Food could be a big problem, especially for the vegetarians in China. But somehow this problem can be solved if we were able to cook our food for ourselves. For non -vegetarians, there are wide range of food items that , one can afford to eat.
When it comes to language, it is so easy. We are free to use English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil , Telugu or Bengali as we please. Everything would sound Greek and Latin at the receivng end!
It will be an overstatement if I state that no one in China knows English. There are a good number of people, especially in the younger generations, who can even correct our English. Still, in general, China is a no English zone, though many are apologetic about not knowing the language.
Communication will be the toughest task we will be facing there. Even the ones who know "a little" English can never make out Hinglish and Inglish we speak. They demand us to speak slowly so that they could understand something about what we say.
We have to complete a sentence with each word is clearly and slowly pronounced. If we are lucky, they will make out head and tail of what we said and give a response. Most of the time only action language helps. Despite all this, there are quiet a good number of Indians who can speak Chiense with agreat deal of easiness.
Never venture out in China without carrying the names of the places you stay, the places you want to visit written in Chinese language in big size. Most of the taxi drivers can not read small letters as they have poor vision! When we show the paper with the destination written on it, they really struggle to read if the size is small. This is a common problem all over China.
I used to keep all my destinations written in Chinese in big letters so that I could travel in taxis so easily. Taxis in China roam around like autorikshaws in our country. Almost every car in every city is from the Volks Wagon stable. Though we get consitent meters everywhere, there too we can come across black sheeps. All are not angels in China too!
In Harbin city, taxi drivers, after picking us from the road side, turns on the meter and moves on. If anyone on the way shows hand, they stop and take him/her along and charge the meter reading from both the parties. Still we will be paying much less than what we pay to the autorickshaws in our country.
Let us come back to English. Receptionists in the hotels, shop keepers in big shopping malls, employees in big manufacturing units and hospitals are all in the same boat. Receptionists normally spotting us immediately take out a note book and place in front of us.
Whatever we have to communicate can be written in English. They can read and understand what we write but still they may not be able to reply in English. Many times, I found myself at wits end while communicating with the receptionists of my hotel. They always give embarassing smile whenever we wanted to communicate something.
It is better we learn their language. There are so many Indians who can handle Chinese comfortably. Chair, switch, computer, car and even for the word English, they have equivalent Chinese word. We have surrenedered our mother tongue to the channel beauties and handsomes and the FM radio jokeys, who speak a language neither English nor the local dialect.
Not knowing English is never a crime. Showing off the knowledge of it and mixing it with the mother tongue is a crime. We have perfected it and perhaps converted this heady mixture into our mother tongue. I only pray, the Chinese do not learn English at the cost of their own language....Let them never learn English, for, the only edge we Indians have in the international job market at present is our knowldege in English....
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