Language problems while traveling to China?

[wmikun]

Hi, I would like to ask people traveling to China whether it is a problem for them that they don't understand what is written "around them" while in China? Which situations cause most trouble? I am preparing myself for a trip and would greatly appreciate any advice on what to equip myself with in order to easily get around China. Are mobile text recognition&translation applications any useful? Thanks!

[eshton]

From what I've seen of urban China you shouldn't have problems handling signs etc., most of them carry an English translation. However you should need to speak to locals you might have some difficulties depending on where you are. The best mobile app I've seen is Pleco (available for Android and Ios) I believe there is a translator for Windows Phones but I'm not sure about the name.

[abcdefg]

Are mobile text recognition&translation applications any useful?

Yes. They would be helpful, especially in smaller cities and towns.

Take a phrase book as well. Even if you don't say things right, you can point to what you need and locals will be able to read it and understand the Chinese.

Which situations cause most trouble?

Be sure to have addresses of restaurants, tourist destinations and such written out by your hotel in Chinese. Taxi drivers won't understand English. Same for buying train, bus, or even airplane tickets.

Be mentally prepared for some mistakes when ordering food. Try to keep a flexible mental attitude; if you are too rigid, you will be constantly irritated.

[大肚男]

if.you're going to major cities, I would recommend buying a booklet with the major attractions in English and Chinese. the first time I went there, one of my friends had something like that, and it was a god send, all we had to do is to show it to cab drivers and we would be on our way

[wmikun]

Thanks guys for all your advice. What about situations like hospital for example? How well can you get around if you can't read Chinese? I am considering to buy the commercial version of one of the mobile text scanning mobile translators, like Pleco mentioned by Eshton. Does anyone have experience with using this kind of tools? 15 $ in not a huge investment, but I would like it to be money well spent

[ChTTay]

The advice above is dead on. I travelled on my own through China in 2009 with just a phrase book. At that time, I just had a Nokia phone (no recognition apps etc).

I was "backpacking" and found many of the hostel directions would miss out key information. It's always best to have the name and address in Chinese with you of the place you are staying for when the directions turn out to be useless.

If you do end up staying in hostel type places, have a look at all the leaflets they have out front (usually) advertising hostels in other cities. YHA / Hostelling International places usually do this. I would leave one hostel have a Chinese/English leaflet (often with address, map and directions) on it for my next destination. Proved very useful.

Be prepared to get lost too but don't worry about it. I just got used to it. If you are so utterly and completely lost you can always get a taxi back to somewhere you know (if you have the Chinese on paper!). I also found that, when I got lost, a Chinese person usually helped me out eventually. Maybe I was lucky though.

The list of attractions in Chinese is a good idea. I had a phrase book which helped a lot. If i took a bus to the train station, only to find the station wasn't in sight and there were no signs, I would just keep pointing at the Chinese so people could point me the right way.

Good luck!

[abcdefg]

What about situations like hospital for example? How well can you get around if you can't read Chinese?

If you get sick and need hospital care, take a Chinese-speaking friend. There's much more involved than just reading signs; the systems of registration, getting seen by the doctor, and paying for things are quite different from the west. You will need help with this process. An app on a smartphone won't be enough.

[smurese]

Here are a couple of things to help you out:

Learn Chinese Through Street Signs, from mtsu.edu - finding accommodation, at the train station, emergencies, at the hospital etc. - sounds like it would fit your kind of need.

There is also a free Chinese travel phrasebook, from wikitravel.org, which is quite substantial.

Both these resources for you were taken from [ http://learnchineseo...ee-lessons.html ], hundreds upon hundreds of free Chinese conversation lessons to choose from there - might be a free way to learn a little (or a lot) before your China trip (look for Reading and Writing on the website if you think you might want that too). Have a great trip! Where are you going?

[tyedi]

If you have a phone app where you can hand write chinese characters, that would be especially useful since if you need to translate something you can write the character down and translate it.

[zhouhaochen]

I first traveled China for 3 months in 2002, without a word of Chinese and none of those mobile applications (I didnt actually own a mobile phone back then) and it worked just fine with a phrasebook. In fact, I think I would have missed out on a lot of quite funny situations had I been able to look up every single word all the time.

The only ones that I thought essential where 男 and 女 so you know which toilet to use.