Try a Little Tenderness...

I had always heard that the hospitality and kindness of the Chinese was second to none and the longer I have stayed here, the more this has been proved to me.

Tonight there was a decent thunderstorm (yay for the clear skies tomorrow) that we got caught in on the walk home from dinner.

I'd pulled my hood up and was ready to trek it in the rain when a random Chinese girl came up and offered me half her umbrella space.

She went out of her way to walk with me back to my building on campus.

I wonder, would we do this in Australia?

Another extraordinary display of kindness was shown by some locals at the Yashow markets on Saturday.

The ATM neglected to spit out a friend's cash and thus, crisis ensued.

Thankfully, we had a group of nice ladies get us on the phone to someone that spoke English.

Once the English skills of the man on the phone had dissolved under the pressure some cool dudes were happy to jump in and finish the finer details of the conversation in Mandarin.

The money was back in the account within hours.

I think one reason why such kind assistance can occur is the multi-lingual ability of so many people in China.

In Australia, we are spoiled and perhaps a little ignorant, in that many people really only know how to speak English fluently.

Speaking to Olympians and coaching staff through the work I am doing has further encouraged me to learn another language.

These people speak not only their own language but can also be interviewed in English on finer technical points of their event.

It is so good to speak the little bit of Mandarin I know and I feel so very ignorant not knowing more.

Mission when I get home: search for some language lessons and be super friendly to lost and distressed foreigners!