City Guide
Answers
Login
Home
/
Community
/
Forums
/ Post a Reply
Post a Reply
Thread: Language in China
Title:
(100 characters at most)
Content: ( 3,000 characters at most, please )
You can add emoticons below to your post by clicking them.
[quote=GUEST23199,270048]English is not a common and mutual language for most Chinese. if you stay in a a five star hotel and take guided tours to the foreigner promoted tourist areas, you will do fine in English. Down side is - you will pay quite heavily for the privilege of having English speakers to help you, you will be locked in to going where the guide takes you, and you will miss out on most of the real China. Still, many people like this sort of packaged China. For those who wish to explore China on their own a little, there is a language barrier. As an Asian language, it is much more difficult to pick up a few phrases as it would be in traveling in say a Spanish speaking country. Signs will also be in Chinese script which are very hard to read. The Chinese are very friendly and helpful and you can get a long way by smiling and pointing but you may not always find someone who can speak English when you are in the most need of it. I would suggest learning a few phrases at chinese-tools.com/phrasebook - at least how to say 'Hello' and "Thank you'. You might try chinesepod.com for a few lessons in spoken Chinese. You might also consider signing up for an interpreter you can call from your mobile phone, like babelfishchina.com to help you out when you are really needing it. Your Lonely Planet guide book will also have some phrases in the back. For me - I have never left my pathetic language skills hold me back.. [/quote]
characters left
Name:
Get a new code