most embarrassing moment while learning Chinese

[aurora-kid]

I didn't have really embarassing moments in China. Once I used 京城 for capital, and my language partner laughed at me and then told me that was really wenyanwen, and that I should use 首都.

In theinternet，you can use 帝都 for capital，魔都 for Shanghai. Many young people like to use the word 天朝 for China

[Koxinga]

I just accidentally typed 失身么 instead of 是什么 and it was quite embarassing.

Gotta love ibus-pinyin and its suggestions.

[scoff]

Worst was definitely during my first study abroad semester in China. I wasn't very conscious of tones and during an exercise realized I'd forgotten to bring my pencil case. Naturally I walked up to my sweet middle aged teacher and asked, "老师，我可以用你的B吗？" Wasnt until about a year and a half later that I figured out why she gave me such a strange look. I thought Chinese teachers were just stingy with their pens!

[driftman]

it was in a shop and involved me wanting to buy a 笔 and getting the tone wrong...

[mnanon]

In class (40 students?) instead of asking: are you a teacher? I asked: 我是不是老师？

[LanLiBei]

When my chinese class started we all asked the teacher to translate our chinese names. I was fairly happy with mine, Rebekah Lyon to 兰丽倍。 we had a very limited level of chinese atthe time and some people decided to translate their own, Lauren became 老人 and ben was 本, which isnt so bad until he voices an opinion and you tell him to shut up becuase he's a measure word

[tooironic]

Still, Ben is indeed commonly translated as 本.

At least he didn't choose 笨.

[danny1997]

My friend Mary is French and has been living in shanghai for one year. She told me recently that she can speak chinese now. For example, just to make sure that a dish was not spicy, she asked: la3 ma? (= 喇嘛???)

While I was wondering what she wanted to say exactly, my daughter, whose mother tongue is French and who can speak only a little bit Chinese, laughed loudly. She told me that Mary was asking: la4 ma? 辣吗?

Well, it's quite difficult for me to understand French people speaking Chinese with wrong tones. But there is no problem at all for my daughter since she is just like them speaking Chinese with strange tones!

[Adam_CLO]

When I first got to Small Town, Taiwan, I would frequent McDonalds often, since it was one of the few places I knew with English menus. However I still had to place my order in Chinese - I could point to the dish I wanted, but the cashier would bombard me with several questions after that, that I didn't understand. Fortunately I could just think back to what types of questions they would ask me at McDonalds in Canada and I usually got it right.

Cashier: Bla bla bla?

Me: wàidài (to go)

Cashier: Bla bla kělè ma?

Me: Duì, kělè (yes, I want a Coke)

Invariably I got it right, until one day the cashier asked me a question I wasn't expecting:

Cashier: Bla bla bla (do you want to upsize your fries)?

Me: wàidài (to go)

Cashier: (Confused look). Bla bla bla (Ok, but do you want to upsize your fries)?

Me: kělè?

Needless to say, that was good motivation for me to improve my Chinese.

[外国赤佬]

Do they say 外带 over there in Taiwan? In Standard Chinese you're supposed to say 带走 or 打包.

[danny1997]

In Taiwan, they say 内用還是外帶 ? = dine in or take away?

打包带走 means : take le rest home in a doggy bag.

[Adam_CLO]

danny1997 has it right. 外带 is pretty common, along with 带走.

[外国赤佬]

“内用还是外带”听起来太别扭了。我们这儿说“在这儿吃还是带走”，这才是标准的普通话。

[danny1997]

Most peope are here to learn, not to juge.

[yang zhao]

i was in the market and me was using a card which you can deposit money and use it . the cashier told me somethıng like 'mao' and i thought she asked for money. and i started yelling her. i tried to explain that in the card have enough money. but lately i understand she was asked for password which is 'mima' ...it was pretty emberrasing yelling for this

[外国赤佬]

知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。

[danny1997]

坐井观天

[edelweis]

@Adam: made me laugh out loud - really. Thank you.

[earthtojess]

I wrote 性 instead of 姓. It was a really simple mistake when typing, I'd hit the enter key before I checked what I'd written.

Maybe not my most embarrassing moment, but proved for a funny conversation later

[OneEye]

Adam's experience resonates with me so much. Taiwanese people tend to speak pretty fast, so when I first moved here, ordering at tea shops became formulaic, and I had certain words I'd listen for to know which question to answer:

something something 大杯? （中杯還是大杯？）

大杯

something something 冰 something （甜度跟冰塊呢？）

去冰，半糖

something something 袋子嗎? (需要袋子嗎？）

不用

But then if anything deviated from that, I was screwed.

Another time, I got mixed up about what I was about to say, and something like "bei" came out (with a voiced b). This sounds like 未 (I think?) in Taiwanese, which coincidentally would have been an appropriate response to the question she asked. So the cashier got really excited and started rattling off in Taiwanese. Me: 「啊...不好意思，我不會台語。」

I'm kind of wondering though, since when did anyone ever expect people in Taiwan to speak 普通話, 標準 or not? It's a bit like getting upset that Mexicans don't speak Castilian Spanish.