semblance of speaking mandarin

[Guest Yau]

I met several english speakers in hongkong recently and coincidental, they told me that they speak mandarin. In my experience, it's pretty much doubtful.

An australian teacher said she taught chinese in her home country. It impressed me and I began to speak mandarin to her. She immediately told me---- awkwardly that she learnt it long long time ago, forgot most of them.

On the other day, i met a woman who works in a new magazine. She said she knows nothing about cantonese though she planned to base here permanently, but claimed that she speaks mandarin. Then I spoke mandarin to her, and she swiftly switched her thought to tell me that she FORGOT them.

Why's that happened so often? Is it also common in other regions of china?

[Alhazred]

It is common everywhere and for every language I think, people will boast at how good they speak such and such language but it often becomes a problem when they actually have to speak it ;)

[thepokergod]

I am always very modest when questioned about my ability (not that it's high). But leading people to think you are ignorant can also be great fun, and an even more entertaining mway of catching peole out!

[pazu]

THe word "speak" is an arbitary term, people have their own definition of it. I've met a Vietnamese girl who claimed that she could speak 10 languages, she meant she could say hello in 10 languages...

[xuechengfeng]

My ex-Japanese/Chinese teacher who was a big rip-off said he could speak over 60 languages, but he was probably like the girl you knew, Pazu. One time I had a lapse in memory and asked how to say the days of the week in Chinese (Xingqi yi, er....) and he couldn't even tell me.

I am always afraid at my level in learning to try to speak Chinese to a person outside of the classroom because in America (a) they don't expect it, (B) many are Cantonese and don't even know Mandarin, and © I'm afraid if I start saying some simple phrase they will take it as I am fluent and start spouting off in Mandarin, which would not work out for someone only studying a year.

[xiaomawang]

1x years ago just graduated from the college, I went to European (western)... The first day of my trip in a train of Paris, an old man helped me to find out my accommodation in the map. When I told him I came from HK, he change channel to Mandarin at once and said 'wo3 wu3shi2 nian2 qian2 zai4 beijing zhu4 guo4 liang3 san1 nian2, xian4zai4 zhi3 hui4 shuo1 yi1 dian3 dain3 guo2yu3'. His Mandarin was even more better than many HKese at that time. And he said Mandarin as 'guo2yu3' really impressed me.

I guess some of them think HK people do not speak Mandarin well. So they don't expect you'll give a sudden test.