Ordinary Gweilo

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Language barrier

Spike over at Hongkie Town has an amusing story of the problems of trying to speak Cantonese. Not that it’s difficult to learn (though it is) but that most locals don’t expects a gweilo to be speaking it. So they are straining to understand what they think is English rather than listening to some imperfect Cantonese.

I even adapt to this stereotype myself – although I can say “Joh Sun” I feel that English speakers expect me to speak in English, and that is what I do.

The end result of this is that I don’t use my basic Cantonese enough, and so I find it hard to improve.

Yes, you’re right it probably is just an excuse.

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2 responses to “Language barrier”

  1. Wanbro avatar
    Wanbro

    Not sure it is just an excuse – try as hard as you like to speak Cantonese and more often than not you’ll just get an impatient answer in (far from perfect) English. Even basic stuff like asking for a ticket, ordering food etc, the standard reaction from the snot-nosed kid is a) to laugh in your face b) reply in English – which thus means that your Cantonese was pretty successful – after all, he understood you.
    Of course, you could be in the middle of the damn sticks and have no option but to spew forth your jungman – but don’t expect to be spared the laughs…

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  2. Brian avatar
    Brian

    I have the same feelings exactly. When I try to speak cantonese to hong kong people, the majority of them will reply in english. They won’t even show any sort of leniency in trying to understand me. Even with students from my classes whom I try to speak cantonese with, they won’t reply to me. They’re very critical, and will say my cantonese is awful and laugh at me, even though I can have conversations with my cantonese teachers with some success. It’s as if they don’t like a foreigner trying to speak their native language. I guess it gives them a sense of superiority.

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