Rather didn’t try. Sounds like a badly planned top down government initiative where politicians friend’s benefit
I understand people like to mismatch. If you say one thing then they want to say the opposite just to feign being 1 over on someone else. People are competitive in nature - even for no reason
If you were Stephen Marbury it might be that trying to get Chinese to stop talking to you would be true.
And friendly conversation is not motivated in the same way as Chinese being Chinese (usually thinking of how to use others). India Bangladesh — huge populations — using others is top of mind
Chinese do want to use foreigners to practice English. We’ve met the language Nazis in a Chinese company who every time they see you they want to corner you to practice English. They don’t want to talk with any foreigner. They simply want to improve their English
I was in a dozen TV commercials in China and recognized on subway trains airplanes (when I was young). I didn’t lack for attention. Females or gay guys wanted to talk to me.
But I did notice the resentment from men when I spoke Chinese. It was obvious some Chinese were telling me “China is for Chinese”.
Behind me back I heard “What is this foreigner even doing in China?”
Learning Chinese is a massive investment. You could become a board certified doctor, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, get your PhD in STEM easier than becoming fluent in Chinese. Those things take about 12 years
Colonel Barrett, Nixon’s translator etc — they all returned to their Western country and the language skills withered
Caveat emptor
Bahahahahahahaha
I made an error. If one could study Chinese all day then far less time would be required than the time to get board certified as a doctor. Few of us have the luxury to study Chinese all day. But a person in med school Is studying full time.
my experience in the early oughts was the exact same
As a native Spanish speaker, I agree that it’s overrated. I barely use it aside from talking to friends and family (who all speak English, btw. It’s a mandatory subject, at least in my country). The most useful aspect of Spanish is figuring out easily Latin and Greek roots for GRE style words or scientific terms in English.
Welcome to the East Asian developmental state.
Yes you should visit
It really is. Latin America and Spain simply just aren’t relevant enough.
What a ridiculous statement. Lots of users here speak Chinese fluently and I doubt any of them could’ve practiced medicine.
I could have. I chose not to.
Good for you.
Thank you, @Gain. How glad I am that you have recognized my sacrifice.
Still surprised that the Harvard administrators and prominent figures in East Asian studies would have risked all those grants, conferences, study semesters, field trips etc, from the Chinese government.