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China Elevator Stories
“In Europe, Every Family Owns At Least Two Cars”
One evening in September 2013, I take a motorcycle cab back to my place in Shenzhen and chat with the driver.
11/03/2014
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
The driver asks me where I need to go. I tell him the name of the nearest bus stop, which is what I usually tell cab drivers, and then get on the motorcycle.
While driving, he asks, “What’s the name of the neighborhood?” (At least, this is what I think he asked in retrospect).
I reply, “Sorry, I don’t understand. Can you say that again?”
“What neighborhood are you living in?”
“Sorry, I don’t understand.”
He responds, “I’m sorry, my Mandarin Chinese is really bad. It’s actually much worse than yours.”
“Where are you from?” I ask.
“I’m from Meizhou.”
“Guizhou?”
“Yes, Meizhou in Guangdong province.”
“Baizhou?”
He says, “Yes, Meizhou in Northern Guangdong.”
I reply, “I see.” (An epic fail at trying to understand the driver’s heavily accented Mandarin Chinese).
When we arrive at the destination, he asks,
“Are you from the US?”
“No, I’m from Europe.”
“Europe is really developed. I saw on the news that every European family owns at least two cars.”
“That’s often true for people living in the countryside. You can’t get anywhere if you don’t have a car.”
I hand him 7 Yuan and say goodbye. He thanks me and drives off into the night.
Have you ever had a similar conversation or struggled to understand someone because of their accent?
This is part of the series ‘Conversations with Locals in China,’ where I share conversations with Chinese people on my blog.