[quote=“Dragonbones”]
:eh: I think vocab like this is the most important of all. Anything you need to get around in a country, find a bathroom, take a taxi, mail a letter, buy things and find food (like these ubiquitous items) is vital. What, pray tell, is the ‘real language’ in your opinion?[/quote]
Ok, you are maybe seeing it from the perspective of living in Taiwan. But if you don’t live in Taiwan, you will not need vocabulary like 蛤蜊湯.
I am not saying that it is not important to know how to buy things, take a taxi etc. But I think that especially the food vocabulary is just useless.
Just think about it: If you have learned Chinese, but are not living in Taiwan or China, most of the time you come in contact with Chinese is with books, movies, websites etc. Where would you find vocabulary like 蛤蜊湯 there (of course, you could stumble across it, but usually if you don’t know what it is, you won’t be missing much).
If I recall how my English developed: Of course, at first I also learned some stuff like “apple” etc (which is usually ridicously easy for a German, because it is so similar to “Apfel”. Try to get píngguǒ into the brain of a German). But the first time I had to find out what “garlic” is was in Taiwan (I’ve already forgotten it again, because I don’t need it if I am not in UK or US. Ok, it is “Knoblauch” in German, so no resemblence at all. No wonder that I find it hard to remember). Most of the time I learned English (in school and in university) I learned how to read texts, not how to order menus. And I think that this is the right approach. (ok, you could argue that English is a lingua franca, and Chinese is not.)
And if you don’t know how to say “芝麻包” in Taiwan, you can always say 這個 and point to it. Maybe the shop keeper then thinks that there is a stupid foreigner in front of him, who cannot even speak the most basic Chinese, but if you can talk about Taiwanese politics instead, then I think this is the right order to learn the vocabulary.
I always find it ridicoulus why the Taiwanese don’t realize that not being able to pronounce their food menus does not directly mean that the stupid foreigner cannot speak any Chinese at all.