You might have been in a situation before where you have gone to China or you start speaking to a Chinese friend in Chinese, and they reply:
“Wow, your Chinese is SO GOOD. It must be so hard to learn Chinese.”
In English.
And then before you know it, you start having a conversation in English about how you are so good at Chinese (even though you don’t think you’re that great at it; you might have just said a couple of simple words..)
And the whole reason you wanted to learn Chinese was to be able to have conversations with people in the language, not to have conversations in English about learning Chinese…
You start to feel frustrated because you think you’ve ‘wasted’ an opportunity to practise Chinese, and the longer you continue in English, the harder it seems to switch back.
In general, Chinese people are very willing to speak their language with foreigners, and they are very forgiving when you make mistakes.
However, not everybody in all situations will want to speak Chinese to you, and the situation I’ve described above can easily happen…
In this post I want to break down some of the reasons why people will speak English back to (specifically in China), and then talk about some of the solutions to get you back on track.
Let’s get into it.
The reasons
1. The other person’s job or the situation would normally require them to speak English
This one normally applies if you are traveling to China or a Chinese speaking country as part of a trip, activity or on business. Your host will expect you to speak English and they will expect to have to speak English to you.
Therefore, when you start speaking Chinese, they will have to change their expectations, and it may seem quite unnatural to them.
2. They are a student studying English or an English teacher
It can be (but by no means always) difficult to practise Chinese with people who are actively studying English.
It really depends on how keen they are on speaking the language. If they are really enthusiastic about English, they are likely to want to practise it.
3. They are trying to impress you, or other people around you
This happens a lot in China. The other person may not want to speak English to improve their ability or for personal satisfaction, but to make a good impression on their friends, their boss, their partner, or anyone else who happens to be there at the time.
In this kind of situation, it can be better to let them speak a bit of English just so you don’t embarrass them, or make them ‘lose face’, as it would be described in Chinese.
If they are speaking English to you to make a good impression on you, then you should also recognise their good intent.
4. They see it as a rare opportunity to improve their English
Some people in China, especially in the small towns and cities, may hardly come into contact with any English speakers, so see it as a rare opportunity to practise English on them whenever they get the chance.
Sometimes however, this can just be a few words or sentences, and when it is, then you can just respond politely.
5. You are in an English speaking country
I wanted to put this one in here, just to let you know that it can be harder to practise Chinese with Chinese speakers in English speaking countries.
They may have never spoken to somebody in that country in Chinese before, so would just ‘automatically’ respond in English, or they might find it very strange.
It depends on the other person’s situation. If they haven’t been abroad long, they might welcome the opportunity to speak to somebody in their own language, but if they have been abroad for years, they might find it more natural to speak English than Chinese.
6. They find it hard to understand you, or they think it would be easier to communicate in English
It can be really disheartening to try to practise your Chinese only to find that the other person can’t understand what you’re trying to say.
It happens mostly with people whose English is much better than your Chinese, in which case it can be difficult to ‘compete’. People whose English is less good might make more effort to try to understand you before switching to English.
And on a simpler level, it can be because of your pronunciation, your word order, or simply because you remembered something wrong. In any case, it happens. So don’t let it get to you.
The solutions
1. Make friends who don’t speak English or whose English is less good than your Chinese
The title of this one says it all really. The ultimate language practice is total immersion, with somebody who doesn’t speak your language at all, and if you are in the country and you can find people like that, then perfect.
The second best option are people who may only speak a little bit of your language, or are not really interested in it, so it would be easy to switch the conversation into Chinese.
2. Ask them politely in Chinese if they can speak their language to you
In many situations, this is possibly the politest option. Even saying something simple like,
“我们可以说中文吗？” wǒmen kěyǐ shuō zhōngwén ma? (can we speak Chinese?)
could be enough. If you’re a bit better at the language, you could try to explain why or justify it a bit more. Unless the other person is really intent on speaking English, this one will usually work.
3. Compliment them on their English – in Chinese
This is basically the situation I described at the top of the article, but in reverse. Instead of being complimented about how good your Chinese is in English, do the same to the other person in Chinese!
It’s a very polite way of making the point that you want to speak Chinese, because it makes the other person feel good about themselves, instead of discouraging them.
You could say something like:
“哇，你的英文说得真好！” wā, nǐ de yīngwén shuō de zhēn hǎo!
(Wow, your English is really good!), and then try to continue in Chinese.
It can work.
4. Offer to do a language exchange or speak both languages
For those who are more inclined to negotiate, this one can work well. It’s a kind of ‘deal’, where you speak English for 1 hour then Chinese for 1 hour, or half a day or whatever.
The only disadvantage is you might not want to make such a long sacrifice just to speak some Chinese.
5. Pretend you don’t speak English
In the eyes of a lot of Chinese people, anybody who is not Chinese or Asian must be an English speaker.
But, that’s not always true.
And even if you do speak English really, you can still pretend. Obviously this only works for complete strangers, not friends or people you need to build up trust with.
You might speak another language anyway, so this one will be easy for you. But if not, you could have a phrase up your street, to make it doubly clear.
One that I used to use back in the day was:
Я не понимаю, я не говорю по-английски, я русский
(I can’t understand, I don’t speak English, I’m Russian).
But you can use any language apart from English. It works pretty well.
6. Simply persist in speaking Chinese (helps if your Chinese is a bit better)
In some situations, it could help to be persistent, and carry on speaking or replying in Chinese.
The danger is that you’ll be considered rude, but if you are in a place where the language is spoken, and you started the conversation off in that language, then it would also make sense.
Obviously it requires a slightly better level of Chinese to be able to pull this off, and if the other person is much better at English then it might not be possible. But if anything, it’s a good motivation to continue to improve your Chinese so you can hold your own in situations like this!
7. Try to socialise in a group where there are more Chinese speakers
When you are in a position where you are in a group of Chinese people and you are the only non-Chinese speaker, it will be easier to tip the balance towards Chinese.
If your friend or host has to do everything in Chinese apart from the things they say to you, they could easily get tired or isolated from the rest of the group, so if you could contribute in Chinese you would be making it easier for them.
Even if you can’t understand a lot of the conversation, you might still find something to add, or you could get some listening practice.
Increasingly I’m finding myself in this kind of situation, so the conversation naturally gravitates towards Chinese.
8. Disregard it and find other people to talk to later who can’t speak English
When people speak back to me in English now (which doesn’t happen that often any more) this is the option that I usually choose.
If the other person is a complete stranger and you’re only going to be having the conversation for a moment, then it could be much easier to just respond in English, not worry about it, and then move on to find somebody who will speak Chinese to you later.
Move on, and don’t get discouraged!
When you are learning a language and you’ve been building yourself up to practise it for a long time, there can be no bigger discouragement than the other person speaking back to you in English.
Because many people think this just happens because their Chinese is ‘really bad’ or the other person ‘couldn’t understand at all’.
But as you can see, there are loads of different reasons why this can happen, and everybody and every situation is different.
So, if this happens to you, then even if you feel discouraged, the best thing to do is to not overthink the situation, and if you really can’t switch the conversation into Chinese, then just move on, not overthink the situation, and try to find another opportunity to practise the language.