A common experience when you lack language skills...

We're learning the language, but right now we are very VERY basic in our speaking and comprehension levels. So 2 nights ago, we wanted to go eat some jiaoza as a family, and we even had a map given to us by other foreigners and a rough idea of where a jiaoza place is located. So we took a bus to the area and walked around corner #1 several different times, stuntingly asking store clerks "where jiaoza?" (with appropriate gestures, hands to mouth, etc., of course!). Many people seemed to understand what we were saying, and different people pointed different directions... and we walked each direction each time someone even somewhat knowingly pointed. Some people looked at us as if we were speaking jibberish (which, admittedly, we probably were!).

Eventually, we thought, "maybe it's on the corner caddy-corner from where we have been looking" (at nighttime in a new city, there's no telling which way's North, so we could have been wandering on the SW corner instead of the NE corner). So we walked through the maze-like tunnels under the road until we got out on the other side. Again, people pointed in all directions. As we grew more and more tired of walking in circles following the pointing accompanied by language we didn't understand, we started thinking, "they're not saying, 'go this direction'... they're probably actually saying, 'if I were you, I'd go anywhere but that direction'... and 'there's no way you'll find jiaoza if you go that way'." Pretty soon, we were cracking ourselves up! Exhausted from all the walking, but laughing!

At long last, a young teenage girl took it upon herself to help us find the jiaoza place, walked us over to the 1st street corner we had been on, asked around until someone pointed it out, and took us into the place! God even provided a nice bilingual lady to translate so we could order. All in all, we had a very common, lengthy, and (in the long run) fun experience that will motivate us to learn more language! (Doug went to class the next day and got the teacher to tell him how to say "where's the closest kosher jiaoza restaurant?" so we can at least ask a little easier next time!)