请问你会讲华语吗？

The office phone rang at about 6pm. When I picked up, the person on the line asked me in Mandarin if I know how to speak Mandarin. Since I am in an Ang Mo country and nobody ever calls me on my work number and speaks to me in Mandarin (other than the ex-Houstonians), my first instinct was that the caller must be someone I know who was trying to play a prank on me.

So I responded, "不能" and then laughed, happily thinking it must be CQ also known as Xiao Hei or Blackie on the line.

Alas, the person then told me in a heavily accented English that he is a recruiter with so and so firm. That's when I realized I made a mistake. Good thing I was able to turn it around by telling him, "我能讲华语但是讲得不流利."

But who can blame me for thinking it was Blackie trying to pull a fast one especially since he kept imitating the way Allan Wu talked in 双添至尊 III during our Canada trip last year. Trust me, the Chinese guy on the phone had the exact same accent as Blackie.

I bet all the "Canadian" will still remember how Blackie will "bo dai bo ji" suddenly say "他出老千!"