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Hahaha! I remember when I was in China (and learning some Mandarin), one of the first phrases we learnt was "your calculator must be broken" because in any of t
by mijoharas 5y ago
Hahaha! I remember when I was in China (and learning some Mandarin), one of the first phrases we learnt was "your calculator must be broken" because in any of the markets people would type numbers into a calculator to show you a price. Saying that in Chinese with a laugh definitely saved a fair few yuan over time (it didn't hurt that they were surprised enough at a westerner speaking Chinese that it got a bit cheaper anyways).
- nicolas_t 5y agoHa! Yup, I used that, the other trick is to learn the local dialect (Shanghainese in my case) and ask for it to be cheaper in the local dialect. That only really worked though 18 years ago when a bigger percentage of people spoke Shanghainese in Shanghai
- mijoharas 5y agoHahaha! This was actually in Shanghai that I learnt this first! (Though hadn't picked up on the shanghainese trick, which sounds very smart)
- baby 5y agoI would go back and forth between vendors who were selling the same thing, and try to lower the last price I got. At some point you'd reach some sort of floor where nobody would bulge. You'd really know you made a deal if the vendor would be upset at you even though you were buying, and you knew you got ripped off if the vendor had a huge smile and made conversation after you bought.