After taking private Chinese lessons for a few months, I was ready to try my new skills with the locals. I started out with no fear and no worries about what they thought of my Chinese. My teacher said,“Don’t worry! They will know that you are trying to learn their language and they will appreciate your efforts.”. This is when things went wrong. Every time I would speak Chinese, I would get that 
look from the person as if I was speaking Latin. Or, they would just giggle and laugh at my Chinese. This would draw a nice little crowd of onlookers (I live in a small city). I just guessed that I was using the wrong pronunciation or tones. To verify this, I went out with my Taiwanese girlfriend and she listened and watched (from a discreet distance) as I tried to speak to people. After, she told me that she understood everything that I said and she couldn’t understand why other people couldn’t. That didn’t help me at all. 
Now, I can’t even speak two words to a Taiwanese person because I have this feeling that they will 1) not understand me or 2) laugh at me.
I’d really like to hear any advice or stories if this has happened to you. I’m sure some of you “Mandarin veterans” can help me out. Thanks.
I’d imagine it’s the same thing many of us get - no matter whether your Mandarin is absolutely perfect or utterly shite, you’ll get a lot of people who sort of go into shock at a non-Chinese speaking Chinese. They’re not laughing at you, they’re laughing because they don’t know how else to react - it’s like nervous laughter. There seems to be a large proportion of people here who can’t grasp the fact that people who aren’t Chinese/Taiwanese can actually learn Chinese.
My chinese is horribls and with a terribly limited vocabulary, but I manage. Here are some suggestions.
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Persevere and give an imperialous stare that says you better understand what I say. Be very matter of fact, polite and don’t be afraid to stare till they get the message.
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Get Taiwanese friends who are interesting but have limited English skills. My dance teacher, kindergarten boss and my anchingban boss are perfect for this.
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Just keep at it, It took me 6 months to get the person behind the counter at McDonalds to not freak out with my Chinese, night markets are easier places, but that is more utilitarian Chinese and not conversational Chinese.
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Group classes are what is working for me. I tend not to make the same mistakes as my classmates and generally get to class early to speak to the teacher.
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Get a Taiwanese/English language exchange. This also worked great for me as my partner knew a limited amount of conversational English and therefore was helpful with my Chinese especially vocabulary and tones.
CYA,
Okami
One reason - many people here can’t believe foreigners can speak Chinese, go into shock when they see us, and simply don’t listen.
However, I suspect another reason in your case is that many of the people you are talking to may not speak very good Mandarin themselves. You said you were in a small town - probably a lot of the people you are interacting with speak Taiwanese all the time. They will have a harder time understanding you than will native speakers of Mandarin, or people who speak it a lot. I’ve had the opposite problem - my Taiwanese boyfriend can’t understand my Mandarin, but perfect strangers can. I’m sure it’s because his own Mandarin is heavily accented.
[quote=“Okami”]
- Persevere and give an imperialous stare that says you better understand what I say. Be very matter of fact, polite and don’t be afraid to stare till they get the message.
CYA,
Okami[/quote]
Thanks for the tips. What would you do in the following situation: they understand your Mandarin yet reply in English, even if they have no clue how to say what they want to in English.
What could you say in Mandarin in order to have them conversing with you in Mandarin? This without them “losing face” – might be caused by the appearance of the foreigner not understanding their immaculate English.
Anything. The way I do it is just keep talking Mandarin, no matter how crap it comes out. Eventually they either get the idea or get to a point where they revert to the easiest path for them. Otherwise, if their English is good enough, they can keep talking English all they want - as long as it’s clear they know what I’m saying and I know what they’re saying, does it really matter what language either of us are speaking?
[quote=“shedastud”]they understand your Mandarin yet reply in English, even if they have no clue how to say what they want to in English.
What could you say in Mandarin in order to have them conversing with you in Mandarin?[/quote]
In Taipei, no matter how good your Chinese is that will often happen, and it is frequently impossible to get them to stop even when their ‘English’ repeatedly causes confusion ('cause they’ve said something wrong, for example January when they mean February).
In a small town I’m surprised this happened though.
Sorry, I have no advice.
I’ve been speaking Chinese for 20 years now and I still get the “what?” glazed-look deer-in-the-headlights response. Don’t worry about it. The acid test is, do you get your food? (or whatever it was you wanted)…if they answer in English, just answer back in Mandarin. Kind of like a staring contest…“Who’ll get tired of this first?” 
The problem is that they won’t usually answer back at all. Or they will just laugh and not answer me in Chinese or English. I NEVER get what I want because they either don’t understand me or they pretend they don’t understand me. If my girlfriend can understand me, why can’t anyone else? 
Needless to say (but I guess I need to say it) your girlfriend is kind of inclined to understand you. I mean, you’re probably a lot more sympathetic to her English than a stranger would be, right?
What does your teacher make of this? Has your teacher taught others Chinese? While many teachers tend to be too strict, some are too lenient.
Like I said, I have no advice. But I do like to ask questions :loco:
I practiced on my kindergarten kids when I was into practicing all the time. Kids laugh at you too, but it doesn’t seem to bother as much. I haven’t gotten that stares/giggles for a long time. My new technique is to start a conversation using English. Then when someone’s English sucks and you switch to your crap Chinese they’re more than happy to listen to that than struggle using their crap English.
Persist.
I can’t say I remember ever having people giggle and stuff mayb (just maybe):
You’re speaking with too much of a ‘Beijing Standard’, overdoing certian sounds? (I’ve heard people laugh at this)
Or, you’re overdoing the tones (possibly wrongly)? - I’ve heard people do this too, and it sounds silly.
Or, you’re speaking too fast?
Not sure if this will help (not knowing what the problem is), but:
try speaking more like Taiwanese than a “Beijing Standard”.
Speak slowly as you think, throwing in “nei ge nei ge” when you’re tying to remember a word, etc
Always start off with something like “Laoban, qingwen yi sha” to get the perosn you’re talking too clued into the fact that you’re speaking Chinese before you actually say the keywords they have to listen to.
Get some foreign friends with good Chinese to practice with you a little so that they might be able to see what the problem is and help you out.
Brian
I seem to teach those around me my version of Chinese then they help by explaining it to others.
My new version is slowly taking on.
Bu Lai En makes a great point. I always start by “Ni hao” or “Xiao jie/lao ban/xian sheng, ching wen yi xia” People then tend to switch on to the fact that you’re not speaking English.
I used to have people laugh all the time, but as I’ve grown more confident the laughing has stopped. Looking straight at people also helps. I realized that I had also to raise my voice to be heard; I am naturally softly spoken…but my Chinese has to be loud.
Good luck, and persevere, don’t be embarrassed because you are trying!
L 
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Chinese is a great tool in the classroom if you are teaching English.
My Canadian friend takes classes at TLI and he usually tries to speak 1 sentence in English and then 1 sentence in Chinese in the classroom.
It helps a lot. He writes the English vocabulary on the whiteboard and the Chinese characters if he knows them. If not, he asks his students to write them on the whiteboard. -
A lot depends how much Chinese you can speak.
If you know 500 words, you can manage in a convenience store.
If you know 1000 words, you might ask some easy information by phone.
If you know 1500 words, you might think about having a Chinese speaking Taiwanese boy/girl friend.
If you know 2000 words, you may think about getting engaged.
If you know 2500 words, you might want to get married.
Just joking
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People accept you more as one of them if you try to communicate in their language. Many foreigners speak the so called “Beijing-Chinese”.
The accent, the grammar and the style you use all are aspects of your communication. -
Perhaps somebody might want to start a thread about “WHERE TO PRACTICE YOUR CHINESE?”
In the KTV (looking for ???), in the local supermarket (asking what laundry detergent is best or how to cook some vegetables?), in front of a red light (nice weather in Taiwan, do you live near here?) , in a classroom, in a university library (looking for a Taiwanese friend/language exchange partner …) Whatever. Plenty of opportunities.
When they start staring at you like that, and a crowd gathers, you should keep speaking Chinese, but you should start dancing as you speak. Do the moonwalk or a Michael Jackson crotch-grab. If they say say “You’re Chinese is very good” respond, “You should hear me speak it naked.” Don’t forget to end with a “woo!”
Anyway, you’ve only been taking classes for a few months. It’s no piece of cake. You’re in a small city? Big town? Maybe it’s one of those places where the people say “tsao-hoan” instead of “chao-fan” for “fried-rice”.
Are you learning Mandarin because it’s a power-language, or because you want to “get into” Taiwan. If you wanna get into Taiwan, try some Taiwanese first.
If you speak Mandarin, no one’s going to take it at face-value. You’ll either get “oohs” “aahs” or “huh?” or the infamous list of boring questions about how and for what purpose you acquired this ability to speak Chinese.
So no matter what you do, people are gonna freak out. So you might as well totally flip-freak and knock em out and make A-ma pass out and A-be lose his hair by speaking Taiwanese instead. But if you speak Taiwanese, you should be prepared to join in on the fun, too. Maybe bring a whoopie cushion.
Oh, and my advice was nowhere near as helpful as Bu Lai En’s. So in addition to his notes, just know that as you persevere, you will have up-moments and down-moments, maybe in the same day. You may feel manic depressive. On the spine of your Chinese book should be written a warning about emotional responses to speaking Chinese with native speakers in Taiwan. These are merely side-effects of learning Chinese in Taiwan. They mean that the medicine is working. If you feel like hitting yourself in the head or hitting the other party in the head, it should be read as a sign that there is something new inside your head.
And remember the Chinese saying: “A teacher for a day is a father for life”. So don’t expect the locals to go out of their way to teach you anything or you might find yourself with a bunch of dads.
I remember years ago, when I was first in Taiwan, I said to some guy “Xiansheng, qingwen yixia” as you suggest. I was met by a blank stare and he behaved as if he didn’t know what the hell I was saying. And I know that I pronounced it correctly.
So for years afterwards, I was convinced that “Xiansheng, qingwen yixia” was incorrect, unintelligible Chinese. Later I discover it’s correct Chinese after all. Damn!! I hate when that happens!
I usually start with a Xiaojie! / Xiansheng! / Laoban! folllowed with: neige neige neige neigei neige neige… (I think you get the point)
Works everytime
Hmm…
Good point Chris, this is exactly why we need to persever and not let the occasional knob head bother you. I have run into peope that just don’t want to listen/ or make allowences for my mispronunciation and grammar, but on the other hand, there are great people who will re-arrange your sentence and clearly point out the tone if you get it wrong.
Yesterday, I went to buy dou hua. The guy asked me “ni bu hui leung ma?” ( I was wearing a short sleeved shirt) I said “bu hui, wo jiou tsong bang gong shi…” he said " lai" and we understood each other perfectly. Being reminded that you make mistakes is good, I prefer this to constantly making the same mistake and thinking it is correct.
(sorry about the poor pinyin, I use bo/po/mo/fo)
Practise and perseverance are the key, no one is perfect, just have fun talking to people!
L