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Most surprised reaction from natives? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 17 of 91 17 May 2012 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is a bit off topic, but in Beijing my husband and I were sitting at a little cafe in The Forbidden City with our guide, when a couple asked if they could take a picture of us. I asked our guide why on earth they would want to do that, and she explained that they were from out of town, and did not see foreigners very often, so they thought we were really exotic! I said yes, on the condition that we could take their picture too, and so we did and everyone was satisfied. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5831 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 18 of 91 17 May 2012 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmm, when I visited Beijing about 4 years ago, and didn't get the sense that Chinese people were particularly suprised to see me, and I'm not talking about just in Central Beijing either, I travelled quite widely on public transport in the surrounding area outside Beijing and visited some areas where I suspect they have never seen a white tourist.
At most, some locals might look at you in a curious manner, but I didn't get the sense they were particularly astounded or suprised to see a white guy. In fact, I would say the majority didn't bat an eyelid. Even when I made attempts to speak Mandarin they didn't seem very suprised, and to be honest I got the impression many expected my Mandarin to be better than it actually is. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5425 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 19 of 91 17 May 2012 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'll complete the big East Asian trio and say that if you can string one sentence
together in Korean, then you've got what it takes to surprise practically anyone between the ages of 20 and 50, anywhere outside Seoul. It actually puts a damper on my conversations in some cases, because some people don't really want to talk to me in Korean about anything other than how much they can't believe that I speak Korean... 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4688 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 20 of 91 17 May 2012 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's been a long time, but I certainly recall that there used to be numerous times when I'd be asked to "say something in German" like that. Nowadays I live in a more urban area with lots of foreign and otherwise multilingual people, so it's not as pronounced, but I still find lots of people being surprised. For example, a friend I've known for years who is from Germany, who speaks native-level English, having spent much of her childhood and adulthood here, who also learned Latin quite well, and has a father who speaks at least 5 languages, nevertheless always seems genuinely surprised and or impressed when I use my somewhat pedestrian German skills, and intimidated by my mere dabbling in "easy" languages like French and Dutch. I guess that's what happens when you live in the US that long. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Coheed Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 4686 days ago 26 posts - 40 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Romanian, Irish | Message 21 of 91 17 May 2012 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know about the most suprised reaction, but the most surprising reaction I
witnessed is that of an old lady in Sweden who looked insulted when my friend spoke to her in Swedish. The lady replied to us in English only and never uttered a single word of Swedish. My friend, stubborn as he is, kept speaking in Swedish and the lady kept coming back to English for a somewhat nebulous reason. Swedes have indeed a very good knowlegde of English, we'll give them credits for that, but such an instinct of self-denial is unjustifiable. Be proud of your culture! Edited by Coheed on 17 May 2012 at 8:51pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5178 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 22 of 91 17 May 2012 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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a woman from Taiwan was so surprised that she changed her msn status to 'I am speaking Chinese with a foreigner!!!' or something similar. Unfortunately I have not visited Asia, so no real life examples.
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| Baracuda Groupie United States Joined 5805 days ago 53 posts - 81 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian, German | Message 23 of 91 18 May 2012 at 4:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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Upon leaving Budapest I waved down some locals to ask them-in English-how to find the
train station. They were very friendly in making sure that I knew how to get to the train station. Just after they turned to continue on their way, I said the one word I knew in Hungarian, "koszonom" (thank you) and they all turned around abruptly smiling from ear to ear and said in unison what I'm guessing to be "your welcome" in Hungarian. I'm not sure if they were surprised or appreciative that I knew that one magic word. Another time I met a Japanese guy while at a hostel in Ottawa who was amazed at how well I spoke English. I was confused because I just told him I was from Portland, Oregon. He was confused because he thought I said I said I was from Poland :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 24 of 91 18 May 2012 at 6:33am | IP Logged | |||||
The few Koreans I've used my extremely limited Korean with have all seemed extremely surprised and impressed. I said "annyonghaseyo" to a Korean woman I worked with and told her I was interested in studying Korean but it was so hard, and she laughed, and then she told her boss that I "speak perfect Korean." I was like what?! I knew like 10 words. I appreciate the encouragement, but everything I said was met with complete shock. I showed her a Korean textbook I had and she was totally surprised/impressed that I could read basic hanguel letters/clusters. I wanted to do a reading dialogue exercise with her but she insisted on starting at the beginning to make sure I could read. She would point to them and I would read them. She was very excited that I got them all right, except for a few of the diphthongs that I got confused. I have heard others say that it's hard to improve your Korean with Koreans because they are always too excited that you can say anything and won't correct you. If they understand you, of course, because the other frequent reports are that no one can understand you because Korean pronunciation is so difficult. Edited by IronFist on 18 May 2012 at 6:35am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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