The emergence of China as an economic superpower

I was gone for about a week or so helping my son move from one school to another.

When I came back my wife smiled and announced that she had cheated on me.

Being somewhat on the slow side I wondered about this for a moment and then we had the following conversation.

"Uh, why are you telling me this now?" I asked.

She said, "It's you, dummy, who is telling everyone I cheated on you!"

"Gee, am I stupid. And, how is it that I am telling everyone this?"

"Well, look at you! You are wearing a green hat! Everyone knows that when a guy wears a green hat it means his wife cheated on him."

"Uh...I didn't know that. And, I don't know anybody else who knows that, either."

While with my son, we visited the university book store at his new school and he bought me a ball cap. The school colors just happened to be green and gold...and I got the green cap with gold lettering.

By now, hopefully you realize that my wife did NOT cheat on me. But we found this difference in culture a bit amusing.

It reminded me of a time when a friend had a very serious misunderstanding with his Asian wife.

We were in the Navy at the time and our ship often went out to sea. That's what Navy ships do, eh?

Anyway, when we came back from a 1-2 month long cruise, his wife greeted him with a smile and "I'm pregnant!"

There was dancing and happiness and tears and thinking of names and such until....until, he asked her "How pregnant are you?"

She responded with "5 months."

He only needed one hand to figure this out (remember - US Navy people can be a bit slow) he counted five months back and realized our Navy ship was out to sea at the time.

Suddenly there were accusations flying around. "You are five months pregnant. I wasn't here then. You cheated. Who did you sleep with?" and so on.

She, of course, denied it completely.

There were more tears but not the happy kind.

Finally, they decided they needed to go to the doctor to see what's up - maybe he could shed some light, they thought.

A quick ultrasound revealed that she was only 4 months pregnant - and my Navy friend was home at that time.

His Asian wife, however, was quite befuddled about the announcement. She was convinced she was five months along.

By now, perhaps it is clear that Asians and Americans count pregnancy months differently. When an Asia gets pregnant - they start counting with 1. when an American gets pregnant, they start with zero (0).

This whole event almost did NOT have a happy ending. Once accusations of infidelity fly, it is very hard to recover..

Green hats and methods of counting, of all things, can lead to disaster.

I wonder - does anyone else have a story or event to share where cultural differences created some very tense moments.

If so, would you consider sharing them here?

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