Response to I am sorry

[L-F-J]

不要紧 is common in Shanghai, I think because it's the common response in the Shanghainese dialect.

[Radical Mandarin]

These are all good responses to sorry, hmm but why answer in a different language than the one you've been addressed in? The person used English in your example.

[Shelley]

I wanted to answer in Chinese in hopes of prompting a conversation in Chinese. Even a short 3 or 4 sentence interaction would be good practice for me.

 

The university here attracts loads of Chinese students and the shops and supermarkets are awash with young Chinese students and i just wondered If i could prompt a conversation by replying in Chinese.

 

They want to practice English and I want to practice Chinese, so we could help each other

[陳德聰]

I mean I get that some Chinese people are easy to profile from their accents, but how do you know that the person in question was Chinese and not Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.?

[Shelley]

I overheard them talking amongst themselves. There is often 没有 or 是太贵 floating through the air or other snatches of Chinese I hear, I have learnt my lesson years ago about confusing Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese etc with Chinese and unless I am 95% sure I won't try.

 

You have to imagine a largish supermarket close to a big University that has large Chinese student body. Across the road from where I live (which is not far from the campus) there are two Chinese student houses that I am aware of.

 

In the good weather they sit outside the front door and talk animatedly amongst themselves so you can't help but hear them.

[Radical Mandarin]

I believe it's an awesome idea to find a language exchange buddy, not sure though speaking Mandarin to random Asian looking people is the best method (albeit a very direct one). Imagine you come from Poland, go to China, having studied the language, address the locals in good Mandarin and they, seeing you're a foreigner, reply in English, which you may not understand at all. It'd be bound to get quite irritating after a while, you'd be asking yourself, why won't they simply reply in Mandarin?

 

If I were you, I'd look for a person that has apparently nothing to do, and say something along the lines "Excuse me, I'm learning Mandarin Chinese and looking for a language exchange partner in this area. Do you know somebody who could be interested?" Even if this person is not Chinese, they might think of somebody.

Actually, striking random conversations might still be awkward anyway (but well, I do it, if I learn languages - all the time).

 

Please don't get discouraged by my musings. Good luck finding a partner!

[Shelley]

I understand your reluctance to just start talking to anyone who looks like they might speak mandarin but i wait and see what they are talking between themselves.

 

I have once struck up a conversation in the bank when a young lady was trying to work out the difference between dependents and parents, she was asking her friend in Chinese but saying dependent and parent in English and she had a form she was trying to fill in. After much toing and froing I volunteered to help with the aid of Pleco on my phone and found out she had a son and so was her dependent not her parents as she had misunderstood.

 

She was surprised and amazed that a random person in a bank had Pleco, I explained I was learning Chinese and her friend said "of course she is, of course she is" as if it had become quite the norm.

 

I chatted to her in Chinese about her son and where her parents were and what she was studying. When my turn came I did my banking and as I left I said goodby in Chinese and they responded with a round of goodbyes in Chinese and English, we were all smiling.

 

I never saw then again and I never really expected to but it was enjoyable and I gained a bit more confidence.

 

This is all I hope or expect to happen with any other people I chat to, I am not expecting to make like long friends, although I wouldn't rule it out