Sunday, January 11, 2009

Definitely Not From China!

are you from china
Despite being surrounded by the many people in China and even trying to blend in, however, I did have some happy moments noticing others who are definitely not from China... (and you can guess where-lah):

1. This is the most obvious one. There was this group of tourists who was lead by the tour guide at the bund. He wanted a group photo and just shouted "Malaysia, Malaysia!". They even have the Malaysia flag as their symbol for easy recognition.

Maybe I should have joined in the group photo huh? :)

Other instances:
2. Indian lady & Chinese lady talk in relaxed English (and not American English).

3. A Chinese girl bumped into me, and apologised in English - "sorry".

4. A group of Chinese friends walk pass by at Xintiandi and talk in perfect English.

5. Chinese families speaking in English, once at the hotel, another at a restaurant. In one family, the children were calling 'Daddy' instead of 'Papa'.

And the 'best' one of them all:
6. A Chinese guy was trying to walk through the crowded eatery and kept saying "Excuse me". Well, of course that's a giveaway.

But wait till you hear what his Chinese lady friend says... "Just push them". Did I smirk on that one!

14 comments:

  1. hi quachee, i m here again.. next time when i go,i want to be as observant as u....

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  2. I don't know about you but when I am overseas, meeting someone from this part of the world just warms me up. Is it just me?

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  3. it feels nice right meeting people from ur own country? :D

    that got me wondering..
    how come when in malaysia, you talk.. or say hi, or smile to strangers they'll look at you with a confused look but else where in the world, those strangers are like family haha

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  4. So do I, actually feel good to see Malaysians when I'm overseas (except the over-straits Singapore :p)

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  5. I was a contract engineer in Guangzhou some years ago. There were other Malaysians. We often had dinner together. Most of us were Chinese Malaysians, but we spoke English...

    Despite being an ethnic Chinese and was able to speak Mandarin, I still didn't feel easy to blend into local society. On the other hand, it was easier to blend into American society.

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  6. Just push them? Haha!

    Last time I attended a mandarin class by a Chinese tutor from Beijing. He speaks English like an American. I wouldn't know he's from Beijing at all.

    But when he speaks in mandarin, you can definitely hear from his pronunciation he's definitely not from Malaysia or Taiwan but from Beijing. Cos he likes to speak with a lot of 'r' at the end of a word eg.

    zai na li? (where?) becomes zai nar?

    yidian dian (a little) becomes yidianr (without pronouncing the 'n')

    And of course he pronounces certain words the proper way like 'shi' (ten) and not 'si' like some Malaysian Chinese pronounce it.

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  7. Wah.. I never really notice those lor.. Maybe I should try to one day :D

    Thanks for sharing :)

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  8. hi QuaChee,

    Thanks for dropping by at my blog and for the greeting as well. It was not that I almost forgot my birthday this year, in fact every year as well.

    The circus looks amazing.

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  9. did you notice anyone speaking chinese that has our ascent? it's kinda cool catching them the way you did. XD

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  10. Aw...so you don't feel so alien after all! =)

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  11. @reanaclaire
    haha. it will be fun alright doing so! :)

    @Lisalicious
    ya, cos they push so very often too! but for someone to mention it out loud, that's something! :)

    @happysurfer
    i like too, but im afraid to say hello, cos they may get surprised and jump! :)

    @adila
    ur so right. its just our style back home not to say hi i guess. the most is a smile though that can also be weird now.

    @tien soon
    quite true. i had a discussion with a singaporean friend and she felt like you too hehe :)

    @khengsiong
    i think its hard to be accepted by the mainlanders, as they always think we are different. its just like us accepting the abcs, in a way haha.

    @foongpc
    ya, i realise they all learn american english, with the slang and all. and its not just china, but north asia :)

    @ah lost
    haha, try it, it will be fun :)

    @dr sam
    ya, if you do visit shanghai, you can consider it :)

    @levian
    not really haha. i think when we are there, we all kinda change our way of talking :)

    @tekkaus
    ya, kinda blended in actually :)

    @rw-fine-art
    thanks. nice to know u like this compilation of what i observed haha! :)

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  12. Hehehe...its quite easy to spot Malaysians in China eh? :) Old memories...

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Oh hey, thank you for commenting! :)