Re: Apartment: Mingmei & Donna
"No, no conjugating!" remarked Mingmei happily, glad that her new friend seemed to appreciate that bit, at the very least. Mingmei did, as well. Learning English had been challenging to say the least. "hmm...Not really, no," she acknowledged. "I mean, there's some that make their way, but when I was growing up, we didn't get much from the Western world. I was lucky, though. I was born just as we started to open up more to the West. My sister and brother, though, they are very much...what's the word....indoctrinated?" Mingmei puzzled over it, meaning to say that that her older siblings essentially followed the old regime of Mao to heart still, despite their connections now with the Western world. She didn't know the exact word for it in English, but that was the closest she could come up with to explain it. "They were still young enough, I guess."
And to the topic of money, Mingmei studied the computer screens in front of her now as she spoke. "Oh, no, I mean, you are very generous to offer to pay even the standard. You do not have to, just because it's the standard. It's bargaining and all. You don't know me yet, so you didn't have to offer it. It's very standard back home." Bargaining for wages and other things was something she could do well, and her and her sister had loved to bargain and argue all the time about different topics like that. "Oh, it's international business, mostly dealing with economics. I don't ask too much about it but let her manage it, because it's her inheritance, so to speak. She runs it very well. And it's quite all right, I understood." She smiled over at Donna, then out came a notebook.
Her pen came out as well, and she was jotting down a few notes about the codes that she was seeing. It was nothing in particular, but Mingmei had a knack for looking at codes and being able to translate it to an image in her head. The pen flowed quickly over paper and it might have been weird to see someone looking at code at the same time as taking notes. It was just how she preferred to understand more of what she was seeing, but already she was getting a pretty good grasp of what was in front of her and what she had to work with.