Every Saturday there’s a bit of a local stir. I buy fruit and eat some while walking around. People notice me, the foreigner, so I give them a nod and begin what has come to be a standard conversation here in small-town China,
Hello!
Hi, what country are you from?
I am from the United States.
I don’t understand.
The United States of America, it’s my hometown.
[looks around wistfully] I don’t understand.
I’m sorry, I’m trying to speak standard Chinese.
I still don’t understand.
…
It’s Not About What You Say…
Sometimes I feel like a man fighting with an octopus on a treadmill during these conversations. Some days, after some time and more than a few desperate hand gestures, the fruit vendor crowd gets it. I’m trying to buy bananas. Despite this, most days they don’t.
I’ve come to learn over the past year in the Peace Corps that it’s not so much about what you have to say, but about how you say it. They don’t speak standard Chinese here in Gansu. Instead, in Chengxian, the local people speak Cheng county dialect Chinese. You therefore must hit the correct sound for people to understand.
Chinese as a language already operates with four required tones to pronounce. Adding yet more geographical differences in sound has, for me, made it hard to talk. So, instead I walk. Through the tofu carts and hanging meat markets of this place.
The big challenge for me here is learning to wield my conversational chopsticks in a way that prevents the food from hitting the floor. I often don’t know what we’re talking about when we start, but by now, a year later, I am able to sling sentences around coherently – even after talking for an hour (or three).
I Am Also Drunk
One standard Saturday morning after successfully buying a few bananas I noticed a small group of students approaching. The conversation went:
Hello!
Hi teacher, did you eat?
Yes I did! And you?
Yes.
What did you eat?
Noodles.
And then, in cocky Mandarin I said,
I ate fear…
They burst into laughter at my bad pronunciation.
…err I mean I ate eggs.
By then they were chatting amongst each other in rapid Chinese while Zoe tried to help me with pronunciation of the correct tone. Out of the corner of my ear I heard shy, typically inconspicuous Bessie belt out:
Wo ye shi zui le!
Everybody but me laughed even harder. So I whipped out my phone, thumbed open Pleco (a free translation app) and typed it in.
Wo 我 – I
Ye 也 – also
Shi 是 – am
Zui le 醉了 – drunk
“I also am drunk.”
I Remember My First Beer
In conversation with a Chinese person, if somebody says something funny or aloof in any way you are safe to respond with a:
Wo3 ye3 shi4 zui4 le! (我也是醉了)
In English it’s kind of like saying, “I remember my first beer” when someone makes a mistake or is being goofy. You don’t actually have to be drunk to say it, either. It’s one of those little phrases that make it easier to do a walk and talk at my site.
As I’ve come to find out, using Chinese slang is especially well received in class or during cooking club. It cracks students and local people up in a way that makes you the lovably relatable foreigner.
There’s plenty of slang to be slung around, too. Part of the fun of being in the Peace Corps is jumping into the foray and learning, in the thick of it, how to mix your own flavor into the bubbling cauldron of intercultural conversation.
You Real Cow
For me, chowing into that linguistic stir-fry has provided much full-fillment. There’s no knowing what’ll be at the buffet this day or that, but it usually turns out to be quite tasty.
Here’s an example of how to impress the locals using Chinese. Say this:
Ni 你 – you
Zhen 真 – real
Niu 牛 – cow
Now, in the United States if you called somebody a genuine cow you’d be looking for trouble. But in China it’s actually the highest of compliments. Similar to saying, “you’re outstanding” to someone.
Ni3 zhen1 niu2 (你真牛)
You may need to udder this phrase more than once to get the pronunciation just right. Make sure to sharply stick the NI like sixteen-year old Olympic gold-medalist Shaun Johnson during the 2008 Olympic vault finals and to lay out the ‘oooo’ of NIU like a hungry lone wolf during the mid-autumn full moon. As the enigmatic foreigner, it’s up to you to set the tone of the conversation.
Stir Fry
So far, my time mixing languages, dialects of languages, conversations, questions, answers, and misunderstandings could be summed up in one word: bewildering. Even here in China, as the only male foreigner in my city, I’m not alone in my bewilderment. When docking in foreign ports you always notice how the wind ruffles the sails of the other ships the same way it ruffles your own.
I was having a conversation in English with a second year Chinese student of mine. I asked her,
Do you like Chengxian?
NO!
Why not?
I first arrived last year I didn’t understand the local Chinese, so I had much trouble.
Originally posted in an old blog.
My Peace Corps timeline of service.
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