Category — EGreenberg

My coach’s laugh is incredible. Her voice never fails to permeate the unexpectedly thin walls of the ping pong club on West 100^th. She speaks impeccable Mandarin and beautiful Japanese but her English is fractured at best. Coach reacts to miscommunications and misunderstandings with a dainty, shielded giggle that rapidly morphs into a vivacious laugh. Her reaction to uncertainty is friendly and honest- wildly different from the demeanors of other club members of analogous descent.

I made the mistake of adorning green socks for a table tennis session not long ago. Barely a moment after I pulled them on under coach’s quizzical eyes she spoke loudly and sharply, “What is that?” I held one up, and slowly replied “…Socks”. As she continued to ogle I clumsily attempted to put my Chinese vocabulary quizzes to use, “Ni zhidao, wazi.” After a moment of continued staring she began to laugh, apparently green socks are incredibly funny in China. Gasping she attempted to explain but naturally couldn’t find the proper English words to elucidate her hysterics.  She said something about Chinese police officers wearing green socks, and how silly I was to not have normal white ones but broke off again in another fit of laughter. I remain unaware of what was so funny about my socks, but appreciate the all-encompassing amusement of mutual confusion.

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