I was looking for baggage lockers at Heathrow so I could dump my heavy bags while I took a walk around to buy stuff, because I'd arrived too early to check-in. Being utterly unfamiliar with the place, I somehow stumbled into the section for passengers requiring special assistance. I asked the staff there if they had any idea where I could find baggage storage facilities and they gave me a blank look. Maybe it was because I wasn't in a wheelchair so they couldn't figure out how to help me.
As I was turning around to leave, a British girl rushed right up to me and asked "excuse me what does this word mean? do you speak japanese? what is this word?"
She was pointing at the word for rice "米“, so I told her that word meant rice. Then she went "So my name is RICE?" My Japanese name is RICE?!
"No, that's just the meaning of that word. What's your name?"
"Emilia"
I looked at the Chinese characters scrawled on the piece of paper.
"艾米利亚“ (ai4mi3li4ya3)
It was a pretty good fit.
So I told her "It's the whole phrase, that's your name. The Chinese do it that way." I then pronounced the whole thing out for her.
What happened next was totally unexpected. She went like "Okay you're like super cool! You speak like Japanese and Chinese. Alright thanks!"
I only have one thing to say. For the last time, I am not Japanese!