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| Studying Chinese at Starbucks.... |
I was at a Starbucks inside a large, busy bookstore this week with a friend, studying after our Chinese lesson. A man came over to the table next to us with a stack of books and gestured at the chair. I had seen him before , making movements with his hands – like he was drawing or writing something in the air – and I thought he was looking at us but I thought I was just mistaken. When he pointed at the chair near us, speaking in Chinese, we thought he was asking if the table was free. We gestured that it was free, but when he sat down he turned his chair towards us. We continued to study, but soon he was reading out loud to us in Chinese from the book he was holding. When we ignored him, he got louder and started pushing the book at us, pointing at Chinese characters.
I just started Chinese lessons, so the focus has been more on saying hello and learning our numbers, rather than “Leave me alone.” So we just kept trying to tell him we didn’t speak Chinese and then started ignoring him again. He would leave the table – one time going up to a security guard, saying something to him and Chinese and gesturing at us – then come back and start reading to us again, pointing at words.
Finally, when the man had gotten up again, a woman at another table called an employee over and spoke to him in Chinese. Then when we asked her what the man with the books had been saying to us, she told us there was something wrong with him, mentally.
Eventually, workers had a loud argument with him before he left. Then, an employee gave us coupons for free coffee because we were “disturbed” by the man (which, was actually the most interesting part of the whole incident).
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