Personally,language power stuggle may be a problem related to most foreigners who want to learn Chinese in China.
I have posted an article in my blog about it. And now I would like to talk about how to cope with it.
In brief, language power stuggle for you guys is that a English speaker wants to practice Chinese, while the Chinese guy who CAN speak English wants to practice English.And finally the conversation will end up with unhappiness.
That's one of the reasons that a Chinese guy who speaks English well but knows nothing about teaching Chinese as a second language cannot be your Chinese teacher.He/she is so enthusiastic to make friends with foreigners because Chinese college students spent about 10 years on average to learn English but most of them have no chance to speak English.They will try their best to seize such a rare chance to talk to you in English.
It can also explain why a lot of language exchange ended up with a "goodbye".Language exchange may seem to be a nice way to practice your Chinese. But it must be under strict control by some rules like:first hour English only and second hour Chinese only.It is difficult to carry out between two individules.
I've been doing a lot of thinking to come up with who are nice for you guys to practice your oral Chinese. And my basic conclusion is that a guy has to be like this:
1.He/she doesn't speak English or only speaks a little English.
2.He/she has a lot of time.
3.His/her job is boring and he would like to talk to kill time.
Till now, I can only think of 3 types of people who are possible to be your parter:
1.Gate keepers 2.Taxi drivers 3.Receptionists
You can start a conversation with"Shi1fu, ni3hao3"(for a gate keeper or a taxi driver) or "xiao3jie3, ni3hao3"(for a female receptionist)," Wo3 xiang3 gen1 ni3 liao2tian1.(I would like to chat with you)" Most of them would be glad to talk to you.
By the way, I would like to tell you about the true meaning of "Shi1fu" and "xiao3jie3".
"Shi1fu" is not a "master" in most dictionaries, it means a middle-aged male manual worker to Chinese people.It is very important to call them "shi1fu" when you are in a taxi. A German student told me that he yelled "Ting2"(Stop) for many times until he called the driver "shi1fu" ,then the driver knew that he was speaking Chinese and stopped the taxi.
Normallly, "xiao3jie3" means "Miss".You may address most young women with it. But it also means "prostitute" in some special situations. It means "prostitute" when it is emphasized like "Ta1 shi4 yi2ge4 XIAO3JIE3".
