, I politely started saying the words, with my beau repeating the Chinese as I spoke. But oh dear, I couldn't keep a straight face - and had to tell him it was because I didn't understand the words, not the absurdity of the situation ... and when I got to Xenophobia ....

Lunch was at a Chinese Pizza Restaurant! Where they also did rather bad Peking Duck.