'Moo, moo' got me not milk but shampoo

I arrived in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, in 2003 to teach English at a university, armed with a few Chinese words: ni hao, xie xie and zai jian (hello, thank you and goodbye).

My Chinese friends in Canada had assured me that I would find numerous individuals who could communicate in English. Unfortunately, I only encountered a few who spoke English in the early years of my stay in China. It was hard to understand them; they had a big vocabulary, but didn't pronounce the words correctly. I had to rely on body language to get around.

Buying groceries often got me into the most hilarious situations. Imagine a foreigner standing in a small store making the sound "moo, moo" and putting his hands on top of his head, then squeezing his hands. Everyone would come to the conclusion that I was trying to buy milk, I thought.