Taxi drivers are one of the groups of people whom I consider both my teachers and a gauge for my mastery of the Chinese language. One: Most of them do not speak a word of English. Two: It is mighty important that they understand me. Three: They can be very entertaining. Especially when I understand what they're saying. What's good is that I seem to understand more of what's being said with each ride.
Today marks the fifth month of my stay in China, and here is my first conversation of the day:
JC: ShiZhuan.
TD: (repeated) ShiZhuan.
JC: The college.
TD: The one near LingDong?
JC: (visibly relieved) Right! Right!
TD: (looks at me strangely) You're not from TieLing?
JC: No.
TD: (looked more closely) Are you Chinese?
JC: (burst out laughing) No.
TD: Where are you from?
JC: I'm a Filipino.
TD: (muttered to himself) Oh, the Philippines. (To me) You speak Chinese very clearly.
JC: (tickled pink) Thank you!
TD: Do you study at ShiZhuan?
JC: No, I teach.
TD: Teach what?
JC: English.
TD: A foreign teacher. I didn't know TieLing has a foreign teacher.
JC: (thought of asking him how long he's been driving his taxi. How could he not know? There are other foreign teachers who look foreign. Decided against it.)
TD: How long have you been here?
JC: Five months.
TD: Where were you before? (But he said it in such a way that I wasn't sure if I got it right.)
JC: (making sure) Before coming to TieLing, where else in China?
TD: Right.
JC: Just TieLing.
TD: From the Philippines, you came straight to TieLing?
JC: Right.
TD: Your Chinese is really good.
JC: Thanks! I studied PuTongHua in the Philippines. Since I was really young.
TD: But your PuTongHua doesn't sound like PuTongHua. It sounds like (didn't understand this part. Sounds like "FangYian").
JC: Whats "FangYian"?
TD: It's the local language of a place here.
JC: My parents' parents were from the Fujian Province. (I didn't know how to say grandparents. I asked my students and it turned out there's no word for grandparents, just grandfather and grandmother. I knew how to say those! :p)
TD: (delighted) Oh! So that's why! Your PuTongHua sounds similar to the way people there speak.
JC: They speak MinNanHua.
TD: Right!
JC: But you're saying that my PuTongHua sounds similar to the way they would speak PuTongHua?
TD: Right.
JC: I wouldn't know. Maybe.
Sigh. You win some, you lose some. My students found this story really funny. :p
