I haven’t really read through this whole thread, but has anyone yet suggested simply not speaking English back at them?
I get goofy English phrases from cashiers and restaurant staff all the time. I just carry on in Mandarin, and once that initial marvel of a Mandarin-speaking foreigner dissolves, they generally respond pretty well.
My only bad habits are still saying, “Okay,” and, “Yeah,” in English when I’m asked questions in Mandarin that warrant such a response.
The locals say “okay” all the time.
Way to get people to speak Chinese with you:
Look like Lili.
Seriously. NOONE speaks English with me. EVERYONE speaks Chinese to me- except the people I work with and the friends I have (who can BARELY hold half a conversation in English).
:bluemad: Talk about a fucking immersion. I literally feel that fish in ironlady’s CI ad.
So, uh, how do I get to look like you?
Move to Shenkeng. I have never had a problem with people speaking English to me.
I read this thread with great interest.
It reminded me of a friend who was so keen in learning languages that he pretended to be a French speaking German for a week, so we only spoke in french. The day before he left, he admitted he was from England.
He’s a polyglot being able to speak 6 languages pretty fluently.
As for me, i look asian so it’s true everyone starts conversations with me in chinese but once they hear my accent they switch to English if theirs is better. At the moment i dont mind because it had only happened a few times and my mandarin is not that good.
I do get annoyed when someone who can’t speak English tries to with me. My mother in law does that when there are other taiwanese around. I simply respond in Chinese. With my friend (who has the same level of English as my Chinese ) we switch back and forth between the two.
The language wars in Quebec (Canada) were fierce, i would start a conversation in french and the Quebecer would answer in English. It would go on until one person gives up. Once someone asked my why i kept answering in french and i just said i want to learn. (Btw it is so bad that my french friend got yelled at for speaking English to a local)
Funnily i never had that issue In France. Everyone expected me to speak french and appearances didnt matter. Not once did someone ask me where i was from.
So tips to get a taiwanese to speak Chinese would be…
Speak Chinese first. Once the common language is established it feels weird to use the other.
If the other person speaks English then continue to speak in Chinese. In that way it becomes their choice what language they want to use. Tell them u want to learn Chinese but they are welcome to use their English if they want to practice. Suggest ways to learn English such as tutoring from you *hint hint.
All the other points mentioned in the thread are valid. when they see a foreigner, they spring into english mode. I do that too. It increases they chance they would understand me.
The taiwanese want to practice. when i hear French speakers, i speak to them in french.
The taiwanese see speaking English as a prestigious thing. That’s a good thing. That’s why there are so many English teachers here.
Don’t let it bother you. Just as you won’t learn much from ordering a meal In Chinese, they won’t learn much from taking your order in English. Learning comes in different ways. I take classes, have a language exchange and watch youtube videos.
i know this isn’t something to get annoyed with. but i still got annoyed last week when i was waiting in line in mos burger and the most patronising member of staff ever approached me with the english menu and talked through every item as if i was a child. it was brutal.
Start asking questions. “Do you use real potatoes in your fries?” “Where is the cheese made?”
That is brutal. What did you do? Do you think he did it to practice English, if so i would have just went to another restaurant
i just stood there and took it… took a big fat L. i’ve been having nightmares about it since. i probably won’t even eat at mos burger again until i’ve forgotten about it.
I’ve had that everyday for, oh, about the last 25 years. I die a little inside every time it happens. Even worse is the 711 clerks who refuse to speak and just point to the till total.
There’s a lot of very ignorant people out there.
lol… i guess it wont go down well. i attempted to start a convo with a guy in carrefor at the checkout who was speaking in pretty good english. he just smiled and i felt stupid.
Oh, you cruel thing! 
Actually, I’ve gotten pretty zen about it. I (usually) just smile, speak English back, or Chinese if I feel like it, you speak what you want, and I move on with my life.
Something like that, where it’s gone beyond the limits of rational behavior, a quick and polite “xiao jie, bu yong le” or whatever should sort it out 90% of time. If it doesn’t, now they’re being rude, and normal rules apply. If you don’t say anything, that’s your choice basically. On a hot day if I was enjoying the air conditioning and the lady was nice, I might go with it.
Many foreigners do not speak Chinese in Taiwan, when the staff of a shop or restaurant talks to you in English, it it just that they want to be nice and helpful. There is nothing to be annoyed about. Unless you answer in a very good Chinese and the staff keeps talking to you in English, in that case it is understandable to be pissed off.
Because Taiwanese girls really want boyfriends from France, for some reason.
Ah, le je ne sais quoi…
That’s it. Nightmares. That’s what I got, too.
Now you know how I feel when I said I had some bad experiences in the U.K.
Our stories may be slightly different, but the outcomes are pretty much the same, those people and those words affected us badly.
Those daily incidents may seem to be trivial and unimportant by bystanders.
But when it is yourself who encounter enough of these incidents, you just start thinking that everyone here is treating you differently(in a bad way) just because you look different.
And then it gets even worse when all the responses to your stories are “Why would you care about those trivial incidents so much?” or “I think they’re just trying to be nice or something. They didn’t mean it.”