Taxi drivers are one of the groups of people whom I consider both my teachers and a gauge for my mastery of the Chinese language. One: Most of them do not speak a word of English. Two: It is mighty important that they understand me. Three: They can be very entertaining. Especially when I understand what they're saying. What's good is that I seem to understand more of what's being said with each ride.
Today marks the fifth month of my stay in China, and here is my first conversation of the day:
JC: ShiZhuan.
TD: (repeated) ShiZhuan.
JC: The college.
TD: The one near LingDong?
JC: (visibly relieved) Right! Right!
TD: (looks at me strangely) You're not from TieLing?
JC: No.
TD: (looked more closely) Are you Chinese?
JC: (burst out laughing) No.
TD: Where are you from?
JC: I'm a Filipino.
TD: (muttered to himself) Oh, the Philippines. (To me) You speak Chinese very clearly.
JC: (tickled pink) Thank you!
TD: Do you study at ShiZhuan?
JC: No, I teach.
TD: Teach what?
JC: English.
TD: A foreign teacher. I didn't know TieLing has a foreign teacher.
JC: (thought of asking him how long he's been driving his taxi. How could he not know? There are other foreign teachers who look foreign. Decided against it.)
TD: How long have you been here?
JC: Five months.
TD: Where were you before? (But he said it in such a way that I wasn't sure if I got it right.)
JC: (making sure) Before coming to TieLing, where else in China?
TD: Right.
JC: Just TieLing.
TD: From the Philippines, you came straight to TieLing?
JC: Right.
TD: Your Chinese is really good.
JC: Thanks! I studied PuTongHua in the Philippines. Since I was really young.
TD: But your PuTongHua doesn't sound like PuTongHua. It sounds like (didn't understand this part. Sounds like "FangYian").
JC: Whats "FangYian"?
TD: It's the local language of a place here.
JC: My parents' parents were from the Fujian Province. (I didn't know how to say grandparents. I asked my students and it turned out there's no word for grandparents, just grandfather and grandmother. I knew how to say those! :p)
TD: (delighted) Oh! So that's why! Your PuTongHua sounds similar to the way people there speak.
JC: They speak MinNanHua.
TD: Right!
JC: But you're saying that my PuTongHua sounds similar to the way they would speak PuTongHua?
TD: Right.
JC: I wouldn't know. Maybe.
Sigh. You win some, you lose some. My students found this story really funny. :p
I love chatting up the taxi drivers. I've met some really cool ones who help me out now when they see me. They love it when you ask about their families.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I'll do that next time. My taxi ride yesterday was pretty quiet. When I was about to get off, he asked "SinGaBo ren ma?" I've been mistaken for so many nationalities I'm now contemplating on making a tally card.
ReplyDelete