Talking past one another
Tonight I was in a taxi cab, heading back to the Chinese border from Hong Kong after narrowly missing the last bus from the Elements mall. I was pleased to pass that same bus after only being in the cab a few minutes, and the speed with which we arrived at the border almost made up for the cab fare being three times the cost of bus tickets.
I had a brief exchange with the cab driver after he confirmed that, yes, I really did want to go to Mainland China. Neither of us spoke English to one another in these few sentences. I was thinking about how funny this conversation would be if there were English subtitles provided. One potential translation is as follows.
Cab Driver: Do you live in Shenzhen? Do you speak Chinese?
Me: No, I'm sorry. I only speak Chinese.
While confusing in English, this would not be an inaccurate interpretation of what we both said. Of course, he asked me in Cantonese, and I replied to him in Mandarin. Fortunately he spoke a little Mandarin. I could explain to him why that was much more useful in Shenzhen than Cantonese as Shenzhen is the city of Hunanren, Jiangxiren, Sichuanren, Hubeiren, etc.
Once in a while I meet a Chinese person in the US from Guangdong province or Hong Kong that are still surprised (and even disappointed) that living in Shenzhen I cannot speak or even understand Cantonese. This was the first time I had someone actually living in Hong Kong surprised to hear that I am much more familiar with Mandarin. However, if you do the math, it is easy to understand. Thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a city of less than 50,000. Today, even with China's tight controls on birthrate, the city has more than 10,000,000. These people came from somewhere, and that somewhere is everywhere else in China. I can hear all kinds of hometown languages and regional accents on the streets, but generally, Mandarin is the language we speak in Shenzhen.
I had a brief exchange with the cab driver after he confirmed that, yes, I really did want to go to Mainland China. Neither of us spoke English to one another in these few sentences. I was thinking about how funny this conversation would be if there were English subtitles provided. One potential translation is as follows.
Cab Driver: Do you live in Shenzhen? Do you speak Chinese?
Me: No, I'm sorry. I only speak Chinese.
While confusing in English, this would not be an inaccurate interpretation of what we both said. Of course, he asked me in Cantonese, and I replied to him in Mandarin. Fortunately he spoke a little Mandarin. I could explain to him why that was much more useful in Shenzhen than Cantonese as Shenzhen is the city of Hunanren, Jiangxiren, Sichuanren, Hubeiren, etc.
Once in a while I meet a Chinese person in the US from Guangdong province or Hong Kong that are still surprised (and even disappointed) that living in Shenzhen I cannot speak or even understand Cantonese. This was the first time I had someone actually living in Hong Kong surprised to hear that I am much more familiar with Mandarin. However, if you do the math, it is easy to understand. Thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a city of less than 50,000. Today, even with China's tight controls on birthrate, the city has more than 10,000,000. These people came from somewhere, and that somewhere is everywhere else in China. I can hear all kinds of hometown languages and regional accents on the streets, but generally, Mandarin is the language we speak in Shenzhen.
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