他听得懂吗？

今天早上大约7点钟，在公司的电梯里面，刚好有两个清洁阿姨在讲话。Well，我想她们在讲一些好像秘密的东西。基本上，她们是在悄悄细语。但是，由于电梯里的空间有限，即使再怎么压低声量，还是可以听得见的。加上，她们的悄悄细语，在我看来，其实是普通谈话的声量。当其中一位阿姨发现我的存在时，就说：“噓，有人啊！”，想不到另外一个阿姨的回应是，“他听得懂吗？”她们说的不是什么上海话家乡话，所以当然我听得懂。结果，另外一个阿姨回答说，“应该是听得懂的”。她们就走出电梯了。我很好奇，我看起来就是一个中国人的样，难道是因为她们接触过许多外地不懂中文的华侨？其实，很可能。但是，我还是觉得很有趣：你会在不懂第三者是否听得懂你的语言下，在电梯里谈那第三者吗？一个上班时的小插曲！

This morning around 7am, I was in the elevator in the office building. There were two cleaning ladies discussing about some secrets (which by the way I have no idea what about). They were whispering, but since the space in the elevator is really limited, so however they tried to lower their voice, I still could hear them clear and loud. In fact, their whispering from my perspective actually is normal conversation volume. Anyway, one of them realized my existence (probably they have touched a very sensitive topic, which couldn't be shared by any third party). And she said, "Shu, there is someone in the elevator". Surprisingly, the other one responded, "Could he understand?" Basically, they were talking in Mandarin, so of course I could understand. Then, the other replied, "I think so...". So they walked out the elevator . I am very curious. I certainly look Chinese (and I am Chinese albeit from Malaysia). Maybe because they have met a lot of foreigner-Chinese (ABC, BBC, MBC, CBC, etc.) who cannot speak or understand Mandarin. However, what made the whole experience interesting is that, would you speak about the third party so loud in the elevator when you are not sure if he or she could understand you?