Practicing with Native Speakers

A key to the success of any self-study language program is finding opportunities to practice conversing with native speakers. Some students visit Chinese grocery stores or restaurants for this purpose. I have the good fortune of working with a company that employs many Chinese nationals.

Two challenges for the new learner in successfully initiating conversations with native Chinese speakers are: 1) the highly context sensitive nature of the language, and 2) the difficulty of correctly pronouncing its sounds.

Therefore, if you randomly throw phrases you have learned at a native speaker, you probably will receive back nothing more than puzzled looks. The person may or may not perceive that you are trying to speak Chinese rather than English. If they correctly determine that you are trying to speak Chinese, they may not immediately understand your statements if they are not contextually appropriate to the situation.

This can be frustrating and demoralizing. There is a solution, though, for saving face. That is to attack the recipient of your efforts. Accuse him of being a farmer. Explain that his lack of sophistication is the reason that he doesn’t understand your elegant speech.

Farmer Zhang Yuetao - Puzzled by my Sophisticated Dialect

This tack can serve double duty. If he says something simple to you in Chinese which you fail to at first comprehend, you can also blame this on the crude nature of his unsophisticated accent. It is not your fault, it is his fault.

Now, go find someone that you can throw some words at!