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Thread on "Language Banditry" | ||
Tags: Language Banditry | Immersion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5997 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 121 of 140 02 September 2009 at 6:42am | IP Logged | ||
Interesting. After your first sentence I anticipated you would reveal having a rather low level in the language, but apparently that is not the cases. I've met a lot of people who claimed there was no language banditry in Shanghai initially, but one or two years later when they actually gained decent ability in Mandarin, reported back to me that I had been VERY right all along. Don't get me wrong -- there are a few 100% safe places. I never once in my life had to deal with bandits in Chinese restaurants or in taxis. But as soon as I made a single step to "enjoy" the privileged of being in an international city (that I was paying such inflated prices to enjoy), stopping in a Burger King, coffee shop, Italian restaurant, or night club, the bandits poured out of the woodwork in an unabated flow. Are you sure you weren't keeping to some very specific region of the city or perhaps somehow always surrounding yourself only by the least educated of the population? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6864 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 122 of 140 02 September 2009 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I have found this sometimes here in Belgium. I often have conversations like this
ME: "Je voudrais un aller simple s'il vous plaît" BELGIAN TICKET GUY: "Of course sir, what time are you leaving?" ME: "Je depart maintenant" BELGIAN TICKET GUY: "Okay, and how many tickets do you need?" ME: "Seulement pour moi" lol, crazy stuff 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| drfeelgood17 Bilingual Hexaglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6448 days ago 98 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English*, Tagalog*, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Japanese, Latin, Arabic (Written) | Message 123 of 140 02 September 2009 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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http://englishbanditry.com/survey/banditsurvey.php
I think your energy and efforts would be better spent leaving this part of the world you dislike so much (East Asia). If you feel so under siege it seems pretty pointless staying there. I think the far bigger issue is still monolingual English speakers not making any efforts to speak the local language - East Asia included. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5582 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 124 of 140 02 September 2009 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
I wouldn't say that staying in East Asia would be pointless for Parasitius. After all it is such an interesting place and the home to some really interesting foriegn languages. These problems can be dealt with, just like it is mentioned in the stategies in the above link. @Parasitius I have no experience with China and have never experienced these problems in Europe, but in Japan at least I have some stategies should I ever bump into some stranger who is just looking for easy and cheap English practice or looking to show off. In the past I just stubbornly kept on speaking Japanese. Most people realised that I do actually speak the language rather fluently and switched to Japanese. However, I still encountered from time to time people who were just tying to squeeze some English out of the foreigner and would refuse to switch to Japanese. Their slow broken English made me feel pestered by them. Now I have realised that the best way to deal with this kind of pestering people is to actually respond to them in English. But in real English at native speed or faster as well as using colloqualisms or big words (especially literary latinate words which not even English native speakers use in conversation). The vast majority of pesterers like this in Japan don't have good auditory comprehension of the English language and don't have an extensive vocabulary and so are unable to follow my real speed and difficult English. They end up getting confused. Just switching the topic from greetings and niceties to something serious like politics works well as confusion. Unable to understand, they feel embarassed and usually have no choice but to switch to Japanese. Some ask me to repeat myself. In this case after a few times the pesterer hasn't understood what I am saying I just respond with もういい (Enough already!). This works and I get left alone. It also looks like I have given them a chance by speaking some English but in reality I gave them virtually zero chance. Speaking non-standard English like local dialects also results in the pesterer switching back to Japanese. The English variant where I live is quite broad and non-standard. I have even seen it subtitled for Americans on US television. So your average non-native English speaker should be pretty confused and end up switching language. I know it's a little cold and maybe even mean as it is not very easy on the egos of these pesterers, but I believe that if a language learner decides to attempt to speak to a visiting foreigner in his/her native language the language learner should always keep in mind that it could have potentially embarassing consequences. I myself have had negative/embarassing experiences on trying to approach foreigners in their native language while in my own country. It's just the way it goes! By the way, the reason why I never speak to Japanese people in Japan in English is because back home very few Japanese people would be willing to speak Japanese for me when I attempted to engage in Japanese conversation with them. And I mean VERY few! Of course there are exceptions but from my personal experience the vast majority of the Japanese back home (most were exchange students) would meet my attempts with cold responses despite my Japanese being considerably advanced, would only respond in English, or would get all moany with me and be avoidant of me. But can I blame 'em!? They were here to learn English. I just accepted that and respected their feelings. So when I am in Japan I make sure that I don't speak English at all because no one spoke Japanese for me back home. So it is fair play. Some people think I am a jerk for this, but I don't listen to them because they apply double stardards. I was once told by a friend of mine not to pester any Spanish speakers or Japanese speakers with my Spanish and Japanese at a rather international party that we had decided to go to. However, months later I told him that I don't speak English for Japanese people when I am in Japan and he exclaimed that they are only trying to learn and added that I was being a major jerk. Talk about double stardards! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Suriya Tetraglot Newbie Thailand Joined 5789 days ago 34 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Thai*, Laotian, English, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French, Welsh | Message 125 of 140 03 September 2009 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||
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As for Thailand, yes there are cases where middle-class people would insist on speaking to foreigners in English to practise their English, show off to their friends bla bla bla. Well most expats I know give up learning the language easily (in about 2-3 months) anyway. However, all through nearly 30 years of my life i've never heard of such ill-fated bitter man that the whole country decides to refuse to speak to him in Thai. Most people appreciate it even if you only try babbling a string of Thai words.
As for here, it's just about what kind of people you hang out with, perhaps? Edited by Suriya on 03 September 2009 at 11:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lancemanion Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 150 posts - 166 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 126 of 140 03 September 2009 at 2:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's better to develop a thick skin than to worry about such things as English banditry. It's a very rare
occurrence, so try not to dwell on it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6885 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 127 of 140 03 September 2009 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I was in Taiwan I told a guy in Chinese i don't speak English. Left him speechless.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Al-Irelandi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5534 days ago 111 posts - 177 votes Speaks: English* | Message 128 of 140 29 November 2009 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
Good strategy, I do the same, with those who are too stubborn to relinquish the need to try and hijack my time speaking English. I just speak in the local 'street' vernacular that we have here in London, and force them back to Arabic... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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