Is it Necessary to Speak Chinese in China?

你好! 我不会说中文. I can’t speak Chinese. But having lived here in Guangzhou for three years, there have been times where I couldn’t stand the language gap. Being able to speak both English and Spanish, I take for granted the ease to communicate interchangeably with people wherever I live or visit.

When I got to China, however, words as simple as “water” were not understood and things got way too complicated. Sometimes when I walk my dogs I get compliments about them (I still have no idea what they mean). I just say “谢谢“ in return, but then people try to start up a conversation. My only option is to say “我不好”, and that doesn’t even mean what I’m trying to say, which is: “我不会说中文”. I get a confused look, so I smile back at them and low-key run away from the situation.

My family and I are very interesting people and decide to not care about what random strangers think of us crazy Canadians. So what we do, as insane as it sounds, is play a ridiculous charades game. When asking for a bathroom, we rub our hands together. If we need to ask for a food with no spice, we do the “spicy” facial expression and fan our hand in front of our mouths and then shake our finger saying no. It is actually pathetic. But we get by.

Another thing about me is that I’m not exactly an “attention-seeker”, but when I step outside either with or without my family, people turn heads just to look at us.

“Is it my nose?” I think to myself. “No, it’s probably because they heard me ‘speak’ Chinese and have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about. Yeah. Probably that.” It’s honestly no big deal, it’s just a weird feeling.

Sophomore Prerna K lives in Shunde, Foshan and says that, “people often stare at me because even if they might have seen white foreigners before, they haven’t seen many Indians, like me and my family” Because she has several methods of communication always with her (friends, apps, ayi), she doesn’t feel too affected by it.

Basically, it isn’t necessary to speak Chinese here in Guangzhou, but it does help and makes it easier to get around. It doesn’t necessarily stop the stares though.