A while ago, I wrote this column for City Weekend magazine. It's a magazine for expats in Shanghai and Beijing and I did a column about my life in China teaching Chinese to foreigners. A lot of people really liked reading it because I was able to really tell it like it was in China. Anyways, I figured that if you didn't get a chance to read the article, I'd put it here. We're also putting all my journal entries on David's Corner on the Talk da Talk Online English section of our website.
Foot Massage - by David Wu (first appeared Sept 2003 in City Weekend Magazine)
Hey there! Welcome to my column for City Weekend where I get to teach you a little Chinese and a little about life out here in China. If you’ve lived here for as long as I have, you know that it’s a stressful place to live. And if you know me, I’m always lookin’ for ways to relieve stress. One way I like to relax is to get a 脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo). Just look down any street in China and you’re bound to find a local Chinese massage shop where I’d have to say the best masseuses in the world work. These guys know about your chi energy system, your pressure points, and can tell what’s wrong with your body just by feeling the knots in your muscles. And to top it off, most of them are blind!
Recently, my friend Jon from Boston, came to out to study Chinese. Since it was his first time in China, I wanted to take him out to get a 脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo). You know, like give him the real Chinese experience, so I took him to my favorite blind man脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo) shop. Jon never had a 脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo) before, so he kept on asking me all these questions… “Does it hurt?” “What happens if it tickles?” “What if I get excited when the blind guy starts to feel up my feet?” To calm him down I started telling him about the benefits of a 脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo). Like, how with foot massage, or foot reflexology, each spot on your foot is linked to a corresponding area on your body. If you get a sharp, stinging pain on a specific part of your foot, it means that there’s something wrong with that part of your body. By getting a 脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo), it helps to fix those “bad parts”. By the time I finished with Foot Massage 101, he was 心情舒畅 (xin qing shu chang) and we reached the massage shop.
We walked inside and introduced Jon to the owner and asked to give Jon the best blind masseuse they had. Next, we were shown to our own private room where they sat us down in these huge lazy boy armchairs, gave us a remote control to the TV, and some warm tea. Man, was it comfy! Then, they brought in buckets of hot herbal water. I told Jon it was to soften your feet before the massage and we both dipped our feet into the soothing mix. 爽 (shuang)! Finally, I was relaxed and I looked over at Jon who looked pretty relaxed as well. Yeah, we were ready!
After a while, two blind masseuses came into the room. They sat down in front of us and grabbed our feet. Jon nervously looked at me and I told him everything was OK and to relax. They started kneading, pressing, pushing and pulling our feet. Their hands moved like they were playing instruments. I looked over at Jon and he was lookin’ like he was in pain. Then all of a sudden I screamed out, “OWWW!” My masseuse then asked me in Chinese, “Mr. Wu, you haven’t been getting restful sleep!” I responded, “Yeah, I’m in the middle of filming so I’m 精疲力尽 (jing pi li jin). Can you fix me up?” Next he started working on the “poor sleep” part of my foot. It hurt but I knew it was good for me.
Jon was pretty amazed at what happened and he was eager to hear words of wisdom from his foot masseuse as well. Trying his best with his new language skills, he asked, “我哪里要进步?”
His masseuse then replied, “你的中文!!!” (Your Chinese!!!)
脚底按摩 (jiao di an mo) - Foot massage
脚底(jiao di) = bottom of the foot
按摩(an mo) = massage
精疲力尽 (jing pi li jin) - exhausted
心情舒畅 (xin qing shu chang) - feeling better
心情(xin qing) = mood
舒畅(shu chang) = happy, worry free
爽 (shuang) - Ooo Ahh (feels good))
Poor Jon. His Chinese has since improved a lot and now he chats with the foot massage guys all the time.
posted on 2006-03-23 11:36
吴大维 阅读(2552)
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