The following is a real conversation that occurred yesterday between me and a real Chinese person (in English):
Me: Have you seen the movie The Princess Bride?
她: No. Is it a classic?
Me: Kind of a "cult classic" I guess.
她: Ahh, cult classic. You mean like the movie with the transformers?
Me: The movie called Transformers?
她: No, no; it's older. And there's this guy from a planet with lots of transformers, and he comes to earth....
Me: So it's a science-fiction movie?
她: No, a musical. There's dancing and singing, and a fat guy with a guitar who dies.
Me: Meatloaf?
她: What's that?
Me: He's the only famous fat guy with a guitar I can think of.
她: I don't know. But anyway it's so popular that people still act it out at the same time that they show it on the screen, and everyone has the lines memorized and they dress up as the transformers....
Me: Wait, hang on.... Do you mean transvestites?
她: What did I say?
why does it terrify me to know that RHPS has spread to china..........
altho to be fair, I don't know the word for 'transvestite' in either german or japanese. so coming up with 'transformer' was probably pretty brainy on that person's part.
I can't imagine what it is like living with so many people who are capable of paralyzingly cute mistakes.