Sunday, February 27, 2011

Jackie Chan or Judge Lance Ito?

Gabriel: Hey, Lucy?  I have a question about American culture.
Me: Okay, go ahead.
Gabriel: Do you know Monica, from Friends?
Me: Not all Americans are like that.
Gabriel: What?
Me: Never mind.  Go on.
Gabriel: You know that girl on Desperate Housewives?
Me: Teri Hatcher?
Gabriel: I don't know her name.  Is that the same actress as Monica?
Me: No.
Gabriel: Are you sure?
Me: 100% sure. (FYI: I very rarely give a 100%) Monica's name is Courtney Cox.  She has a daughter named Coco.
Gabriel:  Are you sure?  Those two women look like the same woman.
Me: Sometimes western people have trouble telling Asian people apart.
Gabriel: (Looks around at his classmates, then looks at me with skepticism) A baby named Coco?
Me: Maybe you should Google it.
Gabriel: Google hates China.
Me: I'm going to go get a coke.

2 comments:

Linda M said...

I must have missed the part where you changed your name to a good Chinese name like Lucy to make it easier on your students. And don't we all look alike?

Christense Andersen Jiang said...

Yes, we do. That is, many of us look alike to them. It evens things out. I've been using Lucy as an alias for about three years now, since I get tired of hearing people 1)butcher "Christense," or 2) just assume that I like to be called "Chris."