This Korean guy attempting to order food in Mandarin is the funniest thing you'll see today

Ordering food is a daunting task as is, having to do so in a foreign language makes it seem paramount to climbing Mount Everest with nothing on your back.

But as long as you're not the unfortunate chap that has to take one for the team, other people's miserable yet hilarious attempts at communication can make you feel like you're watching a stand-up comedy.

A 10-second video clip of a Korean guy attempting to order food in a hotpot restaurant using Mandarin was uploaded on China's alternative to Tiktok, Douyin, where it went viral and left thousands of netizens in fits of giggles.

In the clip, the man can be heard trying to order "beansprout's mushroom" and "chicken egg's little brother", much to the confusion of his dining partner and the waiter alike. Only after much gesturing and hesitation did the waiter understand his requests.

By "beansprout's mushroom", he meant enoki mushrooms, while the "chicken egg's little brother" meant a quail's egg.

As the waiter walked away, the man turned back to the camera exclaiming: "He understood me! He actually understood me! Dude's got a smart brain!"

The video had gotten over 415,000 likes at the time of writing.

"Waiter: To think just ordering dishes would turn into a game of Guess the Word." PHOTO: Screengrab/Weibo
"I want to know who is chicken egg's big brother now."
"Duck egg? Goose egg? Ostrich egg?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" PHOTOS: Screengrab/Douyin

Pear Video identified the man as Shin, a Korean international student who came to China three years ago. He said in their interview that he had only started learning the Chinese language then, therefore certain words, such as quail eggs, were still too hard for him to remember.

"The more I learn (the language), the harder it gets."

Shin hadn't expected to receive such a huge reaction to his video. He, along with another friend, would regularly upload vlogs about their experience in China on Weibo and the short clip was only meant to be a teaser.

Both he and his friend had not been able to resist the allure of Chongqing-style hotpot, which happened to be more expensive where they were based in Suzhou, therefore the two decided to film a short vlog of their virgin hotpot experience.

Shin only found out his video had gone viral the next day when his friend sent him a message.

You can watch the full vlog here.

rainercheung@asiaone.com