Chinese, at restaurant. Tue, Aug 12, 2008

08/12/2008. 1045. I had supper at a Chinese buffet restaurant on my way to a client appointment. I hadn't been to this restaurant before, but saw it after eating at another restuarant during a previous trip in the area. After I got my first plate I put out a Chinese and an English Book of Mormon, a couple Chinese Liahona magazines and their corresponding English editions. I usually read an English Liahona or a newspaper while eating.

When the waiter refilled my soda he looked at the material, and I asked if he liked to read in Chinese. He said yes, and showed interest. As I was explaining that the books were free, and from my church, the cashier/hostess came over and joined the conversation. She had been in the states longer and was more fluent in English than the waiter. I demonstrated the bilingual nature to her, reading 1st Nephi 1:1, while running the index finger of one hand along the Chinese passage, and the index finger of the other hand along the English passage.

(It would be really great if the church would publish actual bilingual, or "diglot", editions, with the foreign language in one column, and the English in the other column, and have them lined up verse-by-verse for easy comparison.)

She didn't want one, but said something to the waiter which seemed to encourage him. At first he eagerly accepted the Chinese edition, and I was a little bold in encouraging him to take the English edition, which he did.