There are hundreds of different Chinese dialects. Today, most people in China speak Mandarin but that doesn’t mean that Mandarin is the only dialect that still exists today. With all these different dialects that are spoken, sometimes it’s difficult to converse with someone of a different dialect.
I was going to the city with a friend who was visiting from college and his parents were nice enough to give us a ride over. Before we got to the city, though, we made a fuel stop and my friend got out of the car. I guess the atmosphere in the car got a little awkward and the silence didn’t help much, so his father started to talk to me. I didn’t realize he was talking to me partially because I was trying to avoid the awkward situation by pretending to be busy with my phone and partially because I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. When no one responded, I looked up, realizing that he was actually speaking to me.
A little shocked and nervous at the same time, in my broken Chinese I stuttered, “什么?” (which means “What?” in English)
He spoke again, it sounded like a completely different foreign language to me. When he realized I couldn’t fully understand what he was saying, he combined his Chinese and his broken English to ask a few questions about me. I answered in Mandarin slowly, hoping that he’d be able to understand me.
We continued our conversation during our ride to the city and by the time we got there, he no longer needed to speak any English in order for me to understand. I was actually able to understand his dialect to some extent, with a few words here and there that I’d need help with. I realized that although the Chinese dialects all sound very different, they still have bits and pieces that are very similar to each other, making it possible to understand other dialects you aren’t familiar with.
I think Chinese has the most diverse dialects in the world, not only in its amount, but also in its differences. Each one of them is like a foreign language. It is fascinating the way you adopted to the language your friend’s dad was speaking because it would be so difficult for me to do that. I think this is a very interesting cultural encounter~
I completely understand that awkward silence and head nodding when a parent is talking to you in a heavily accented and different dialect. And I also agree with Shen Shen that the Chinese language is by far the most diverse in its dialects in the world. My mother explained to me that different communities with the size as small as a county (like Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside, Ridgewood, Flushing, etc, and more that all make up only the borough of Queens) has its own different and completely foreign sounding to its neighboring county. I find it amazing how long these different dialects lived on for, despite possible difficulties in communicating with each other, and the thought of survival of the fittest would wipe some dialects out.
This post reminds me of this conversation my boss had with her customer. One spoke Cantonese while the other spoke Mandarin. Both of them tried to accommodate with each other, and they ended up mixing Cantonese and Mandarin in each sentence. It was similar to how I might mix English and Chinese. I think you pointed out an important point in your post when you mentioned that “they still have bits and pieces that are very similar to each other.” Even though there are so many dialects in the Chinese language, I find it interesting that we still try to find short phrases that resemble our own dialects. This also stresses how much effort humans put into communicating with each other.