118 (D-13) San Francisco ...On the lighter side

118 (D-13) Chinatown revisited....

"Walking through San Francisco's Chinatown, a tourist is fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and banners. Then, he sees a building with the sign, "Hans Olaffsen's Laundry." "Hans Olaffsen?", he muses. "How in hell does that fit in here?" So he walks into the shop and sees an old Chinese gentleman behind the counter. The tourist asks, "How did this place get a name like 'Hans Olaffsen's Laundry?'" The old man answers, "Is name of owner." The tourist asks, "Well, who and where is the owner?" "Me...is right here," replies the old man. "You? How did you ever get a name like Hans Olaffsen?" "Is simple," says the old man. "Many, many year ago when come to this country, was stand in line at Documentation Center. Man in front was big blonde Swede. Lady look at him and go, 'What your name?' He say,'Hans Olaffsen.' Then she look at me and go, 'What your name?'" "I say Sem Ting."

Accents can sometimes be a problem!

Jane

PS. San Francisco has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of China and Taiwan.

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VOCABULARY:

--signs = "panneaux"

--banners = "banderoles"

--laundry = "blanchisserie"; I must do the laundry this afternoon: "Je dois faire la lessive cet après-midi." Put the dirty laundry into the machine. "Mettez le linge sale dans la machine."

--muses = thinks, wonders

--How in hell does that fit in here? = Difficult. One of my colleagues who isn't American found this expression difficult too! Maybe "Que diable fait un nom pareil ici." is a possible translation. "Fit in" is another Phrasal Verb. Example: "He doesn't really fit in at work. He's very different from us."

--owner = "propriétaire"

--Me....is right here. = "Moi...en face de vous."

--replies = answers