Imitating a Foreign Accent in Chinese

Scratch that, the "Do you live in China?" part.... I see that you are in Aus.

bababa, here's the basic formula of the joke: The Chinese person will speak to the foreigner in Chinese... BUT... he or she will intentionally use all fourth tones. It usually gets a big laugh out of their Chinese friends. In the north of China I almost never experience. They'll correct me if I use the right tone, which I appreciate, but they won't crack jokes and mock me (generally speaking)...

Mark, have you ever mocked someone to their face for not speaking English with a natural accent? I sure haven't, and I haven't seen this in the US. This whole 'mocking' thing is nothing new. Last time I went home I talked to an old friend of mine, born and raised in India, moved to the US later and married, that used to work in the United Nations (he's retired now). We talked about life abroad. He asked, "how do you like living there?" I said, "It's generally ok, I can adapt well, but they have this really bad habit of mocking and making fun of foreigners speaking English." He told me that this phenomenon is common in most countries around the world, but much less common in the West because we are a nation of immigrants. When Yao Ming first joined the NBA, Shaq made a joke when asked about him and Shaq replied something like, "Tell Yao I said 'ching chong chung ching'." Shaq made a stupid joke, no doubt, but he got BLASTED for it, and had Yao Ming wished, he could have taken him to court over the 'bad joke'. From my experience, and in my opinion, we don't tolerate this type of behavior much in the West, or the USA at least. To be fair, I have not yet visited any other Western countries for any period of time.

It's sort of a common joke in China actually, to imitate the foreigners' accents. As far as I can see, it started to really become a 'popular joke' during the 2008 Chinese New Year gala on TV when Xiao Shen Yang said, “我的中文名字叫：小沈阳； 我的英文名字叫小沈阳儿” and he said it with very incorrect tones. Since then it's become commonplace in China to do this. I am absolutely shocked that you haven't experienced this. Do you live in China?

In the U.S., I think we don't have much patience for people who can't speak English well. Most of us haven't tried very hard to learn a foreign language, think not speaking English well is some kind of birth defect, and some of us are pretty quick to mock. So, I don't think your experience is unique to southern China.

lishuai1981,

thanks for your interesting comment

"They'd intentionally use the wrong tones when speaking"

..wa, I've never heard this one before. I like to read more discussion on this. Has anyone else noticed this? Apart from the tones, was there anything else that led you to believe they were actually mocking you? Is it possible that something else was going on? [eg perhaps they were impressed with your zhongwen and were just testing it. Did you notice their tones were different[correct] when they spoke amongst each other?]. What do you think is the reason behind the mocking? ...eg. were they imitating you if you messed up your tones? would they laugh? was it lighthearted fun or mean in spirit? what role is culture playing here? [ie is there some sort of cultural misunderstanding?]..interested to hear more and if others have noticed this and where. thanks again for your comment. Interesting.

I googled 'languages of India' and came up with a list as long as my arm. Is English the lingua franca, or 普通话 of India, or do you have something like a home-grown variety ?

Apologies if you are actually a Red Indian.

Interestingly though, if you go to silk street in Beijing, the merchants there can rattle off any number of 'Western' (maybe non-Asian sounds better) languages - most notably Russian, and well...not even I could recognise the other languages - Spanish? French? Italian...

hey simplet, a video reminded me of you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40rcOPAjtp0&feature=share

She was doing an impersonation of a student who studied in Paris, but yet speaks all this English. At the end they finally told her that she should be speaking French, not English lol

To be fair to the Chinese, in South America a lot of the movies and TV shows are Hollywood movies, just dubbed in the local language ;)

but yeah I laughed at what you posted, because it's true. I asked a little kid in China what language do Swiss people speak and he answered English, of course. My German co-worker who was an English teacher in China played a game with students on what languages people from certain countries speak and they would always answer 英语。

I'm pretty sure chinese people believe English is the 普通话 of the western world. Every interaction I had with chinese people on the subject in China leads me to believe that they think other western languages are like "dialects" but that the official western language that everybody has to speak is English. I posted a request for a lesson on the chinese attitude toward english, because I think it'd be very interesting to have some info on that.

Seems to me that most chinese consider western culture as a block, with english-speaking culture at the center of it. If you're a continental european, and I suspect it's the same if you're from south america and look white enough, they will talk to you about Hollywood movies and Shakespeare plays as if they were talking about your personnal cultural heritage.

me: 不会说英语

他：诶？你是不是外国人？

me："除了英语，我们外国人说别的语言“

I remember I had to say that in Hangzhou

and it's kind of funny, because they think all foreigners speak English, but at the same time when I tell them that from Mexico down to Argentina everyone speaks Spanish, except for Brazil, they can't believe that such a large region all speak the same language. and yes, I know Belize speaks English and Suriname speaks Dutch, but I just told them that to make it easier.

haha I only walked in to the Starbucks in the Beijing just to see what kind of things they have compared to the States, not to buy anything, but the point is he actually greeted me in Chinese.

Even at 7-11 in Taipei, the guy working there knew how to say "fifteen" and later on, the bus driver knew how to say "thank you" both of which would never happen in Mainland China. Then there was a guy on the subway who told me, "Excuse me sir, I would like to get off the train." I guess compared to Mainland China that is a high level of English to me.

The only exception is Shanghai, where generally you can find a lot of young people who can speak English. Even still, they assume you can and expect you to speak Chinese. Not so much the case in Taiwan.

I'm not saying that everyone, or even most people are fluent in English in Taipei, after all, I did have to speak Chinese at the bank and at the post office, but you just have to work a *little* bit harder at it. That's all

Interesting that so many people are having a frustrating time learning Chinese in Taiwan. I find very few situations when I am out and about where people speak English to me once they know I can speak a little Chinese. The general population seem quite relieved actually. Then there are the older generation who are less likely to know any English at all and love to have a natter with a foreigner.

Maybe it is more about where you go. Starbucks is a bit pricey for me when 7-11 does the same job :) Also I assume places such as this, burger king etc will attract a lot of expats and tourists looking for a familiar taste and an easy order.

I think what I am trying to say is if you go to places that are popular tourist areas or shops/places that are popular with the expats, you can probably expect to hear more English.

yep, and I think a lot of lazy foreign expats who are not willing to study Chinese keep up that reputation that we are all like that. I'll spare the tourists from any 坏话

My short visit in Taiwan made me realize it wasn't the best place for me to study Chinese. Even at the starbucks in the Beijing airport they spoke to me in Chinese first, same for the airport in Shenzhen. snowball's chance in hell in Taipei.

but if one really likes Taiwan he or she can still be hopeful to get plenty of Chinese practice there. I did meet a lot of young people there who were relieved that I could speak Chinese and they didn't "have to" speak English.

feixiangxiaoniao, I appreciate what you're saying, and I understand that many native speakers speak Chinese "to help" the foreigner who probably doesn't speak Chinese very well.

I do appreciate that, but I have a problem when I speak Chinese first, then the native speaker speaks English, then I speak Chinese again, then the native speaker speaks English again, and so forth. After all, in China or Taiwan, the native language is Chinese. In my opinion, if a foreigner can speak Chinese (even sub-par Chinese), it is disrespectful to continue speaking English to them when they continue to speak Chinese. I don't think anyone wins the English-Chinese back-and-forth tennis match. If you're in an English-speaking country, speak English. If you're in a Chinese-speaking country, speak Chinese.

I hate to admit it, but many Taiwanese do look at foreigners and see nothing but a big English target. I'm all for swapping English for Chinese with my Taiwanese friends, but I want to become friends with someone based on mutual respect and not on "what can I get from you?"

I've thought a lot about this issue.

Some Chinese folks think that it's a sign of respect when they use English in conversation, whereas a lot of foreigners automatically assume it as belittling them. I think that kind of ego in a conversation is unnecessary.

I can speak 五彩缤纷雄辩滔滔 Mandarin but if someone is capable of using full blown playful English I'm more than happy to go along with that. The language is there

I have had a few people saying they want to make friends for the sake of learning English (once culminating in a rather angry rally of texts) but this seems to part of the modern notion of a friend economy and networking were relationships exist in the plane of merely having a usage or function.

I think a lot of people in China would love the opportunity to study English abroad but that doesn't have the chance to realised for everyone. So in the these conversations using the fact you're in China to study seems a little inconsiderate (and I find a good deal of the people the want to speak English are such students)

ah, the language power struggle is can be particularly annoying. I did however find the intermediate podcast on the subject to be greatly helpful, because unless somebody is particularly enthusiastic about speaking english, they will generally, after a while, give up and speak back to you in chinese.

I am in Taipei, and the incidence of this struggle here is much more prevalent than what I experienced during my time in the mainland. However, I think just honesty about your purpose for coming to the county：不好意思，麻煩你我來臺灣就是為了學好中文，你可以說中文嗎？ and hanging out with locals are both well received and tend to help. I have foreign friends whose chinese is at such an level that they will only review complex articles in chinese, and I think at times he has told people 別小看我的中文能力。I have been pissed and almost asked 你怎麼假定你英文比我中文說得好？ but then I remember just how polite the people are here, and how they just want to help me.

Honestly getting pissed is useless, it's like getting pissed at all the scooters here for being annoying dicks haha, but I doing think sincerity will be well received.

Outside of some areas of Shanghai and ONLY Shanghai, the language power struggle was not an issue as far as mainland China goes. Hong Kong was a British colony, and people in Macau don't speak a lot of Mandarin. In Taipei I did have to put up a bit of a fight.

I say that accents just sound "foreign" to them, because When I would speak to my friend from England, they couldn't tell the difference between our accents. Also, an average Chinese guy asked me to translate an "English" song for him, and I couldn't, because it was in German. The separation between the West and China has been a pretty big one, my friend. You would be correct in guessing the "less awareness" option. Another thing too, generally speaking, English words may as well be what Chinese characters are to most Westerners. It's almost as if they think each word is a Chinese character and either you know it or you don't. They don't even try to sound it out.

speaking of awareness, I just barely learned to distinguish a Vietnamese accent when speaking Mandarin, Cantonese (sort of), or English. Again, only because I had a Vietnamese classmate last quarter who would speak all three.

"the language power struggle was a non-issue"

..really? Was that in more rural areas? Is it more of an issue in the big smoke? Mind you, as above, I was really just sharing my musings and how I arrived at my question of how to imitate a foreign accent in Chinese. While it does interest me on the one hand, on the other hand I'm not concerned with language power struggle as I'm sure there's ample opportunity to practice in China.

"I think most accents just sound "foreign" to Chinese people and not really that distinguishable"

..interesting comment, though it somehow doesn't surprise me. In English, I usually have a very good idea where the accent is coming from [though I confess, I wouldn't be so flash on distinguishing some Asian accents either...I guess it depends on which one and how much exposure I've had and how strong the accent]. So I'm wondering if Chinese makes it inherently harder to pick the accent, or if there's just less awareness. Perhaps more the latter?

"I can do a Cantonese accent too, but does that really count as "foreign"?"

..I think any accent you can put on is cool. Whether you could pass as Cantonese may be a different question....depends how well you can pull it off I guess, but they're obviously much more likely to be clued in to that one.

Thanks orangina. Interesting observations.

"Just listen to some French people speaking Chinese?"

...good idea in theory, but while there must be heaps of them, I've never met any round these parts [ I wonder how many native French speakers there are in Brisbane who have started learning some Mandarin...probably not that many I suspect]. Maybe I just need to get out more, hehe. I'll try googling it later.

I've heard a few French speaking people speak Chinese and from my perspective, they just seem to have less of a foreign accent than English speaking people. That's not to say a French accent and a Mandarin accent are the same, just that I think some of the Mandarin sounds are easier for people who speak French, such as zh, and the umlauted u.

Just listen to some French people speaking Chinese? Or you could just speak English in a French accent and then just switch over

Andrew, 好久不见啊！ Great to see you mate.

"and their accents"

...oh yeah, I meant to throw that in to my question...just how clued in are they to Foreign accents? Of course this is a big generalisation and I guess will often come down to the individual. But am I right in thinking that domestic tourism dwarfs foreign tourism amongst Chinese? I guess it will come down to how much exposure they've had to the various accents. I wonder if they stick out as much in Chinese as they do in English.

"Even if you're French, they'd still rather speak English to you than have to speak Chinese to you"

...I meant a non-English speaking French person, if there be such a thing these days.

yeah if I think of that I can just imagine someone saying "Lynn" with a really strong accent. I think saying "lean" in a New Zealand accent would sound better haha

On that note, I had a funny moment of recognition the other day in class when I slipped into my good ol' Kiwi accent when saying 林. To the teacher it sounded more like 冷 (or something else with the pinyin 'e' vowel), since apparently I'm pretty guttural with my vowels. It reminded me if the whole "fush and chups" vs "feesh and cheeps" joke, and gave me a chuckle.

I've never heard a New Zealand accent in Chinese. Come to think of it, I'm struggling to think of hearing anyone speaking Chinese that wasn't a native. If you're feeling generous, you could post a short mp3 as a new post in this new group I've set up today:

http://chinesepod.com/community/groups/view/speaking-practice-1585

..even better if we could hear your impersonations of the other accents.

Yeah, I think the New Zealand one is the funniest for me just because it's based on what I've heard some other students sound like, I hope I don't sound toooo much like them.

"I think I could do a New Zealand, American, British and maybe Australian accent speaking Chinese"

..impressive ! I'd love to hear everyone speaking Chinese normally and then speaking trying to put on these various accents. And then I'd like to hear the real deal to see how they compare. I think it'd be both interesting and fun.