didja happen to show up like that and scare the diarrhea out of her?
Iâll admit I donât carry myself much like a local. But Iâm really not that scary. After a good meal especially, Iâm quite docile. Perfectly cordial in most circumstances!
No, theyâre mocking. Seen it too many times, and in too many situations to misinterpret it.
This is always the correct response.
Obviously you got the tones wrong and she thought you was asking, âdo you have any Danish showlaces?â
They both have the same tonesâŚ
Bastard. You ruined by joke with your tone Nazism.
I was talking to a friend the other day whoâs just starting to learn. He said âThese tonal languages are too dangerous. I could accidentally say âbean fuckâ when I just want to order some tofu.â
I can think of a couple comparably touchy minimal pairs in English, though. Letâs go to the bitch this weekend! Can I have a shit of paper?
Lo siento mucho.
Please, have a shit. Often heard in restaurants.
And now youâre mocking me by writing in AlbanianâŚ
Busted!
i do think some taiwanese just behave weird when dealing with foreigners. i ordered black milk tea a couple weeks ago and the staff said âoo long cha?â my gf cleared it up with the staff that i actually wanted black tea. and told me that it was down to my crap pronunciation. well even after the correction she still gave us oo long tea. i think maybe its because taiwanese always say foreigners like oo long tea, so she couldnât accept that a foreigner ordered a different teaâŚ
Iâm going to have to find some context to say this
What exactly did you say?
Not a thingâŚ
âŚthe bear hates oooolong tea.
Iâm not trying to be an apologist because sometimes people really are rude, but sometimes Chinese speakers will try to make their Chinese sound âless tonalâ and more like English for the benefit of non-native Chinese speakers.
Sorry, Iâm not buying it. Iâd never heard that âatonal foreigner accentâ until sometime in the mid-90s, when it became popular to use it in jokes on those brain-dead Taiwanese variety shows. Around that time, I started hearing that same accent âmagicallyâ appear on the street in interactions with foreigners. Coincidence? I think not.
Braindead Jackie Wu still does it on his showsâŚPeople donât do it a lot to meâŚProbably not because of my Chinese (which is at best middling) but because they could sense it might not end well.
Itâs kind of hard to get a decent conversation out of people anywayâŚYounger generation so poor at that.
Yeah, heâs a real asshole. I was pretty happy when he lost his shirt investing in tech.