One thing that has become interesting as I
move farther south are the changes in accent or dialects that people are
speaking. It seems to be pretty hit or
miss on whether or not I will be able to understand what they are saying. Although my general rule of the older they
are the harder to understand seems to be holding true.
In JianShui an older man came by to talk
to me while I was cleaning and tuning my bike and I couldnt understand him for
anything. Now looking back I realize
part of the problem was that he was only saying two words, sai che (赛车) which
means like "race". I looked at
him and asked in Chinese "are you speaking chinese?" To which he
replied he was a Chinese person. But it
was not until a younger guy, maybe 35-40, came by and repeated the statement
before I could grasp what he was saying.
By this time the older man had lost interest and walked on his way. I guess pointing at a bike and saying "race"
is enough for some places, but it was far too late by the time i realized what
he was trying to say.
For the most part now I can get 0-50% of
what is being said. It varies. But its good practice because in a couple
days no one is going to be speaking any form of Chinese, Ill be in
Vietnam. Then communication will be limited
to charades, phone dictionaries and luck.
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