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Today I was a spy. | ||
Tags: Usefulness | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6886 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 27 13 September 2007 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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The other day I was waiting in line at a government office. I was sitting next to two asian women when I suddenly realized i could understand their conversation. They were speaking Mandarin. I thought this would be a great time to practice my listening comprehension (or eavesdropping). They were complaining about the wait, what number they were, and they had just started commenting on all the "foreigners" in the room when my cover was blown. My 3 year old started speaking mandarin to me. The women stopped talking and asked me if I could speak mandarin. We spoke in mandarin for a few minutes and turns out they were from the southern part of Taiwan. They must have thought my mandarin skills were much higher then they are (my wife rates me a 3 on a 1 to 10 scale) because they moved to the other side of the room and continued their chat.
Moral of the story, if you are going to talk about people in a crowded area be careful, you never know who can understand the language you are using. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| manny Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6358 days ago 248 posts - 240 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Tagalog Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 27 13 September 2007 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I assume that you do not look Chinese?
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7376 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 27 14 September 2007 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations!
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| audiolang Diglot Senior Member Romania Joined 6320 days ago 108 posts - 109 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Romanian*, English | Message 4 of 27 14 September 2007 at 4:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I spy on people everyday.But in the sense of looking from the window ,rarely hearing what they say,it's nice to do when you're really really bored. Edited by audiolang on 14 September 2007 at 4:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6886 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 27 14 September 2007 at 4:28am | IP Logged | ||
Correct. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 27 14 September 2007 at 6:21am | IP Logged | ||
How true this is! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aritaurus Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6574 days ago 197 posts - 204 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 27 14 September 2007 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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You'll never know who can speak what language these days. Good job! I still don't like how many people to refer locals as " foreigners " when they're actually in their country. It's just weird. Edited by Aritaurus on 14 September 2007 at 2:21pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6886 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 27 14 September 2007 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank You Francois.
I think it's weird too how immigrants refer to natives as foreigners. Most of the people waiting for us were pretty obviously from New York/New Jersey area. Easy to tell from body language, accent and word usage. I would say 15-20% were naturalized citizens or foreign residents, but I got the impression these women meant any non chinese/taiwanese when they were complaining about the foreigners. Edited by owshawng on 14 September 2007 at 7:19pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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