Three days ago, I went to have dinner with one of my Mexican clients, E, in New York City. He came to New York to have meetings with some banks here and since I am in NY on vacation, we decided to have dinner together and talk about some new trading business opportunities. He came with his sales manager J and we ate at a Greek restaurant, Milos. We had a great time there.

E is a funny guy. Last year I traveled with him to 10 Chinese cities in two weeks to purchase steel products. He did not give me enough time to set up meetings for him, so I had to make phone calls to many steel mills while we were already on our way to their offices (of course I had been in contact with those steel mills before E's arrival without confirming to them the date for the meetings). By the end of the business trip, we made a summary at Shanghai Pudong International airport. While discussing the following-ups we needed to do to conclude the deals, E suddenlyl started to laugh and said:" I have to tell you this. You know what? Every time when you made a cell phone call to a steel mill and you begun to talk in Chinese, after a while, I thought that probably there wouldn't be any chance for us to get the meeting set up since the way you talked, in Chinese, really made me feel that neither you nor the person who you were talking to was in a good mood. Of course, you were not shouting, but I just felt that way. However, when you finished the phone call, you turned to me and told me in Spanish--Good news, they want to meet us! How wonderful!" Then we both laughed. 

When I worked in Mexico City, during the weekend, Chinese staff in the company we would drive company's van to make some short-distance trips. We always had an informal meeting to discuss where to go on  Friday during lunch break at the office. Mexican colleagues usually went out for lunch and would come back after 2 hours. One Friday we did it again but Yohana, a Mexican girl, was on diet so she stayed at the office to eat some fruits. We had several options so we discussed almost about 20 minutes. We finally made up our minds and everyone went back to his/her place happily. Yohana had her cube in front of mine. After I sat down, she turned to me and asked (when she asked me this, she looked pretty worried): "What happened? Why were you guys so angry?"

Why the way we talk to others, in Chinese, would cause misunderstanding and confusions among foreigners? Maybe we are just too tense? When we make a business call, we only think about the issue that we need to get through and we speak very fast and dry? When we are with friends, we also speak fast for sometimes they do not let you finish your words so the only way to fully express oneself at once is to speak faster and louder? Maybe we shall try to relax and slow down a little bit or maybe it's just a cultural thing that we do not need to change?

I had always been eager to go to Spain when I was at college but ended up going to Mexico, a country of beautiful natural scenery, friendly people and delicious food. I will start writing about what I have seen and experienced in Mexico in my blog.

I still remember when I was at college, once our professor from Mexico, Fernando, gave us a lecturer on Mexico history. He talked about the ancient Maya and Azteca cultures, la conquista and the formation of the New Mexican nation. He invited us to imagine what the native Indians thought when they witnessed the birth of the first mestizo (Spanish word for mixed-blood between Spanish conquistadors and native Indians), then that of a whole new generation of mestizos who did not only think and act in a different way under the whites’ influence but also looked so different from their Indian parents.   The loss of Indian religion, languages and traditions was gradual but with firm pace. What kind of identity confusion and mental shock it would have caused among the conquered!

For many Chinese people, Mexico is a land of mysteries, thieves and abductors (they read it on newspapers or news online). And they just are not that interested in this country as they are in some other Latin American countries, such as Brazil and Argentina (the soccer teams of these two countries have lots of fans in China). So when people got to know that I have been in Mexico, the first question they’d ask me would always be: “Have you ever been robbed there?  

I was lucky. Nothing bad happened to me. But one of my Chinese colleagues, our finance manager once was in trouble.

One night at around 9:00pm, he left his apartment to go to the office (as Chinese staff working overseas sometimes we had to participate conference call held by the headquarter in Shenzhen). The office was not far away from the apartments the company rented for us and when we were not in a hurry, we usually walked instead of driving company’s van or taking taxi. But that was a cold night and was kind of late, so Li decided to take a Taxi. Taxi in Mexico City look like Beatles car, small, tow-door and painted in green color. They look very cute outside but very uncomfortable inside since the space is very small.

Li got into one taxi and he found that besides the driver, there was a woman there sitting in the back seat. Before Li could take any reaction, the car started to move at high speed. Li said that at first he was not that afraid for the driver and the woman greeted him with “Hola” (that’s Spanish word for saying hello) maybe with a smile on their faces but since it was dark Li was not sure about this detail. Then the couple talked other stuff to Li in Spanish. They went for two minutes and of course, Li could not understand a word. Let’s say that Li’s Spanish vocabulary was not very impressive. The Spanish words he could understand and say with a Chinese accent were “Hola (hello)”, “Hello beauty (hola guapa)”, “beautiful girl (chica bonita)”, “Si (yes)”, “gracias (thank you)”, “taco (a typical Mexican food that Li always had for lunch), “muy caro (very expensive, this one is for shopping)” , “todo derecho (straight ahead)” and our office address. Before that night, Li believed that his Spanish was ok for him to move around. But obviously none of those words would help him with the communication in that taxi.

Li did try to communicate with them though. He replied in Spanish to inform them where he’d like to go. The couple might think Li spoke Spanish since he said the address in Spanish. So they tried again to tell stuff to Li in Spanish. Li did not understand and did not reply this time. The couple must feel desperate so after a 2-minute-silence, the woman got a knife out from her pocket and pointed it at Li. She spoke in English with strong accent: “Money!”. I personally think that it was no need for the woman to practice her English at that moment. Showing a knife is more than enough to make Li understand what’s going on and what they wanted from him.

Li was freaked out. He had more less 1,500 pesos (100 US dollars) in his wallet and immediately gave the money to the woman. The woman counted the money, took a look inside Li’s wallet to make sure that he’d handed in every peso, then, how funny is this one, said to Li: “Gracias (thanks).”  The driver pulled the car over and let Li get off. Li told us that once he got off the car, for one minute he did not know what to do. After he calmed down, he decided to go back to the apartment, WALKING. No mood for the conference call.

Here comes the funniest part. While Li was walking towards his apartment, the couple drove back with the keys Li forgot in their car. They returned just to give back the keys to Li. Li felt that he needed to thank them for their “kindness” so he said to them: “gracias (thanks)”.  The couple replied in Spanish you are welcome and they left. Li was able to get to his apartment safely and tell us about what had happened to him.

This is a true story and maybe you think it’s funny. But going out along at night, especially when you are a foreigner, might be very dangerous in Mexico City. There are other incidents that I will write, also about safety in Mexico City. I will stop here and cook my dinner.

(the photo is of the Cateral in Mexico City. It's located in the Plaza. It's a great picture, looks like a post card. My friend Ding took the picture with his camera).