haha dittoo! and i learn mando using those taiwanese drams's with hot guys in it so im more or less pretty much very interested haha
im in notting hill everyday!!! **sigh** stupid college, heard of Holland Park School ? aiyohhhh when im late, i have to put up my thumbprint to sign in! sho lame :S
it pisses me more off when my mandarin speaking friends bring someone along and they all start speaking mandarin, assuming i speak it....
Grrr I despise ignorant people. I hate it when I'm at a Chinese restaurant and they talk to me in English, EXTREMELY BROKEN English if I may say so myself. A few weeks ago, I went with my friends to some Chinese restaurant in Chinatown and when the waiter guy came over, he was like, "Ready? Order?" And all of us kept looking at the menu because we couldn't decide. So he thought we just didn't know how to read the menu. Then his co-worker came over and they started talking and the waiter was telling him how we were taking so long. Then the co-worker was like, "Oh just tell them to order __________. The "to jees" love that." And all of us heard that and we were just like -shock-angry Then we ordered in Chinese and they were like -ohmy OK, well I didn't exactly see that, but I hope they were! Anyways, I think appearance matters a lot. My friend, who looks kind of white/mixed, but is actually one of the most Chinese people I know, was in China visiting relatives/friends. She got lost one night and went to this China girl to ask directions. The girl went to ask her bf, and the bf asked why she was asking. Then the girl said, "That 'bun mui' wants to know." LIKE WTF. GRRR. OK, I'm done -^_^
What are "to jees" that you're referring to? I've never had it happen to me. I would not mind them at all for talking to me in English, in turn I would actually prefer English but... it's a whole different story if they were talking amongst themselves in Chinese, assuming the fact that all of y'all can't speak/read Chinese. That's just plain rude and unprofessional.
I don't get annoyed since now days people might mistaken us if we are having a face that don't look Chinese,Japanese or Koreans.So its easy if they speak to us in English.
HAHAHA thats funny.... but i never really had that happened to me before. Vice versa i went to HK and people thought that i didnt know any english. So i was ordering my drink and the counter guy starts talking in this broken english and i just couldnt understand. I stood there staring at thing for like a minute and the worker went and said "dont mess with him" ......... I was like WTF. But anyhow, i know both chinese and enligsh!!
haha i get that too, i don't look 100% chinese even though i am, so i'm used to people assuming i don't speak any chinese. people tell me i look half white half asian or just phillipino. i've actually had people tell me i look a variety of nationalities. maybe i should be a spy and act on all the different nationalities people think i am
Hey, I applaud you for you effort in trying to improve your Chinese. Me too, I've actually been trying to practice my Cantonese for over half a year, and I'm gradually starting to improve. When I was younger, there were some who talked to me in English (knowing I was local born) and some who talked to me in Chinese, thinking I would understand and reply back in the same dialect. Well, I would always reply them back in English regardless, but now that I'm learning, I'm trying to reply back to others in Chinese whenever they use that dialect to talk to me. Personally, I don't really mind when they talk to me in English, because yes, most local born Chinese are not very proficient in their native tongue and they are more expressive in English. But what gets me the most is when I'm with my HK friends; we sometimes watch a Cantonese movie together and I would comment on something that happened in the movie, and they would say, "Oh, you understand what they're saying?" as if implying that because I'm American-born, I wouldn't understand the dialect as well as them. My HK friend and I talk to each other in English because we both got used to it since the first time we became friends, but it's become a habit that when I talk to her in Cantonese too, she replies back mostly in English. I'm waiting for the day that I'll be proficient enough to talk all in Cantonese with her and she replies back in her native tongue as well, haha. I've also been called a 竹升 (jook sing) before, a term that describes overseas Chinese that lost their culture, but I disliked being called this term. That's why besides practicing my Chinese, I'm also trying to connect more with my Chinese cultural roots. Oh yeah, I also need to pay attention to what the Chinese dishes are called in restaurants so that when I eat with my friends, I'll know what to order next time, haha.
hmmmm for me.. my chinese is totally broken now...I'm born in australia with next to no Chinese friends at all my spekaing is terrible too much of a aussie accent... and my listen skills are going down.. thou I tr yot keep it as much as possible by watching movies.. and speaking ot my parents in chinese I suppose it's bad since my fiance is Japanese and now I'm mingling the languages together... but what annoys me are the chinese people who down on you for it... and think they are so good but there english skills are pretty bad... [argh]
Thanks .. Agree with you there. I have the exact same situations with my HK friends. They always make fun of me or ask me whether I understand something or not. So annoying -__-" You sound like me .. you've got the drive to learn~ Work hard@, and don't give up!
You're obviously not alone. I get that same thing too. Despite the fact that I'm now fluent in two different dialects...both of them are still not mandarin...and then when mainlanders ask me if I'm chinese, i'm like what the F? Then i respond to them in really bad mandarin. "Yes, I'm Chinese, what did you think I was? Are you?"
all my relatives think i'm this white-washed can't understand speak cantonese person. it's ludacrious because i asboslutely can. I can understand 85perc which is pretty high. I wish they would get a life and stop picking young first generation asian americans.
shouldn't care why do you care so much about what others think? it's ok if they think a certain way, as long as you know what you are capable of. Just think of it this way, if they speak english to you, they are just practicing their english. it's not that they are under estimating you. have a good one
