A friend who has come to Taiwan from the Mainland and already has fluent Chinese was telling me how he hates the way locals always want speak with him in English. I’ve heard that on the forums, and I told him the same thing I’ve posted here “I never have that problem,” then he says “Maybe it’s because you’re not White.” As soon as he said it, my brain processed it, and agreed.
That was a month or so ago. While paying a bill today the guy at the front desk asks me “Are you a foreigner?” This isn’t the first time I’ve had this happen. I also almost NEVER run into situations where people try to speak to me in English.
It seems really obvious, but I had never thought about it until the moment my friend pointed it out to me.
Just sharing the observation. Maybe I’ll add a poll as well… Mabye not.
[quote=“miltownkid”]. . . “Maybe it’s because you’re not White.” As soon as he said it, my brain processed it, and agreed. . .
While paying a bill today the guy at the front desk asks me “Are you a foreigner?” This isn’t the first time I’ve had this happen. I also almost NEVER run into situations where people try to speak to me in English.[/quote]
The vast majority of the time, locals speak to me in Chinese. Occasionally I get someone who insists on speaking English. (Then there’s the lady at the vegetarian biandang place who silently taps out the price I owe her on her calculator, even though I say things in Chinese to her. And she’s not deaf.)
I think a lot of the time it is because the Taiwanese person is thinking:
A: “oh look a foreigner. I can show off my english skills!”
B: “oh look a foreigner. He/She probably doesnt know a lick of chinese, better use my english skills” “Whats that? you are trying to speak chinese? No, no, no silly foreigner, chinese is for natives!”
C: “oh sh%#, not another foreigner!” (Thinking of the past couple he/she has dealt with who didnt speak a lick of chinese) “Better use my English AGAIN”
D: “oh look a foreigner.” (thinking, must speak english, must speak english, must speak english) Foreigner starts speaking chinese…and…in one ear and out the other…too fixed on thinking he/she had to use english.
E: “oh look a foreigner! Hell yeah! now I can show off to my co-workers and boss that I am actually worth something better than this damn job pays me squat for.” (Thinking, like hell you are going to throw away this chance for me by speaking chinese you stuborn foreigner!"
Anyways, when it happens to me I get irked for about 30 seconds and then shrug it off. Far more times it happens the total opposite. They try to use english for me and I insist on speaking 中文.
That’s what I sometimes thought, but my friend’s Chinese is definitely the pimp(ness.)
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Something else to throw in…
I think body language and facial expression play a part in it also.
I hope you understand what I mean.[/quote]
I think this is a part of it too.
It’s just that when he said it I realized that I’ve met a lot more “people of color” that have learned Chinese totally through emmersion, though I don’t think I’ve met any pale faces that can say the same.
I think it has to do with the fact that White = English Speaker and Not White = Speaker of some language other than English / Bad English Accent that I won’t understand, to many people.
Besides being asked if I’m Taiwanese, I often get approached and asked random things like the time.
A relevant story…
Shortly after arriving in Taibei a friend and I went for food downtown. He was looking for some street or something and decided to ask a local (using busted ass Mandarin of course.) After asking the “local” says “Sorry, I’m Japanese. I don’t know where anything is.”
One of my favorite moments in Taiwan was getting off a bus and having a blind guy ask me for directions after a couple of local kids bombed out with knowing where he wanted to go. Of course 99% probability he would never have asked a white girl had he been able to see that she was a white girl before asking. (Yes, of course he definitely knew I was a foreigner once I opened my mouth. But he was practical enough to realize that after that long in Taiwan, I did know where I was going, at least. )
[quote=“miltownkid”]A friend who has come to Taiwan from the Mainland and already has fluent Chinese was telling me how he hates the way locals always want speak with him in English. I’ve heard that on the forums, and I told him the same thing I’ve posted here “I never have that problem,” then he says “Maybe it’s because you’re not White.” As soon as he said it, my brain processed it, and agreed.
That was a month or so ago. While paying a bill today the guy at the front desk asks me “Are you a foreigner?” This isn’t the first time I’ve had this happen. I also almost NEVER run into situations where people try to speak to me in English.
It seems really obvious, but I had never thought about it until the moment my friend pointed it out to me.
Just sharing the observation. Maybe I’ll add a poll as well… Mabye not.[/quote]
I’m white, and I’ve also had Taiwanese ask me if I’m a foreigner - but I think they meant “Are you an American?” and were just translating badly from Chinese. Because it seems waiguoren really means “white person” means “American.”
I had a very stupid classmate in the university before. We were taking French. The lecturer was a French lady. She majored in Asian Study for her undergraduate, so she speaks very good Chinese.
Why i said my classmate is stupid? At the first month of our class, she kept using English to ask the teacher questions about French. Everytime the lecturer answered her in Chinese and showed a confused face to her when listened to the question. But my classmate didn’t get the hint. What a silly girl. After a month, the lecturer couldn’t stand on it anymore. She told all class she was not good at English. And that student finally shut up… and change to Chinese . Like what bababa said, she assumes that white people speaks English and shows of the ability of using English in the uni class. What a sham. I believe most of other classmates’ English is better than her couldn’t get the point why she wanted to show off.
[quote=“beautifulspam”]I’m bone white but often confused for half Taiwanese. dunno why.
Any of you white folks ever get this down south:
“Ni mama shi taiwan ren ma?”[/quote]
Do you happen to have black hair? I’m considered the typical WASP by people here in Canada, but the black hair had people very confused in Asia. Evidently white people with black hair are not actually white - maybe a half-blood, therefore.
I also had the same thoughts MTK. I am american but asian looking (Indian) and people RARELY talk to me in English. People ask me for directions and so on and so forth. If I am out with my paler half (ratlung) people will look at me and start blabbering away in Chinese. When I tell some people that I am American and I don’t speak Chinese, they don’t believe me…
sigh.
when ratlung’s father came over to visit us from Germany people were flabbergasted that he doesn’t speak/understand english.
I haven’t figured out how to guess how people will react to me. Some will automatically speak English to me because they assume I’m American. (Apparently blacks from Africa only have short hair. And my jeans are a dead giveaway for Americaness. ) Others will automatically speak Chinese because they don’t think I speak English. I don’t know why, butr for some reason, people often think I’m South African or Indian or French :s . I’ve also had several people–including some Buddhist nuns that used to serve in South Africa–that tell me that black people learn Chinese better, so they feel it’s their duty to force me to speak Chinese with them.
[quote=“ratbrain”]I also had the same thoughts MTK. I am american but asian looking (Indian) and people RARELY talk to me in English. People ask me for directions and so on and so forth. If I am out with my paler half (ratlung) people will look at me and start blabbering away in Chinese. When I tell some people that I am American and I don’t speak Chinese, they don’t believe me…
sigh.
when ratlung’s father came over to visit us from Germany people were flabbergasted that he doesn’t speak/understand english.[/quote]
haha funny situ. but for decades and decades the only white people in taiwan were invariably AMERICAN. So Taiwanese think all whites are American or if they hold another passport at least speak english !! funny i know.
“Whats that? you are trying to speak chinese? No, no, no silly foreigner, chinese is for natives!”
) Others will automatically speak Chinese because they don’t think I speak English. I don’t know why, butr for some reason, people often think I’m South African or Indian 
or French 