Beijing diary: Kosher, 'pasher' and how 'maach' it takes

They say language divides, but human emotions can breach barriers where language fails. We must also not forget, as George Bernard Shaw once said, that England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

It actually takes a visit to a new country to see the emotions I mentioned earlier at play. Within an hour of arriving in Beijing, I was out on the street enquiring where to find a "market", a word I believed was international but turned out not to be.

Residents extended their cellphones, gesturing to me to key in the word and on checking the Mandarin translation, pointed in the right direction.