I can’t tell you how aggravating it is when I could understand someone perfectly if they’d just use normal conversational Mandarin, but they insist on using a retarded mix of simple Chinese and broken English and I can’t figure out what the fuck they’re trying to say.
Ever happen to you?
NO, but if I were you I would simply tell them “I cannot understand your English.” in Mandarin.
With enough arrogance, flair, and frustration laced in your words, they should be sufficiently embarrassed to stop.
他們想要跟你 ‘交流’ 喔！ (They just want to “exchange” with you!)
That, and there’s no possible way you can speak Chinese because you’re a foreigner.
There are two options here that I usually will go with:
I really hate:
我要去超市 ‘蘇爬瑪kei特’ (supermarket) 買東西。 (I want to go to the supermarket, “su pa ma kei te” to buy something.)
你要來這邊跟我我一起吃 ’爛哆‘ (lunch) 嗎？(Do you want to eat 'lan chuhhhhh" with me over here?)
你要不要喝一瓶啤酒 beer 啦…？(Do you want a beer (then beer in English) laaaa?)
If I can understand every other part of the sentence, what makes you think I can’t understand supermarket, lunch, or any other simple word like radio, music, or beer. You can have a full conversation with someone about the 2008 world financial crisis, yet you can’t say “bus”. 
Maybe they think they are being nice to us by trying to speak English, or (more likely) they just think they can get a free English lesson.
[color=#FF0000]Moderator’s note: Add translations to your Mandarin sentences, please. This isn’t the Learning Chinese forum and not everyone can read or understand Mandarin.[/color]
****Mod, putting English ruins the joke, and this thread is about people who can speak Chinese being frustrated by locals who think we can’t. I’m not trying to exclude anyone intentionally, but that’s like asking someone to explain a joke to people who are never gonna understand it, anyway.
If anyone’s interested, there are 40 pages on this topic over here: [url]Why do so many Taiwanese speak English to foreigners? The topic was flogged to death there.
Btw, if you all read through the previously locked thread on this self same topic, you’ll notice there was quite a bit of off topic banter. What you don’t see is all the tripe and racist crap that was cut from it. I’m going to let this thread run for a while, but I’m going to take a dim view of similar posts as the last thread, i.e. I’m going to squeal to Admin without hesitation.
So please, ladies and gentlemen, keep it civil, and keep it on topic. 
mike029, I don’t live in Taiwan (yet), but my Taiwanese relatives who live in Taiwan definitely use versions of the English words “beer” and “bus” (as well as “tennis”, “racquet” and plenty of other words that I can’t remember at the moment) when speaking to other Taiwanese/Mandarin speakers, rather than using the Taiwanese or Mandarin words. For them, the English versions of those words have replaced the Taiwanese and Mandarin words.
People in Taiwan code-switch (that’s what the inclusion of words from another language within your speech is called) for various reasons. Most of them do it just because they can, and it’s considered “cool”. They do it with each other as well. It’s not all about you. 
My 87-year-old grandmother in Taiwan uses “bus”, “beer”, and “tennis”, and since she grew up in the Japanese era in Taiwan, I always assumed that those words came from the Japanese “basu”, “biru”, and “tenisu” that were themselves borrowed from English. Just my assumption, though – don’t know if it’s true.
it’s not just substituting single words, it’s like they see I’m a foreigner and get this dazed look on their face and start half speaking and half pantomiming “You – ehhh – go – ehh – want this – ehhh – over there?!” And grin and act like I’m the one who’s an idiot in this conversation.
To answer the OP, no this has never happened to me, I wonder what area of Taiwan are you from? Usually my interactions go one of three ways:
The person is not confident in using English, so they attempt to engage with me in Chinese. They do this with a stressed look on their face. I assume the stressed look is related to their past experience reveals white people can’t understand chinese, so they know this conversation is going to be difficult at best.
They are excited to see you and talk to you because they are about to get a chance to practice using a language they spent soo much time learning and studying but get very little chance to use in real life. Often in this case I can understand them perfectly, and so I forget to use simple english and they can’t understand me (:
They try to speak to you in english, but chinese words also slip in by accident. For example, when they see our son it is common to hear “Boy 還是(or) Girl?” In these cases its a natural accidental switch. I know they are not doing it intentionally because I also do it when trying to speak chinese at a natural speed (ie not thinking the sentence before saying it). In these cases it is usually not a problem as their chinese still sounds like natural chinese, and with regards to the english words, my english is good enough that I know what they are trying to say (:
I get the code switching…I do it with Italian all the time at home with my family…but it’s the repeating of some words in English immediately after the Chinese that gets me, especially stupid easy words.
I am guilty. I do it all the time with my friends and my ABC kids. I am a native speaker of Chinese and right now live in US. I do it with my Taiwanese friends because many of us are IT professionals. We never learned those Chinese terminologies. So, how do you say “parameters”, “compiler”, “Java”, “development”, “project Manager” in Chinese?
For easy words, I mix simply because I am lazy. Many English words simply are easier and shorter to say.
I get the code switching…I do it with Italian all the time at home with my family…but it’s the repeating of some words in English immediately after the Chinese that gets me, especially stupid easy words.[/quote]
People spend a lot of time trying to learn English and they relish the chance to break out with it a bit, even in a small way. As said, it’s not about you, so no point in getting worked up about it.
While I understand it’s not exactly what you’re talking about, people here are hard wired for code switching as many are bilingual with one language lacking words for many modern nouns.
I think word substitution is common in Taiwan just like Japan. What’s most frustrating though is not the word substituion (which as poster mentioned above certain industries/wannabees actively engage in), is that some of them just won’t speak regular fluent Chinese to you.
Please use first-person pronouns, not second-person, in your title.
Just listening to the wife on the phone with her friend from the Chungle. Mandarin, Taiwanese and English all being used. Both are native Taiwanese speakers. Ironlady’s right – its not about you. Or I suppose in a way it IS, as it shows you have little understanding about how people here use language. Personally, I hear it ALL the time between native speakers of Mandarin/Taiwanese.
What REALLY bugs me is the furriners who interject their English with craply pronounced Chinese words and phrases, and THAT is something that in my experience is FAR more common. DORKSVILLE CENTRAL! 
th2000 asked:
You don’t…you say them in english because thats what people around the world understand.
Language is for communication of statements, questions and ideas. Throw this PC/progressive garbage out the window and talk to each other…don’t spend your time whining about it.
[quote=“Lil’ Slugger”]I can’t tell you how aggravating it is when I could understand someone perfectly if they’d just use normal conversational Mandarin, but they insist on using a retarded mix of simple Chinese and broken English and I can’t figure out what the fuck they’re trying to say.
Ever happen to you?[/quote]
Sure, but I try to be amused by it instead of getting aggravated. Give it a chuckle and you might find that your day goes better.
Just remember, language is for communication.
What the fuck are you trying to say?