No matter where I am, I’m constantly asked the same question: “Do you work here?”

It doesn’t matter if I’m in Target sans the red shirt and khaki pants, Sephora with a bare face, or Penn Station without an MTA patch.

What is it about me that encourages folks to seek out my help? I point out things or impart wisdom when I can – I’ve even been told that I’m more helpful than the employees that work in a certain store. If I could collect a paycheck from each place where this happened, I’d die a rich woman.

The latest was in 601 Lexington’s Barnes and Noble this afternoon. I was there picking up Just Enough Chinese for my upcoming trip to Taiwan. I’m leaving in two weeks from today – yikes! Also picked up the game Killer Bunnies, which was 50% off. I need to stop buying board and card games, as I’m running out of shelf space.

So, some useful phrases related to this post (English pronunciation only, I gave up on inserting special HTML characters):

• Do you speak English? - Nee whey Eeng-win ma
• How much is that? - Daw-show chyen
• Excuse me, please - Cheeng-win
• Please have you got – Nee-min yow-may-yow
• Can you recommend – Nung jye-shou ee-ga
• Please can you help? – Nung bang waw ma

Somehow I doubt anyone’s going to be asking me for help in Taiwan, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.