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At the moment, the kind of Chinese you would want to talk to, almost always speaks English.(Except when you are sourcing parts in Shenzhen)
by oceanman888 9y ago
At the moment, the kind of Chinese you would want to talk to, almost always speaks English.(Except when you are sourcing parts in Shenzhen)
- thaumasiotes 9y agoMy exposure to Chinese people is heavily biased towards (1) highly educated youth who (2) feel like talking with foreigners. Despite that, it's very clear that this extremely selected population displays the full range of English ability, from native-level proficiency through near-total inability to speak or understand. Drop down to students at a merely second-tier university, or people a little older, or top-tier students who don't bother to approach foreigners because they know there's no hope, and you'll find people with even less English than that.
- oceanman888 9y agoNot considering Chinese who spend majority of his life outside of china, Ones overall competence correlates with the mastery of English. Bad English means: My parents neglected or could not pay for good education. Sadly this is some-what true for this generation.
- thaumasiotes 9y agoCorrelates, yes. But one of the best students I've met, who in a mock visa interview answered the question "it costs a lot of money to live in America. Can you afford it?" with "we have a hundred million RMB", was basically unable to function in conversation. (In the same interview, which was meant to be conducted in English, more than three quarters of her responses were just "什么意思？".) Some people aren't interested in learning languages. Some people have tremendous difficulty.
- whorleater 9y agoWhat is "the kind of Chinese you would want to talk to"?