My experiments with Chinese! - "I am a cow"!!

Yes, the "My experiments with…" phrase has been used so many times in so many combinations that it has become a cliché these days. Still, I cant find a better way to capture the essence unless I call it as "My tragedies with Chinese!".

So this is how my conversation (experiment!) with our van driver went today morning! In Chinese because he doesn’t know a single word of English.

Me: Hello, How are you?
Mr. Li: Hello, How are you!
(No problem so far. I am cruising along smooth with my new Chinese skills! Patting myself on the back!)
Me: (Smile)
Mr.Li: How old are you?
Me: (Smile wiped right off, replaced with a dumb look and to cover it up, a stupid grin! I had no clue what he just said) huh?! (In English, I still haven't learnt how to say 'huh' in Chinese!)
Mr. Li: (Tries to help me by saying some numbers) 19, 29, 39….
Me:(Recognize that he is saying some numbers but have no clue what its for!) No.. Yi…(Blabber and mix up English and Chinese now!!!)
Mr.Li: (Laughs and says something, again no clue what it is)

Right then, a colleague walks up to the van. Mr. Li and he discuss and both laugh now! Remember the dumb look and stupid grin I adopted a while back? That’s still planted on my face, except now, it has aggravated to dumber and more stupid!!

The colleague elaborates what actually transpired between me and Mr.Li. Seems Li asked me how old I was and I had responded "I am a cow". (Yes, when I was mixing English and Chinese, I have actually told him that I was a cow!!)

So I had successfully managed to respond "I am a cow" to the question "How old are you?". Never mind that the answer is wrong or a disastrous reply, still I had said something in Chinese that made the sentence meaningful! Ahh, the bliss of seeing the cup half full!!! :)

Ohh, and the conversation continued during the ride back home. This time he asked me a question and also followed it up with some sign language and showed me real life examples. I successfully understood and even replied correctly, though only after referring to my Chinese notebook. I am not going to make an ass out of myself anymore by calling myself as various animals! Yeah, Yeah, ok, but ass is a fine animal!! :)