First encounter:
Foreign National: 你好， 你叫什么名字？
Chinese National: Waaaaa, you Chinese soooo good!
F: 没有， 没学了多久.
C: Yes, so good. Where you learn?
F: 我在北京待了差不多一年。。。
C: You must be very smart…
Has this happened to you? If so, were you thinking: 如我中文那么好你为什么跟我说英文？ （If my Chinese is so good, why the heck are you speaking to me in English then?). Yes, my friend you have encountered what is known in the “lǎowài” community as the dreaded “English Pirate”. They come out of the shadows intent on stealing free English lessons; no matter what you say in Chinese they are always ready to respond in English; finally, worn down, you lose the battle and switch to English.
Now, here is what I think the rules of engagement should be:
• A student of your language in your country (they have traveled quite far after all just to learn your language!) should be addressed in your language.
• If the person addresses you in English, and you know English, or the conversation cannot go further because they do not know your language well enough, fair enough to switch to English. But give them a shot!
• Likewise, in the U.S, if you are a student of Chinese, you should not try to use Chinese expats as a tool to teach you Chinese. They may be here to learn English and you should help them out.
More importantly, how does one foil an English pirate? Aaarggh!
• Try as long as you can to stick to Chinese… they may give up before you do.
• Identify the English pirates in a social group and avoid them.
• Fix your attention on people who are interested in you as a person, and not you as a free English lesson.
• You can try to pretend you’re from a country that does not speak English (ashamed to say I have done it a few times), but it’s not honest and doesn’t feel good in the end.
• You can be upfront and say “I came here to learn Chinese, would you mind only speaking in Chinese with me for a while?”
• All in all, the best way to avoid one is to identify one and retreat. There are plenty of Chinese nationals happy to speak their language with you.
The thing with English pirates, as is with anyone more interested in getting something out of you rather than knowing you, is they probably won’t pan out to be your best friends. Ironically, I found the people most willing to speak to me and other lǎowài in Mandarin in Taiwan spoke more English than the pirates in the end. As they became a part of our group, naturally we all switched to English at times.
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My Chinese is so limited, I'm almost grateful when a person wants to switch to English. But, yes, I have run into a lot of people who just want some free English practice.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting attitude. Of course, when I was in China, my Chinese was incredibly rudimentary and I was there to adopt, not to learn Chinese per se, and was quite happy to let Chinese nationals practice their English on me. We got to go to a real (not adoption agency set up) tea ceremony, steered to great restaurants and shopping streets etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd here in Montreal, if I don't practice Chinese with Chinese expats, I don't know who I will practice with. I do have one woman who is from Beijing come to my house once a week, and pay her a fee, but the time really really revolves around me learning chinese, and what my agenda for that day is in terms of language learning. On the other hand, I have had Chinese expats on the subway, at the park, at the playground, more than happy to speak Chinese with them, and you are right, if they didn't speak Chinese, I would probably not have been interested in them other than maybe because we were both parents watching our kids for a half hour in the same space. I don't know that they felt "used" as much as encouraging a mom of an adopted chinese kid keep some language for him. Of course, if they ask me to correct their English or French, I would be happy to, but I certainly don't assume they are speaking to me in English or French as they have come to Canada to learn or practice it... more that it is very likely that they would meet very few Canadians who would know more than Ni Hao in Chinese, so of course they would open a conversation in Canadian national languages.
I'll have to think on this more....