Mandarin is Greek

A member of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was among the delegates from five countries invited by the Chinese authorities to discuss the feasibility of the new Silk Road. Keen to impress his hosts, he picked up a few words in Mandarin, which he thought would be useful during a conversation. Imagine the puzzlement of his hosts when the NCP delegate responded with a XieXie (pronounced shay-shay, meaning thank you), when one of the Chinese delegates greeted him with a Ninhao (pronounced nee-how, meaning hello). The interpreter quickly stepped in to avoid what could have become an embarrassment for the Indian team. As for the NCP member, he admitted later that Mandarin was, well, Greek to him.