Hey gang,
I’ve been studying Mandarin off and on for a few years. I started learning Chinese in Beijing and have had several tutors here in Taipei.
Lately I’m get very frustrated. It’s at the point where I don’t want to open my mouth to speak Mandarin anymore. If I say the simplest sentence like: todays weather is very hot. Or in a restaurant if ask for the menu. I only get blank stares. I will repeat the words. I will try different tones, hoping I will get it right and maybe the other person will understand…. Nope. Just a blank look. I will try a different way to say the same thing using different vocabulary…. Nope.
I know for 100% sure that my vocabulary is correct. And most of the time my grammar structure is correct.
I don’t remember having this much difficulty in China. Perhaps there is something to that? I don’t know.
My experince as Japanese person in Beijing, is they tend notice less when I speak that I am a non native speaker (as I look Chinese to many there, but in Taiwan I look Japanese). I put this to in Beijing/Shanghai there are many Chinese from other parts of China where they speak another language, thus like me Manadarin is a second langage and they get used hearing other regional accents too. In Taiwan, they know right away if you do not have a Taiwanese accent and many can not/ do not understand non local accents well. (P.S> I notice in English they/Taiwanese are more sensitive to accents too, more so than me)
Speak fast and run the words together. It sounds like you haven’t bedded in your tones yet and you are over anunciating thus no one can understand you. But be aware if you don’t have an ear for languages then it’s always going to be a struggle. If you’ve had one on one tutoring and no one understands you when you say 今天很熱是不是 then something is very wrong.
don’t give up, just keep trying and never be scared of speaking. SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK.
Whenever I get “told off” with 聽不懂 I always think “this is the 6th language I am learning, they probably speak only one, so I am doing better than them already” and also “if the uncle who can’t even write can speak this language, then I can do that too, I am not any more stupid than the next 黃先生 on the street”
I had even funnier experiences in JP: I can speak some Japanese, and while travelling there with my Wife (who is TWese), the puzzled looks of the folks who talk in Japanese to my wife, and then it’s me, the外人, replying. some ppl freeze and need a few moments to compute haha
ofc that’s a skit, but yeah, had many of those funny moments. Even worse when I travel with family (inlaws) as I am the only westernern, but also the only one who can speak some Japanese haha. Always fun when having meals at the ryokan in rural areas.
Who are you speaking with? In my experience here the locals aren’t friendly. A random person doesn’t want to talk to you. The people in the restaurant want you to fill in your order on the menu and bus the table. The Chinese in China were much more open to communicating in their language. It was like everyone there was my teacher. Random people on the street would talk to me, but here in a restaurant they point at the QR code as they walk away.
Try finding a language exchange partner who actually wants to communicate with you?
I have a very different, basically contrary experience. I get to talk quite a lot with locals (for sure not the staff at a restaurant, who are busy, or random ppl at a ppl, cmon, that’s just weird) and they r polite and friendly.
Oh yeah but it’s normal to talk with staff in a restaurant in many countries around the world and no they aren’t that busy in Taiwan they just aren’t good at talking , especially younger people but not only younger people. Many times I’ve been in a restaurant but it’s quite rare for the owner to directly approach me or strike up a casual conversation. The average conversation style is poor and closed and tends to follow not lead (this is where I mention I come from the one of the world’s best places to learn how to converse with strangers so after that only the deep south in the US , Scotland somewhere like that could impress me so yeah I’m biased but whatever ). I don’t think Taiwan is terrible either people are friendly enough but they are NOT good at conversation. For instance they will often forget to inject personal details about themselves except for to boast where their kids goes to college and often ask too many personal questions directly to you though. That’s kind of an Asian thing too I guess.
Old people in Taiwan and people who want your money or want something they might talk to you all day though.
My landlord and his wife are cool they put up with me and still talk to me lol. I talk with my neighbours mostly by arguing with them and them complaining about us.
It’s night and day compared to the Chinese in China on this point, though I was there some time ago. Back then, they would walk over to talk to a randimforeigner. OP specifically mentioned restaurants, a place where in many countries the staff are more friendly amd chatty.
I suggested a language exchange. What are the situations where you find the locals are interested to talk to a foreigner? Maybe you could be helpful here?
The best way to crack the language barrier is Street Chinese ™. Ditch the classroom and hire an articulate college student to take you out and about the streets and walk you thru real world experiences like ordering food in a restaurant etc. You’ll quickly iron out the rough edges and make rapid progress in learning to speak that’s far superior to any other method for learning Mandarin.
I should comment that you CAN have good conversations here, you CAN make friends and improve your Chinese rapidly but you gotta be super outgoing, friendly, big smiles and if you are handsome, pretty and young that’s gonna help loads too.
But you really have to push yourself out there in Taiwan and do NOT be embarrassed to speak at any occasion even if you will get attention, some people will be more open and happy to talk with you. Just keep yabbering away. Quickest learners always have this attitude.
My experience too that I talk a lot with locals, in fact sometime I do not want to talk since I get the question where I am from a lot and tired to reply this.
Local taiwanese are a lot more shy, but still want to talk (I hear this, I wanted to talk with you before but was scared too from many younger ladies, older folks not so shy). This is more in Southern Taiwan though.
What age are you ?
I think it is a generational thing
It’s not weird (within reason) to talk to other people that you don’t know . When I was growing up it was the norm (of course not every single person) cos who else would you talk to , a tree ?
People used to go to bars and nightclubs and strike up conversations with other ppl they didn’t know, gosh.
And when I first came to Taiwan , Taiwanese were more outgoing as well, annoyingly so. They were also crazy about learning English, more so than now actually.
I worked in a bar when I was a teenager and talked to almost all the customers and I was a teenager who knew very little about the world then. How often you ever see a young person , like 20 something, way older than me at that time , talk to customers here ? (Yeah it’s a general trend worldwide too I know that )
Holy hell!
That is hilarious!
I can relate.
And sometimes I will say, “Dànshi, wǒ xianzai shuō de shì zhōngwén”
More blank stares. Probably because they don’t understand pinyin, I guess.
Yesterday it was at my table tennis club. I was sweating my arse off and I said to the guy that I was practicing with, “ Āiyā, jīntiān de tiānqì tài rèle!”
