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Xiao Kui -

Just curious . . . Just wondered if other advanced learners have also gotten frustrated with
Chinese due to having the same Chinese conversation over and over again with people they meet. I
went to an art shop twice within the same week, and the guy apparently forgot I'd just been in
there. We had the same conversation abt Kunming's qihou and abt how long I'd been in China. The
last time I'd been there I'd taken the conversation to another level (his wife, who was a better
conversationist had been there then, which helped) , but I wasn't going to waste my breath again
this time. At the beginning of learning Chinese it always helps to talk it up with shop owners,
cabbies, and the like, but now it seems like a good idea to hold my tongue.

Typical taxi driver conversation is always abt how China is so luohou (their words, not mine) and
the renkou's too big, so mei banfa, bla, bla, bla.

Thank God for a few close Chinese friends, or my vocab would still be in Chinese Made Easier book
1. Sorry for being so negative - thanks for letting me faxie.



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wushijiao -

Yeah, you do have the a variation of the same conversation thousands of times, but, what can you
do?

I think that's probably the norm when living in another country, most likely. I'm sure Arabs who
live in the US get the same selected set of comments, opinions, and questions over and over.

I do think the trick is, as you said, to become friends with educated Chinese people, who will
broaden the scope of the things that are talked about.










lau -

Wow, why don't taxi drivers discuss 人口 with me? Once they realize i'm from the big, friendly
ex-苏联 all i get is 莫斯科郊外的晚上










imron -



Quote:

Yeah, you do have the a variation of the same conversation thousands of times, but, what can you
do?

Invent interesting answers to amuse yourself. Works especially well with people you know you'll
never see again.










Qcash3 -



Quote:

Invent interesting answers to amuse yourself. Works especially well with people you know you'll
never see again.

I love making up outrageous things to tell people, like when people ask me how it is living in
America and I tell them that we have a serious bear overpopulation problem which has led to all
sorts of political and economical problems. Really makes mundane conversations interesting. If one
day a taxi driver tells me that he heard America has a bear problem, I will know that I have made
an effect on China. That's another topic though. But no, Xiao Kui I totally get where you are
coming from. Sometimes I felt like I was an actor or something reading from the same script
everytime I met a new individual. “你学了汉语多久了？”
“你的国家真的很有钱吗？” “美国真的有黑人吗？”










Xiao Kui -



Quote:

Invent interesting answers to amuse yourself. Works especially well with people you know you'll
never see again.
__________________

Sounds fun - I'll have to try it some time. Actually I did something like this once back when I
first got to China. I started off living in KM then went to Harbin for a few months. When friends
asked me why I didn't want to stay in Harbin and was so anxious to return to KM I told them in my
then very limited Chinese that Kunming was warmer and actually had 2 suns. I got a few sincere
"Zhen de ma?" 's which was both funny and disturbing so with the undeserved credibility the
Harbiners were giving me I thought I'd better lay off the tall tales.










gougou -



Quote:

Invent interesting answers to amuse yourself.

I'd feel bad doing that. These people will believe anything you tell them about your country, so
making up stuff is really misusing their confidence in you. Imagine you tell a cab driver that you
have a serious bear overpopulation problem in the US, and the next time he gets an American
passenger, he'll ask him "So did that bear problem get any better?". What is that passenger gonna
think of China?

It's fun, sure, but in about the same way that pulling the chair somebody else was going to sit on
away from under them is - fun for a short while, painful for much longer.










imron -



Quote:

I'd feel bad doing that. These people will believe anything you tell them about your country, so
making up stuff is really misusing their confidence in you.

I didn't mean make up stuff about your country, I meant make it up about yourself. Or at least
think of interesting ways to answer the standard questions.

The other thing you can do is let them know that you are only joking, and then let them know that
as a foreigner in China you are always asked the same questions again and again, and so sometimes
you like to give funny replies just to make the conversation interesting. Then you can both have a
laugh and hopefully that person will try asking the next foreigner they meet something more
interesting.










muyongshi -



Quote:

I'd feel bad doing that. These people will believe anything you tell them about your country, so
making up stuff is really misusing their confidence in you. Imagine you tell a cab driver that you
have a serious bear overpopulation problem in the US, and the next time he gets an American
passenger, he'll ask him "So did that bear problem get any better?". What is that passenger gonna
think of China?

I'm more concerned about the danger of it...it seems that people, if they know someone who met a
foreigner once and so were told x, will be completely convinced that x is true and even if you
tell them different they won't believe you. Had this conversation many times with taxi drivers.
They know a guy that talked to a foreigner and all foreigner are x or they're country is like x
and I cannot correct these horrid and sometimes utterly ridiculous (for example one was told the
size of american men were all the size of children [i'm referring to a specific part of the
anatomy]) misconceptions. Danger Will Robinson Danger!










roddy -

Turn it on its head and take control. Find out what their hobbies are, ask questions about
inflation, or - as I know one member on here used to do - ask them which of the Three Represents
is their favorite. I agree it can be a bit annoying, but if you're just sitting there and giving
the 'X years . . . no, it's not very good . . . I earn - enough . . . .etc' then it's not entirely
your interlocutor's fault.

One taxi driver I had recently had sent his son off to study dance in Shenyang, on the basis that
he was too stupid to do anything except physical labor and he reckoned dancing was at least a
decent form of physical labor. However, it was looking like the kid wasn't any good at dancing. He
also know a lot more about UK cinema than I did.

The stupid answers can be fun, but you can dig yourself into some holes.

I actually do something similar with Americans. Whenever you tell an American you're from Scotland
you quite often get a look of delight which means they're about to tell you they have Scottish
ancestors. I cut them off at this point and tell them they look a bit Scottish and ask if they
have any Scottish ancestors. Backfired the other day though when one guy looked at me as if I was
mad and said 'No, a Scottish terrier. Tell me, are there many of them in Scotland.'












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