Disadvantages of not reading

Last week we had yet another incident that really brings home the huge disadvantage of not being able to read the Chinese written language.

On Monday afternoon I often have a two hour language class. I am learning how to speak (a very low level of) Chinese. After working a half day at the office I usually come home to enjoy lunch with Fran before the language lesson. This day we had decided to have “chicken man” sandwiches. Of course those require a Diet Coke and chips.

Before I headed home I ducked into the 7-11 for some chips. Now you’ve got to realize that we have VERY FEW chips that you would find on the shelves in the US. So I’m there looking for a double size bag (think Grab bag) of semi-normal chips when I spot what looks like might be “normal”. Normal is almost anything that is not seaweed/shrimp/chicken flavored. At least the picture of the chip looked ok.

Anyway . . . when we sat down to lunch and started in on the chips we were not able to identify what flavor had been applied to the otherwise normal chip. After lunch, during my language lesson I asked for an interpretation of the Chinese on the package. It turns out they are:

Super Sour!
I should have looked closer at the body language in the illustration instead of focusing on the chip