Short-circuiting is probably the best explanation so far.
I guess there’s a reason. So called 本省人 and aborigines were punished and humiliated and fined when they speak their mother tongue, or whatever language that wasn’t considered fancy enough to the government. That’s in the past of course. But i do feel like it left some scar that’s also the source of a lot of complex here. English was one of the fancier language in the past. People don’t really talk that way to Vietnamese I guess. Some historical sentiments, don’t mind me.
I’d put it down more to island mentality, but yeah, the educational system certainly doesn’t help.
I find that when locals talk to Vietnamese (the ones without really good Chinese), they often speak louder and slower, or use that high-pitched nasal accent used to mock Southeast Asians.
It’s super annoying and weird culture like that. I often complained about it to the wife.
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It’s nothing like that in Taiwan.
Most foreigners you will encounter actually speak a smattering of Chinese and it’s quite common to meet foreigners with excellent Chinese.
You forgot scenario 5: Obviously the wai guo ren does not understand Chinese, but I will try to help him anyway, instead of rudely ignoring him.
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Are you sure they weren’t actually mute? I think this happened to me once. I got all outraged and actually asked them if they were mute, and I got the impression that maybe yes they were. I’m still not sure, but I still feel bad about it.
It’s kind of simple. People can be idiots if they want. You can’t control them. If their choice is to communicate with you by gestures and waving, what are you going to do? I would just try to end the interaction as quickly as possible.
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I have a very, very funny story related to this.
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Spill the beans.
It’s not necessarily 'help
It happened when i tried to use washrooms that were no longer open to the restaurant i went to. Just some security guard angrily playing charades. Waited for him to finish before snapping back asking him when he was going to use his adult language.
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Controversial Opinion : People in Taiwan just aren’t good at communicating.
Throw in FACE , most people with heads stuck in their phones or books , all kinds of power plays that people try to do here, granny telling you ‘say hello to the meiguoren’, monoethnic to the Nth degree and folks who believe the world can be figured out just fine by stereotypes. Folks who JUST CANT FNUCKIN RELAX around people who don’t look like them (I know this part is ironic ).
This is what you get.
There , I said it. Many people are over thinking (hence the robot short circuiting ) instead of just chilling out and working out a natural communication . Hell getting people to open their gob and make an utterance is hard enough these days.
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You need to get over this kind of stuff or you won’t make it here for long. Some people do not know how to act around foreigners and others do. Best to laugh it off and not let it bother you too much.
I treat it as a game and will jokingly mock them by miming back to them while speaking Chinese with a big smile. Onlookers will usually find this amusing too. The better you speak Chinese the more fun it is to play games on them.
This thing about helping and not being rude only works if you KNOW for a fact he or she can not speak Chinese AND more importantly wants you to help (they could be in the natural process of learning in which case this so called help and politeness is only hindering, annoying and unrequited). In other words I make an assumption based on my very limited knowledge and experience and a common stereotype and help you even though you did ask for it. In any case, my original question was why the silent mouthing of words? It’s the weirdest thing that I have ever seen. It is for sure a psychological phenomenon but what exactly? Which parts of their brains are short circuiting?
Great description.
This should be marked as solution!