My friend’s father immigrated from China to San Francisco when he was 18. When he came to the USA, he spoke no English. Soon he got his first job at Chinese grocery store in China town. Knowing his language barrier, his boss taught him a simple English expression, “I don’t know. Ask him.”
His boss gave him a specific instruction when using the expression . When he does not understand his customers’ English, he points out his finger at him and say, “I don’t know. Ask him.”
One day an American customer came in and asked him, “Is he your father?” He pointed out his finger at his boss and said, “I don’t know. Ask him.”
That reminds me of the scene in the movie “Outsourced” in which the American who comes to India to train his replacement is met at the airport by the Indian man who is to replace him. The American assumes the Indian is just his taxi cab driver, and mentions that he is “going to meet the schmuck who is to replace me.” The Indian, not knowing American slang, asks: “And what might be this word, “Schmuck”?” Finally, the American notices his “cab driver’s” name tag and realizes that he has just labeled his replacement a “schmuck”. Thinking quickly on his feet, he says, “Oh–that is American slang for a very nice person.” And–you guessed it, the Indian says, “Thank you so much for teaching me American slang, sir. You are a very good schmuck!”
PS: “red puppies” are very expensive. I could not figure out why they had to be “red” and I could not understand why it had to be a dog.(wouldn’t kittens do just as well???) I was very relieved to find out that “red puppies” weren’t communist, as I grew up in the age of the cold war and anything “red” was assocatied with “pinkos”. So ,here’s to John McCrae and his service to our countries as a poet. May God grant him a “red puppy” as a memorial. ROFL!