So sometimes I was asked if I am American. I said no, I am not. The answer was: You must be a foreigner!
Yeah, when I get pulled over by cops in Taipei, they’re usually flabbergasted that I can only speak Spanish, too. :p[/quote]
People always know that I am lying when I say I don’t speak English. White people all speak English. One girl told me (and I have no idea what the fuck) that I must have been hurt before by an English speaker to not be able to speak English…
She said this in (broken) English, so I know that is what she said… But … uh… what?
I must have been hurt by someone from Germany too. Cuz I can’t speak German.
Works the other way, too. I got hugged by a Croat and now I can’t speak Coatilician at all.
So sometimes I was asked if I am American. I said no, I am not. The answer was: You must be a foreigner![/quote]
i think what they meant was "ok ur not american but you MUSt be a foreigner? " to which your reply would be “duh” (actually you would say which country you come from, since its not america).
i kno
i must be in a world of pain coz i can only splutter out a little spanish and indo. meaning the whle damned world must have ganged up on me
According to my friend, she got more people to speak to her in Chinese after she dyed her hair brown (she had been a blonde). She claimed that people treated her as more chinese after she darkened her hair. I initially thought she must be talking out of her pale, minnesotan ass, but after reading this thread, maybe she’s not.
FWIW Taiwanese people seems to be very fascinated by mixed race people (if one of the races is chinese). Both my parents are Taiwanese, but when people notice that I speak Chinese with a bit of an accent and have some features they consider caucasoid they always ask me if I’m half and half and sometimes seems a little disappointed that I’m not. Maybe this fascination explains some of the ‘false positives’ people have experienced.
My husband is white, and people inevitably praise the pulchritude of our non-existent and yet-unplanned children. “They will be so cuuuute!”
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On the street I get some pretty funny reactions because I have (dyed) black hair, I’m short, petite, and female. Obviously, I am not a waiguoren if you look at me from behind or the side. This results in lots of people trying to hand me advert leaflets or ask me things etc, and me looking up at them in near total confusion only to see them 
back at me.
Also I get lots of double takes like “I thought I saw a puddy tat! I did! I did!” when people look at me, look away, then jerk their heads back like they just realized that my nose is unusually big and I must not be Taiwanese. Freaked me out the first month or two, but now I’m used to it. Mostly. When babies stare, it still does give me the heebie jeebies.
Taiwanese babies are soooo rude. And you just know they’re thinking “adogah”.
Wildly generalising, but older people are often the nicest to speak to in Taiwan. They don’t have any attitude or insecurity about their English/lack of English, smile and speak clearly and slowly.
An elderly lady asked me for directions the other day. After the double take, she listened carefully then thanked me and went off in the right direction. I guess older people have the social skills and confidence to deal with people who speak their language incorrectly.
I suppose expats are different because we are used to living in Taiwan or wherever and listening to and making sense of people who use English as a foreign language. I can only imagine what reception non-native speakers get in my home town… ‘Everyday’ people such as bus drivers, shop-workers just aren’t tuned in to non-native speakers’ mangling of their language in any country. I guess it’s a test of how well we’re doing at another language if we can deal with these kinds of conversations, not just with our friends or teachers.
Sometimes when I’m in a coffee shop or some such place I’ll see someone milling around my vicinity out of the corner of my eye. Then the next thing you know they give me some English like “Is this chair taken?”. I can almost taste their dissappointment when I answer in Chinese. But hey, there’s no helping it when I’m in a Chinese kind of mood (like when actually engaged in Chinese study).
Other times people will actually approach me in Chinese. This is great! I like this, but my Chinese listening still isn’t so hot so if I don’t understand them and then ask them to repeat it, it’s like I lose a point and the referee moves the game over to English. This happened in traffic the other day while enjoying some exhaust fumes from other scooters at a stop light.
I ALWAYS get talked to in Chinese. I guess its cuz I’m in China!
Plenty 'hello’s…
But sometimes they’re are truly astounded that I speak barebones Chinese - I become the hero of the night, or at least, the table.
Free drinks all night, in exchange for me being a token laowai - no worries…
That’s why it’s cooler for white people to learn non-European languages.
European languages are for WHIMPY whiteys.
Don’t be a whimpy whitey…
So, I am glad someone brought this up. I’ve only been here two weeks with my family. We’re American. I’m half-black/half-white. My husband is half-black/half-Japanese. Our three kids are like Polynesian or something. They’re brown with lots of hair. I’m very light brown with lots of hair. We’re tall. Trying to blend in isn’t an option. Stared at? All the time but not in a mean way, just curious as hell. I don’t mind it. The best is at a stop light when we cross the street or pass a bus that’s stuck at a light. Everybody’s head just follows us like, “What in the hell was THAT?”
Anywho…we’re in the store today and my husband says, “Notice how no one really ever approaches us to help?” I said, “Yup, noticed it but I think I notice a look of horror on their faces because they are hoping that they don’t have to deal with whatever language they think we speak.” I do get “Hello” sometimes but also get greeted in Chinese half the time as well. I have taught myself 8 characters in two weeks. Meaning I can just randomly shout out words like, “moon”, “person”, and “big”. I did learn how to say “big breasts” today but I haven’t decided how I’m going to use that to build relationships in the community.
This guy who works where we’re staying at the moment would always ask us where we were from. He heard us speaking English, but just wasn’t satisfied with , “We just moved here from Texas.” Finally, he said, “Are you from North Africa?” Tried to explain my heritage and he was just totally confused. It’s kind of like, “You’re not White, you’re not Black and you’re not Asian” so how in the hell do you actually exist? But in a nice way.
Until I learn more Chinese, I live in the world of silence. I’m kind of like a smiling mute. It’s kind of interesting.
[quote=“Buttercup”]Wildly generalising, but older people are often the nicest to speak to in Taiwan. They don’t have any attitude or insecurity about their English/lack of English, smile and speak clearly and slowly.
An elderly lady asked me for directions the other day. After the double take, she listened carefully then thanked me and went off in the right direction. I guess older people have the social skills and confidence to deal with people who speak their language incorrectly.
[/quote]
Yep, older people are the coolest. They have that calm unimpressed demeanor that just says, “Hey, I’ve been there and done that. I lived through the war and Chang Kai Shek.”
They don’t feel threatened and are more likely to be patient.
While I’ve never been mistaken for a Taiwanese, people usually just speak Chinese to me anyway. The odd one who tries English is really so few and far between that they’re hardly worth mentioning. My problem usually emanates from the fact that I speak a little and then they assume I understand everything and fling it at me in super mother tongue speed. They usually look very confused when I ask them to repeat it more slowly.
meow -
Just give em a big ol grin and say “Texas! - Kin ah hep yeh?”
You’ll get a lot of nervous uncertain grins until they figure out that you said Texas…then they’ll smile.
when i saw the thread title,i just assumed that nama had hijacked ur account 
TainanCowboy, good to hear from you…
Good day today. Just got back in and got a lot of where are you from questions. Texas seemed to ring a bell with everyone. You’re right, lots of smiles. Lots of questions. Barber shop full of people saw me practicing Chinese characters and came over to help. More random words learned: “tomorrow” and “place”. Ten characters down, many thousands more to go…
Yeah, when I get pulled over by cops in Taipei, they’re usually flabbergasted that I can only speak Spanish, too. :p[/quote]
People always know that I am lying when I say I don’t speak English. White people all speak English. One girl told me (and I have no idea what the fuck) that I must have been hurt before by an English speaker to not be able to speak English…
She said this in (broken) English, so I know that is what she said… But … uh… what?
I must have been hurt by someone from Germany too. Cuz I can’t speak German.[/quote]
Works the other way too. You don’t know how annoying it is when Chinese people here in Asia automatically assume that, from your ethnic identity alone, you are somehow automatically imbued with fluent comprehension of the Chinese language. People are flabberghasted and simply unable to accept that someone who looks Chinese, is ethnically Chinese, cannot speak or comprehend Chinese. With that in mind, I leave you with this fun article by David Moser (which brings me to another question, why is there seemingly a proportionately large number of students of Chinese or sinology whose name is David):
The security guards in my building ruin the first 30 minutes of my every morning. Basically, it’s like this:
zao…zao… … zao… (enter big-nose)… MORNING… zao… zao…
So that little thing irks me. I want to make a scene, do something about it, but I’m afraid that
- I’ll go over the top “Well a big ‘ZAO’ to YOU mr. CHINAMAN!”
- I’m just being pouty and bratty
I’ve talked to a couple of coworkers, and I’m under the impression that I’m just being oversensitive and pouty.
It sure does wake me up in the morning. Nothing like a dose of anger to wake your butt up. ZZZSAAOOOOOOOO :raspberry: