You actually pretend when they speak English that you thought they were speaking Chinese, now I see it.
Does the tactic work, though? Are they led to think that their English is so bad that itâs unrecognizable as such, and that therefore you assume they are speaking their native language in a very fast and colloquial way?
Or are they just left having no idea what youâre on about?[/quote]
Of course, currently I only have a problem with Shida teachers speaking English to me. I sit down in the library at Shida and they just start throwing in random English. I am paying them to speak Mandarin and not English. It pisses me off.
In everyday life I usually begin the conversation in Mandarin and people do not try to speak English to me that often. I even speak Mandarin with my buxiban owner. I mainly just speak English with my students and the other English teachers at my school. I donât want to embarrass any of my co-workers by speaking Mandarin with them since they are English teachers.
Why whatâs the big deal? I speak Chinese to most of my English teacher colleagues, even if they do mostly have TESOL PhDs from the States and no doubt speak far better English than I do Chinese â a lot of our contact is in meetings where itâs all happening in Chinese anyway.
If I was a Chinese teacher in England, I would find it strange if chats with colleagues and departmental business were (supposed to be) conducted in Chinese.
[quote=âButtercupâ]People always understand a lot more than they produce. Most people donât realise this. They here your toneless, bad Chinese and assume you donât know much, whereas their passive English ability is higher, although they produce English that sounds like crap to you, and you think your Chinese is better than their English.
The better you get and the less ass your opening sentence sounds, the less likely they are to bother with English. People are pragmatic.[/quote]
Which brings up another very interesting point. In all the years I have lived here Iâve never felt completely comfortable with the opening line to use for chatting with local people. It often seems forced. Taiwanese donât really use opening lines as much as most westerners do. Although maybe I never got totally used to asking somebody âni chi bao le maâ, although it is a perfectly fine opening line to talk to people as much âthe weather is great todayâ. Sometimes I will say âzui jin zenme yangâ âŠagain it feels a little boring to me. Perhaps the best way to do it is âay, ni fa fu le ma?â, have you gained weight or my personal favorite 'weishenme ni de lian jintian na me hong!, why is your face so red todayâŠnice.
Add that to the fact that most Taiwanese are not very socially skilled conversationists and sometimes it is hard work.
Youâre back.
Iâm back.
Youâre off to work.
Youâre just come off work.
Youâre off to school.
Youâve just come home form school.
Been busy lately?
Had lunch yet? (ok you got that one)
(in the gym) Exercising?
(on the bus to Taipei) Youâre going to Taipei?
Cute kid you got there.
How long you been in Taiwan?
Can I take a picture of your children?
Will you take a picture of me with your children?
What do you mea youâre going to smash my camera because I took a picture of your cute children without asking first?
Wow your kids speak such good Chinese! Did you teach them yourself?
Wow your kids speak such good English! Did you teach them yourself?
Do you speak Taiwanese? [Wife automatically goes into elaborate âWakino wakine hilei dilei gong Gok Yu, m dilei wakino hakino Dai Yu kwalongbo tielongbo ane ane jakbong bangsai bangsai ng galligongâ routine which never fails to drive me nuts when the simple answer, which I can manage perfectly in Mandarin all by myself, is âNo, actually I donât.â]
[quote=âheadhonchoIIâ]
Add that to the fact that most Taiwanese are not very socially skilled conversationists and sometimes it is hard work.[/quote]
My favorite way of teasing them when they start speaking to me in English, before I have had a chance to open my mouth, is - with an absolutely straight face, in English - âI am sorry but I donât speak Englishâ and then watching for, in that fraction of a second, the realization to sink inâŠitâs priceless.
[quote=âgrumpyâ]My favorite way of teasing them when they start speaking to me in English, before I have had a chance to open my mouth, is - with an absolutely straight face, in English - âI am sorry but I donât speak Englishâ and then watching for, in that fraction of a second, the realization to sink inâŠitâs priceless.
[quote=âjacktorrenceâ][quote=âheadhonchoIIâ]
Add that to the fact that most Taiwanese are not very socially skilled conversationists and sometimes it is hard work.[/quote]
SorryïŒ but that is just utter shite.[/quote]
Sorry you are wrong, if you come from Ireland you would know it from day 1. Most people here are quite guarded in what they will talk about, especially at work. For instance they go on vacation, come back and hardly mention a thing. They donât ask what are you doing on the weekend in general. Many conversations often stop dead when you say you are not American or you are not interested to talk in English. Their breadth of knowledge is also not very wide coupled with this reticence. Add on the fact that talking about politics here is a no-no in most situations. I mean a MAJOR topic of conversation in most countries is how crap the government is doing, but most people wonât even go there because of the fear of putting their foot wrong or crossing the boss. Of course there are 20% that are able to hold a conversation but the other 80% canât say much.
[quote=âheadhonchoIIâ][quote=âjacktorrenceâ][quote=âheadhonchoIIâ]
Add that to the fact that most Taiwanese are not very socially skilled conversationists and sometimes it is hard work.[/quote]
SorryïŒ but that is just utter shite.[/quote]
Sorry you are wrong, if you come from Ireland you would know it from day 1.[/quote]
I donât know⊠some of those laobanâs canât keep their mouths shut.
Not to mention the akward MRT conversations you get yourself, which is mostly listening to what people have to say and you just nodding your head and grunting.
Youâre back.
Iâm back.
Youâre off to work.
Youâre just come off work.
Youâre off to school.
Youâve just come home form school.
Been busy lately?
Had lunch yet? (ok you got that one)
(in the gym) Exercising?
(on the bus to Taipei) Youâre going to Taipei?
Cute kid you got there.
How long you been in Taiwan?
Can I take a picture of your children?
Will you take a picture of me with your children?
What do you mea youâre going to smash my camera because I took a picture of your cute children without asking first?
Wow your kids speak such good Chinese! Did you teach them yourself?
Wow your kids speak such good English! Did you teach them yourself?
Do you speak Taiwanese? [Wife automatically goes into elaborate âWakino wakine hilei dilei gong Gok Yu, m dilei wakino hakino Dai Yu kwalongbo tielongbo ane ane jakbong bangsai bangsai ng galligongâ routine which never fails to drive me nuts when the simple answer, which I can manage perfectly in Mandarin all by myself, is âNo, actually I donât.â][/quote]
I know a lot of them, but they are utterly boring to meâŠespecially you speak English or Chinese crap or how long have you been in TaiwanâŠarrggh.
[quote]I donât know⊠some of those laobanâs canât keep their mouths shut.
Not to mention the akward MRT conversations you get yourself, which is mostly listening to what people have to say and you just nodding your head and grunting.[/quote]
True, my old boss used to always come over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and yabber away in TaiwaneseâŠthen follow it up with a âxin ku niâ - âyou are hard workingâ
[quote=âheadhonchoIIâ][quote]I donât know⊠some of those laobanâs canât keep their mouths shut.
Not to mention the akward MRT conversations you get yourself, which is mostly listening to what people have to say and you just nodding your head and grunting.[/quote]
True, my old boss used to always come over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and yabber away in TaiwaneseâŠthen follow it up with a âxin ku niâ - âyou are hard workingâ [/quote]
Wouldnât èŸèŠäœ mean âWork hardâ not âyou are hard workingâ?
Yes you are right, but colloquially it just means⊠âthanks, you are a hard workerâ. It was funny how he thought that I could magically understand Taiwanese, anyway I appreciated it, his Chinese was terrible as he became rich from selling land in Tainan to the High Speed Rail and founded a company in Taipei and moved when he was quite old.
[quote=âDr Jellyfishâ]Ways to force people to use Chinese on you:
Get a t-shirt printed with: æèœäžæè±æ on it![/quote]
They would still speak to you in English.
The only place that they will always use Chinese first no matter what is when doing things through the internet. I had to e-mail this one Taiwan group company because of some thing, and it had to be done all in Chinese. Part of the reason is that perhaps they donât know a foreigner is the one e-mailing them, but assuming we make a lot of grammatical mistakes, they must either not really care that much to type in English or think we are just odd natives.
Well, not really a method for getting people to speak Chinese with you, but possibly a good way for getting rid of some of those odd people who randomly come up to you and start English conversations would be to reply:
ć°äžè”· ~ ææŻćąšè„żć„äșșă
After youâve said it you could cough in their general direction and with any luck theyâll flee!
I tried it out last Friday at Da-An park as I had half an hour to spare before my 1 on 1 Chinese class, I was sitting on a bench enjoying the weather when woman who looked partially brainwashed was handing out leaflets asked me if I could speak English, I normally just go for the Iâm Russian or even Iâm from Saudi Arabia - but I felt like a change. In all honesty I didnât cough on her, but I squint my eyes and tried to sound a bit sickly.
[quote=âDr Jellyfishâ]Well, not really a method for getting people to speak Chinese with you, but possibly a good way for getting rid of some of those odd people who randomly come up to you and start English conversations would be to reply:
ć°äžè”· ~ ææŻćąšè„żć„äșșă
After youâve said it you could cough in their general direction and with any luck theyâll flee!
I tried it out last Friday at Daâan park as I had half an hour to spare before my 1 on 1 Chinese class, I was sitting on a bench enjoying the weather when woman who looked partially brainwashed was handing out leaflets asked me if I could speak English, I normally just go for the Iâm Russian or even Iâm from Saudi Arabia - but I felt like a change. In all honesty I didnât cough on her, but I squint my eyes and tried to sound a bit sickly.[/quote]
