How to answer politely and accurately when Taiwanese say you speak Chinese well! But you don't

Language Learning Chinese
1

As per title.
。。真的很少？
非常一點？

2

哪裡哪裡

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3

我的中文很糟糕

4

謝謝你太客氣. Thank you, you’re too polite.

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5

不會不會 (waves hand frantically)

That should be your answer even if you do speak it fluently btw

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6

不敢當

7

What’s funny is people assume you started at literally 0 Chinese when you arrived in Taiwan.

I used to come here for holidays before I moved here, but I’d studied Chinese in Shanghai to a very high level, so I was already fluent.

I’d ask people for directions and things, and naturally got asked “How long have you been in Taiwan?” And I’d say "About two days
" Then get the response “How do you speak Chinese so well after 2 days.” I’d answer “Because I’m a genius.”

Then I’d explain I’d studied it in Shanghai and lived in China for 2 years, and they’d say 怪不得. “No wonder”.

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8

I assume that for those who have physical appearance similar to the locals but who lack language skills (e.g. ABTs), the opposite phenomenon might apply – “how come your Chinese is so bad?” I was sitting at some local train station (二水 I think) and some random elderly guy walked up to me and just started chatting in very lively and friendly way. I told him in Chinese that I didn’t speak Chinese and didn’t understand him, but he just kept talking. I guess he was asking the usual touristy stuff, “where are you from, where are you going, have you been to such and such a place?”, but the only thing I could catch from his rapid-fire speech was the final 對不對.

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9

Yeah I have a Taiwanese-American friend like that. He speaks Chinese, but isn’t native and people mock him for how bad his Chinese is.

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10

Please don’t.

This is the correct answer. :+1:

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11

還好啦!

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12

哪裡 is a very old-fashioned thing to say. I would just advise saying 謝謝, or something similar.

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13

我很厲害，對吧？

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14

那是因為我是個天才，對嗎？

15

It’s still the standard response.

16

我就是天才，沒辦法

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17

Just be polite and modest and say thanks.

A woman complimented me the other day, then said nothing after i said i had been here a number of years. She couldn’t lie to herself any longer, she knew my Chinese should be better than it is for the time I’ve been here.

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Also, if people remember me at 711 or something I’ll say 那時因為我特別帥嗎？ They love modesty here.

19

“If I tell you I’ve lived in Taiwan for 18 years, you’ll think my Chinese sucks.”

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20

You don’t have to translate. We’re all as fluent as fuck. 理所當然

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