It’s really hard to find any East Asian in Delhi, not even the touristiest place. If you are lucky to find one, there is a high chance that they are Korean or Japanese. Being an East Asian working here for almost 3 weeks, I’m getting used to be stared at by Indian people around me (Drivers around me in traffic jam, people standing around me in packed metro, babies stop crying and stare when they see me). Basically, being an East Asian, I turned many heads when I was navigating my way through streets in India (most of them girls of coz ;P).
Hawkers in India are not like any other, they are polite, friendly, and they probably know more languages than you could imagine… just not Chinese… after all it’s a difficult language. Over the 3 weeks here, I have been greeted by a lot of friendly Indian in Japanese and Korean, but not Chinese. I even went into a debate with one hawker during my visit to Taj Mahal trying to persuade him that I’m not Japanese… So here’s the story,
Indian Hawker: (in native Japanese) これ見て、これすごく安い…blah blah [Look at this, this is so cheap so nice, something like that] Me: (in ENGLSIH) No thanks. IH: (in native Japanese) 本当に、…blah blah……. Me: No Thanks, I’m not Japanese IH: (still talking fast in Japanese) Me: (quite annoyed at this point) 俺日本人じゃねー、うるせいよお前![ I’m NOT Japanese, you’re annoying, something like that] IH: (Stops talking, stares at me for a moment, then start talking in Korean which I don’t understand)
If only he spoke Chinese to me, I might have bought from him. OR If only I knew Korean, I could have made the conversation more interesting…