Hello!!!

In the "minding the curve" talk given to all Light Fellows, we learned that student's attitudes in studying abroad often follow a curve (see a few posts back). In keeping with "minding the curve", I try to remember that I'm still coming up from the low point and thus am prone to get frustrated with the cultural differences between America and Taiwan. Lately, I have been increasingly frustrated by a language barrier that at this point has more to do with my facial features than my actual language abilities. When people see a foreigner, they are likely to assume that the foreigner speaks English and that the foreigner does not speak Mandarin. True, most foreigners, especially those from the West, are either fluent in English or proficient in it, and most do not speak Mandarin.

The problem is that young people in Taipei often refuse to speak Mandarin to me. They will either answer questions (asked in Mandarin) in broken English, not answer at all, or say in Mandarin, "Sorry, I don't know English". It can be very frustrating. I'm not against people practicing their English, but when I ask questions of strangers, I'm usually in need of clear answers. If someone knows 3 words of English, they are not likely to be able to answer my question clearly. I don't want to hear "Hello!!" as an answer to "Are you down with the bench press?" Or silence as an answer to "Does this bus go to Taipei Station?" Or worst of all "Sorry, I don' know English" as a response to "Do I pay coming on or off the bus?"

It can be even more frustrating when I'm trying to talk to a neighbor and I'm genuinely interested in their point of view and such and such a topic, but they insist on replacing Chinese words with mispronounced English words midway through a sentence, rendering the meaning of the sentence difficult to decipher. For instance, imagine the phrase "After the war they were..." spoken in Chinese with a mispronounced English word finishing the sentence. I thought he said he was free after the war, when he later revealed that he was a refugee after the war!

I should add that while in southern cities, the countryside, or talking to older folks, I have not had this problem. People just speak mandarin, speak clearly, and assume I know what they're saying. Which is a big relief when I need clear directions or want to know if the meal includes a drink.

I should also put my own experience in perspective. Asian American students or visiting tourists and businesspeople from other parts of Asia are immediately assumed to be Taiwanese. Many Americans have lectured me on the supposed marked facial differences between Koreans and Chinese and Japanese and Vietnamese. "Oh, he's Korean, you can tell by the face." Well, someone should tell people here that, because they seem as unable to differentiate between Asian nationalities by facial characteristics as I am. Furthermore, even if someone is Chinese or Taiwanese, if they grew up in America or Europe they are likely to not be completely fluent in Chinese. However, the Taiwanese will still insist on speaking Mandarin at full speed, complete with idioms even after the unlucky foreigner has protested repeatedly that she grew up in America and is not able to understand Chinese at that pace. So I don't have it the worst.