为什么有些人在中国生活了很长时间，却从来没有学过中文？（下）
How do some people live in China for a long time and never learn Chinese ?
译文简介
反复试错，你就能掌握至少可以让你度过难关的词汇。
正文翻译
How do some people live in China for a long time and never learn Chinese ?
为什么有些人在中国生活了很长时间，却从来没有学过中文？
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
为什么有些人在中国生活了很长时间，却从来没有学过中文？
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
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Trial and error and you will pick up at least enough of the language to get by. Date a local if you want to learn, preferably one that has a low level of English, this way you don't fall back on English out of laziness. I met a guy here my first year who refused to learn even the basics like Ni hao, and this is after 12 years of living here.
I've been here 7 years and my still Chinese sucks. But even without my Chinese wife I can get around and do just about anything.
反复试错，你就能掌握至少可以让你度过难关的词汇。如果你想学习，就和当地人约会，最好是英语水平较低的人，这样你就不会因为懒惰而依赖英语。我第一年在这里遇到了一个人，他拒绝学习像“Ni hao”这样的基础知识，而且这是在这里生活 12 年后的事。
It’s rare that I meet someone who’s lived here a while and knows virtually zero Chinese, but the ones I do know just get others to translate for them and rely on translation apps.
Once you get to around HSK 2/3 (which isn’t hard), you can function fine in day-to-day tasks without having to burden others too much. I don’t judge people for not wanting to become fluent in Chinese. I myself have no desire to do so, and would much rather spend my time learning a language that’s more useful in my home country, like Spanish, but I do get annoyed when people can’t learn the bare minimum to perform tasks like ordering at a restaurant, telling a DiDi driver their location, etc. It just becomes burdensome to the people around them.
我很少遇到在这里住过一段时间中文几乎为零的人，但我认识只想让别人为他们翻译并依赖翻译应用程序的人。
一旦你达到了HSK 2/3 左右（这并不难），你就可以很好地进行日常生活，而不必给别人带来太多负担。我不会因为人们不想说一口流利的中文而评判他们。我自己也不想这样做，宁愿花时间学习一门在我的祖国更有用的语言，比如西班牙语，但当人们拒绝学习最基础的知识来做最基本的事情，比如在餐馆点菜，告诉滴滴司机自己的位置等等时，我对这些人确实很无语，这只会给周围的人带来负担。
it’s difficult
lack of time
lack of interest
poor tutors
stay in expat communities
太难
缺时间
缺兴趣
缺导师
一直留在外籍人士社区
You plateau. I can get by, order food, travel around, etc. but I don’t want to study hieroglyphics and memorize how to write them and their meanings for hours a day. And you need to be taught what they mean. It’s not like you can easily look them up in a dictionary.
The lack of a phonetic writing system really makes it more trouble than it’s worth. If pinyin was more widespread I think a lot more people would try to learn.
I get my wife to teach me a few words everyday. Sometimes I use Duolingo if I feel motivated, and somewhere there is an HSK2 book collecting dust in the house. But I don’t need to learn anymore. Everyone I know speaks English. And when I do speak Chinese they don’t understand my accent anyways. The sad thing is, if I lived in a country with a phonetic written language, it would be so much easier for me.
Because the language here is so convoluted we even use it as a thought experiment in epistemology called “the Chinese room”. Where letters come in one way and you put them back out the other side. But you never actually get to associate them with anything and therefore can never learn the language.
瓶颈期难以突破。我的日常生活可以过得去，会点菜，能到处旅行，等等，但我不想每天研究象形文字，一连几个小时背诵如何书写它们和它们的含义是什么。而且还得有人教你它们的含义。另外想在在字典里找对应的字真的很难。
缺少拼音书写系统真的是麻烦多多。如果拼音更加普及，我想会有更多人试着去学习。
我让我的妻子每天教我几个单词。如果我突然来了动力，有时也会用用多邻国，家里也有一本HSK2的书在吃灰。但我不需要再学习了。我认识的每个人都会说英语。而且当我说中文时，他们根本听不懂我的口音。悲伤的是，如果我生活在使用拼音作为书面语言的国家，对我来说就会容易得多。
因为这里的语言是如此复杂，我们甚至把它作为认识论中的一个思想实验，叫做“中文屋”。文字从一个方向进来，你把它们从另一个方向放回去（注：左耳进右耳出？）。但是你从来没有真正把它们与屋子里的任何东西联系起来，因此永远无法学习这种语言。
It’s not like you can easily look them up in a dictionary.
Pleco.
“在字典里也不好找”
试试Pleco。
I’ll check it out. You guys are so hard on my lazy ass. How are you so motivated to do something that has so little return? Why don’t you study software or business instead of a language (that everyone can speak English already uses)
我会看看的。你们对我这个懒货太苛刻了。你怎么这么有动力去做一些回报这么少的事情？你为什么不去学习某个软件或增强业务知识而不是语言（反正每个人都会说英语）
Learning Chinese has brought me an immense amount of return, both personally and professionally.
学习中文给我带来了巨大的个人和职业回报。
I haven’t seen anyone say it brought them much. There are millions of Chinese that already speak English.
This guy called “benteachesenglishoverseas” said it pretty well. You wouldn’t want to learn Spanish to earn a Mexican wage in Mexico. Leverage your strengths. He said that getting his HSK has gotten him a few beers in the bar, and was an interesting talking point on his resume, but it never amounted to anything like getting an American degree or a teaching license would.
Personal enjoyment maybe that’s something else. Making friends and being able to talk to the wife’s family is priceless. I get that.
I think at my point in life, I’m better off grinding another degree (computer science or something) than studying Chinese. It would be a better return on investment money wise.
All that aside, I did install pleco and it’s pretty awesome actually haha. Should’ve got it sooner.
我没看到有谁说过学习中文给他们带来了什么。有数以百万计的中国人已经会说英语了。
这个ID叫“benteachesenglishoverseas ”的人说得很对。在墨西哥，你不会想通过学习西班牙语来赚取墨西哥人的工资。要充分利用你的优势。他说，拿到HSK让他在酒吧里喝了几杯啤酒，在他的简历上也是一个有趣的点，但它从来没有像拿到美国学位或教师执照那样有任何价值。
当然，个人享受也许是另一回事。结交朋友并能够与妻子的家人交谈也是无价的。我明白这一点。
我认为在我的人生节点上，我最好再磨一个学位（计算机科学或其他什么），而不是学习中文。从金钱上来说，这将是一个更好的投资回报。
撇开这些不谈，我确实安装了pleco，它非常棒，哈哈。我应该早点发现它的。
Yeah Pleco's great, especially with add-ons.
Chinese people love it when you can interact with them in their own language, especially when you can do it on a deeper level. Being able to speak Chinese can be a good networking skill and bring you unexpected opportunities (in my case, I was asked to present a documentary in Chinese, which was very challenging but fun).
Also having a decent Chinese level allows me to use Chinese social media, which is quite interesting, and play Chinese games.
是的，Pleco很不错，特别是它的附加功能。
中国人喜欢你能用他们自己的语言与他们互动，特别是当你能在更深的层次上做到这一点的时候。会说中文可以成为一种很好的交流技能，并为你带来意想不到的机会（以我为例子，我被要求用中文介绍一部纪录片，这非常具有挑战性，但很有趣）。
另外，有一个像样的中文水平，可以让我使用中国的社交媒体，这相当有趣，还可以玩中文游戏。
Yea being able to use Weibo would be pretty awesome. I’ll start up my Duolingo again at least. 20 minutes a day won’t kill me. I use Reddit too much anyways, and those YouTube shorts are addictive.
确实，能够使用微博会很棒。我会试着再次启动我的多邻国。每天学20分钟也不会要了我的命。反正我用Reddit的次数太多了，而且那些YouTube短片也让人上瘾。
France, you walk down a street, you see a bread shop, you look up - baguette, cool, baguette means bread. It's reinforced. You walk, you read, you learn. You sound it out, even. Next time someone says 'baguette' you remember that shop.
China, walk down a street. See some buns in a shop. Look up - fuck if I know how to pronounce that hanzi, or which hanzi it is. No passive learning.
This is what killed me. I got my HSK3 and was studying for HSK4... but just... I get by as is... I don't want to spend multiple hours a day learning. If I need to read or write I use cameras.
法国，你走在街上，看到一家面包店，你抬头一看，上面写着--“baguette”，酷，原来“baguette”就是面包的意思。它在你的脑中被强化了。你行走，你阅读，你学习。你把它读出来，甚至下次有人说“baguette”时，你还会想起那家店。
中国，你走在街上，在一家商店里看到一些包子。你抬头一看--艹我怎么知道这个汉字怎么发音，或者这是哪个汉字。完全没有办法被动学习。
这就是我过不去的坎。我拿到了HSK3，正在学习HSK4......但就是......我就这样得过且过了...我不想每天花几个小时来学习。如果我需要阅读或写作，我会使用相机。
This is it, 100%. When I play civ 6 the alphabet is one of the first techs to research. China just skipped it and took pottery instead and never went back to get it.
没错，就是这样。我玩文明6的时候，字母表是首先要研究的技术之一。中国就那么跳过了它，取而代之的是陶器，并且再也没有回去拿它。
You don’t actually need to be spending hours on writing if you don’t want to and you can actually find effective ways of studying. There are countless resources with full translations. People don’t understand you because your pronunciation is incorrect.
You’re listing off reasons that rationalise not learning but it’s irrational in your circumstances. You have a wife and live in China. I’m not particularly intelligent but I am curious. If a sentence crosses my path with a character that I don’t know I look it up on Pleco. Oh cool! A new character. What other sentence can I use that in? How does that character look unique? And so I learn a new character that may appear in countless sentences.
Stop babying yourself and adapt and you’ll thank yourself later. Get a Chinese teacher if you can’t overcome your defeatist attitude. Your wife obviously doesn’t want to be doing everything for you for the rest of her life.
如果你不愿意，其实你不需要在写作上花上几个小时，你其实可以找到有效的学习方法。有无数的资源，有完整的翻译。人们不理解你是因为你的发音不正确。
你列举了一些合理的不学习的理由，但以你的条件，你给出的理由是不合理的。你有一个中国妻子，住在中国。我不是特别聪明，但我很好奇。如果一个句子中出现了我不认识的字，我会在Pleco上查找。“哇哦，酷！又学到一个新的字符。我还能在什么句子中使用它？这个字符独特在哪里？”就这样，我学会了一个可能出现在无数个句子中的新字符。
别再自欺欺人了，去适应吧，以后你会感谢自己的。如果你不能克服你的失败主义态度，就找一个中文老师。你的妻子显然不想在她的余生中为你做一切事情。
OP
I don't think reading and writing is important at all because of apps . Speaking and listening is extremely important and will make life 1 million times easier.
我认为阅读和写作根本不重要，因为有应用程序。口语和听力极其重要，会让生活轻松一百万倍。
Yeah that’s what I meant - don’t spend time on writing if you don’t want to. Reading actually helps with speaking and studying new words in general.
E.g 子 and 字 not only look alike but both share the pinyin ‘zi’.
是的，这就是我的意思--如果你不愿意，就不要花时间在写作上。阅读实际上有助于口语和学习新单词。
例如，子和字不仅长得很像，而且都用一个拼音“zi”。
子 is not pronounced the same as 字. 子 uses a neutral tone, not the 4th.
子的发音跟字不一样。子用的是平调，不是第四声。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
The people that keep saying "Chinese is a difficult language, so I understand why people that live in China for over an decade, can't speak it". This is not an excuse! Just because a language is difficult, doesn't mean it's impossible to learn nor you give up on it. In my opinion, it's laziness and other qualities with that.
There's no excuse, everyone starts off hard, the beginning will always be tough towards whatever activity you're doing but it depends on the person, on how bad they want it.
If you love living in China, do your best to learn the language at least.
Especially if you end up marrying or whatever and you don't even speak the language, even though you live their for over an decade, its sad and unacceptable. No excuses
那些口口声声说“中文是一种很难的语言，所以我理解为什么在中国生活了十几年的人都不会说中文”的人。这不是借口! 一门语言难，并不意味着它不可能学会，也不意味着你应该放弃。在我看来，这是懒惰和其他素质的问题。
没有任何借口，每个人开始的时候都很困难，无论你做什么活动，开始的时候总是很艰难，但这取决于人，取决于他们有多想做。
如果你喜欢在中国生活，至少要尽力学习本地语言。
特别是如果你最终想要结婚或什么的，而你甚至不会说这门语言，即使你在那里生活了十几年，这是很可悲和不可接受的。不要找借口。
If you get sent to China from abroad to work you generally have very little or no time to learn Chinese.
With a one or two exceptions, the only foreigners I know who speak decent Chinese studied it exclusively for at least a year (meaning they didn't work, did nothing else but study). Everyone I know (other than Japanese) who can read and write studied for multiple years WITHOUT working full time.
Personally I never didn't work, often silly hours, so only ended up picking up survival Chinese eventually. It's a shame, but I don't feel bad about it or that I was "lazy".
Wechat translate is a god send, and pretty good, for EN to CN and visa versa at least.
如果你从国外被派到中国工作，你一般很少或没有时间学习中文。
除了一两个例外，我认识的唯一能说一口像样的中文的外国人，至少有一年时间专门学习中文（意思是他们不工作，除了学习什么都不做）。我认识的每个能读会写的人（除日本人外）都是在没有全职工作的情况下学习了多年。
就我个人而言，我从来没有不工作的闲暇时间，所以最终只学会了生存级别的中文。这是一个耻辱，但我不觉得有什么不好，也不觉得我是“懒惰”。
微信翻译是一个神器，而且相当好，至少对于从英文翻译到中文来说是这样。
I picked up Chinese from living in Beijing, and I never took classes or formally studied. My work environment was English. I did have an interest in Chinese, so I had a dictionary with me (before smartphones) and just made myself talk to the bao'ans and vendors.
Learning it mostly has to do with trying to use it. I had some friends who never could speak it, but they stayed in the expat bubble and tried to do everything in English, watched only English shows, and had someone do all the simple life things for them. Those tended to be the ones who complained all the time about China, and did very little exploring and learning the culture.
我在北京生活时学会了中文，但我从未上过课或正式学习过中文。我的工作环境是英语。我只是对中文很感兴趣，所以我随身带了一本字典（在智能手机出现之前），让自己能跟保安和小贩交谈。
要学好它主要是跟要试着去使用它有关。我有一些朋友从来都不会说中文，他们只呆在外国人的圈子里，试图用英语做所有事情，只看英文节目，并让别人为他们生活便利而服务。这些人往往是那些一直抱怨中国的人，而且很少探索和学习文化。
I imagine people who study a language and do nothing else get a buzz out of learning languages - because they've got a natural inclination for doing so.
我可以想象那些学习一门语言而什么都不做的人会从学习语言中得到乐趣——因为从他们行为可以看出这个自然倾向。
Possibly, although I'd imagine reasons are varied. Had a few friends from "poor" countries who studied Chinese as they got scholarships and was one of the few ways to escape their country.
可能吧，尽管我认为原因多种多样。有几个来自“贫穷”国家的朋友在学习中文时获得了奖学金，并且是逃离他们国家的少数方法之一。
I would guess it's their expact social bubble. If life doesn't force it on you, why change? That's how I was in India for a year. Didn't learn more than 5 hindi or tamil words.
我猜这是因为他们呆在自己的同胞圈社交泡沫。如果生活没有给你压力，为什么要改变？这就是我在印度待了一年的方式。没有学会超过 5 个印地语或泰米尔语单词。
In brutal honesty, I don't like knowing what all the Chinese people are saying around me. If you've ever spent any serious amount of time in cities that attract a lot of rural types for resettlement.. you'll know what I mean.
I've reached decent Chinese ability a few times, but each time I've decided to allow it to lapse because of the conversations that happen nearby with Chinese people discussing my physical attributes, how long I'd last as a lover, etc.
When you're not actively learning/using Chinese, you can zone out what others are saying around you. That's not really possible when your Chinese is being worked on, and you're making an effort.
And besides, I don't really need it. Most Chinese people around me speak English to variable degrees of competency.
说实话，我不喜欢知道我周围的所有中国人在说什么。如果你曾经在吸引大量农村人定居的安置型城市里呆过，你会明白我的意思。
我曾经达到过几次还不错的中文能力，但每次我都决定让它失效，因为附近的中国人都在讨论我的身体素质，我作为一个情人能坚持多久，等等。
当你不积极学习/使用中文时，你可以不理会周围的人在说什么。当你在努力学习中文的时候，这是不可能的。
此外，我并不真的需要它。我周围的大多数中国人都能说不同程度的英语。
OP
People said weird stuff like that in the US too so I have tough skin .Life is way easier if you know Chinese or you might get hassled or struggle big time . I don't think you need to be fluent but enough to explain yourself to authoritative figures , ask for help and to order food .
美国人也会说这种奇怪的话，所以我脸皮很厚。如果你懂中文，生活就会轻松得多，否则你可能会遇到麻烦或挣扎。我认为你不需要达到流利的程度，能向当局解释自己、寻求帮助和点餐就够了。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
I know the numbers, names of few drinks, hello and thank you. Once I knew also the name of some places and how to give direction to the taxi driver, now that immense knowledge is outdated.
I get by ok since almost 15 years!
我知道数字、一些饮料的名称、你好和谢谢你。曾经我也知道一些地方的名字，知道如何给出租车司机指路，现在这些知识已经过时了。
近15年来，我一直过得很好！
OP
So, what if a security guard at the subway pulls you over and starts questioning you . Or if you are on a train and the conductor asks you a question ?
I feel like it must be a hassle not knowing Chinese ...
那么，如果地铁上的保安把你拉过去，开始盘问你，怎么办？或者，如果你在火车上，列车长问你问题，你怎么办？
我觉得不懂中文一定很麻烦...
Living here long term, you realize that saying 听不懂 is infinitely easier than actually communicating with guards/police. Even foreigners who are fluent will play dumb because they know they’ll get out of it faster that way.
在这里长期生活，你会发现说“听不懂”比真的去跟警卫/警察交流要容易得多。即使是中文流利的外国人也会装糊涂，因为他们知道这样可以更快地脱身。
Not proud of it, but I lived in China for 14 years and cannot Chinese language (can fluently 3 other languages). Might be lazy and don't want to do it in my free time as I have many other things to do.
Of course, it helps when the spouse is Chinese, but she is not with me everywhere.
I somehow managed with a few words and a translation app for almost everything.
我在中国生活了14年，不会中文（能流利地使用其他三种语言），虽然我对此并不感到骄傲。可能是因为懒惰，不想在空闲时间做这件事，因为我有很多其他事情要做。
当然，当配偶是中国人时，这很有帮助，但她并不是时时和我在一起。
我不知怎么的能用几个词和一个翻译应用程序来处理几乎所有的事情。
This isn’t unique to China. Many expats don’t learn the language fully. This is normally because expats are surrounded by their own community and work in their own language. Got to China town in the London many first generation immigrants won’t speak English nor will they speak it well, but their daughters and grandsons will. Go to the Costa Del Sol in Spain and enjoy fish and chips under the Spanish sun while complaining in English about how the only problem with Spain is that it’s full of Spaniards.
Anglophones are famous for not being good at picking up other languages. It’s not really hard to understand why. Most global culture is English - movies, music, media, platforms like Reddit. People communicate in English, so there’s leas incentive to learn.
I’m my travels living abroad I’ve always found the there is a type of person who goes ‘balls deep’ in the language and becomes fluent. And maybe OP is this type of person. These people are usually American males and lack in other departments. Knowing the language gives them and advantage.
I think it’s great that those people dedicate the time to learn languages fluently. Respect to them. Especially the ones who don’t judge others for having inferior skills.
这并不是中国独有的情况。许多外籍人士并没有完全学会当地语言。这通常是因为外籍人士被他们自己的社区所包围，用他们自己的语言工作。在伦敦的中国城，许多第一代移民不会说英语，也不能说得很好，但他们的女儿和孙子会。去西班牙的太阳海岸，在西班牙的阳光下享受鱼和薯条，同时用英语抱怨西班牙唯一的问题是它到处都是西班牙人。
讲英语的人以不善于掌握其他语言而闻名。这其实并不难理解。大多数全球文化都是英语--电影、音乐、媒体、Reddit等平台。人们用英语交流，所以没有足够的动力去学习本地语言。
我在国外生活的时候，总是发现有一种类型的人，他们在语言上“深入钻研”，变得很流利。也许OP就是这种类型的人。这些人通常是美国男性，在其他方面有所欠缺。了解本地语言给了他们优势。
我认为这些人奉献出时间来钻研学习本地语言是很好的。对他们表示尊重。特别是那些不以技能低劣来评判他人的人。
I came to China on october last year, and till this day i know zero chinese, neither i can read nor able to understand when i hear chinese.
But i have managed to open bank card, district library card, i buy thing at malls. No problem but sometimes i think to myself i have to learn this language but how, and these days i started thinking what if i do some kind of volunteering where i can surround myself with chinese students(yeah I study in english at University)
我于去年10月来到中国，直到今天，我对中文一无所知，既不能阅读，也不能理解我听到的中文。
但是我已经成功地开了银行卡，区图书馆卡，我能在商场里买东西。但有时我想，我必须学习这门语言，但如何学习呢？这些天我开始想，如果我做一些志愿工作，让我和中国学生在一起（是的，我在大学里学习英语），会怎么样呢？
Its one of the hardest languages to learn, so some people just dont bother.
Im dyslexic so i aint fucking with reading it.
它是最难学的语言之一，所以有些人就是懒得学。
我有阅读障碍，所以我他妈的不想阅读。
I lived in Sweden for 5 years and still don’t speak Swedish even though I already speak German and Dutch. Of course it’s easy to survive there speaking only English. Now in China I am putting in some effort but realize it will be challenging to get beyond beginner/intermediate level without putting in a lot of effort. Also you might already know a handful of languages and knowing that your stay will not be indefinite you simply get by with a few basic survival phrases and online translators.
我在瑞典住了 5 年，虽然我已经会说德语和荷兰语，但仍然不会说瑞典语。当然，在那里只说英语也很容易生存。现在在中国，我付出了一些努力，但我意识到，如果不付出大量的努力，想要超过初级/中级水平将是一个挑战。此外，一些人可能已经了解几种语言，并且知道自己逗留的时间不会是无限期的，所以只需掌握一些基本的生存短语和使用在线翻译即可。
While my Chinese is enough to get by (HSK4-5ish), I still feel my Chinese is shit for having been living here over 7 years. The fact of the matter is that, despite living in China, you’re not in a Chinese environment. Or, at least I’m not. I watch English movies, I play English games, I communicate with my friends in English, and my work is all in English. Most schools don’t want you speaking Chinese, even if you can. Making Chinese friends is also rather difficult, especially if you don’t speak any Chinese at all.
Without having living here, I also would have questioned how someone can spend such a long time in a country and not learn the language. In truth though, it’s much easier than you think.
虽然我的中文足以应付（HSK4-5左右）日常生活，但我仍然觉得我的中文很烂，因为我已经在这里生活了7年多。事实是，尽管生活在中国，但好像并不在中国的环境中。或者，至少我不是。我看英文电影，玩英文游戏，用英文和朋友交流，我的工作也都是用英文。大多数学校不希望你说中文，即使你可以。结交中国朋友也相当困难，特别是如果你根本不会说中文。
如果没有在这里生活过，我也会质疑一个人怎么能在一个国家呆这么长时间而不学习本地语言。但事实上，这比你想象的要合理得多。
I'm actively learning Chinese, my level is like HSK6, I will say it's because the locals see foreigners as perpetual outsiders. My level is high but there's no one to talk to, people are too shy or cold.
If someone talks to you there's a 90% chance their English is already pretty good, some people just use you to learn English but want to be "friends"
I've just started to try to do street interviews as a way to actually use my Chinese, what I've found is the locals like a "stupid" foreigner, if you don't speak the language you are easy to control and some Chinese like that , they'll take pictures of you for business or telling other Chinese they have "foreign friends", maybe you'll end up on Douyin of something, if you have a Chinese partner once again they have a lot of control over you and I think they subconsciously like it
Not speaking Chinese is almost encouraged, because Chinese don't believe foreigners can even hold chopsticks let alone learn the language, if you already don't have interest, it's too convenient to not learn it. Just learn " I like Chinese culture and Chinese food" and you'll get a superficial round of applause, even a simple 你好 will do it for them sometimes.
我正在积极学习中文，我的水平是HSK6。你提出的这个问题我会说这是因为当地人认为外国人永远是局外人。我的水平很高，但没有人可以交谈，人们要么太害羞要么太冷漠。
如果有人和你说话，90%的可能性是他们的英语已经很好了，有些人只是利用你来学习英语，但以“朋友”的名义。
我一开始尝试做街头采访，以此来实际使用我的中文，我发现当地人更喜欢一个“愚蠢的”外国人的形象，如果你不说中文，你就很容易被控制，有些中国人喜欢这样，他们会给你拍照，以方便做生意，或者告诉其他中国人他们有“外国朋友”，也许你最后会出现在抖音上，如果你有一个中国伴侣，还是那样，他们会对你最大程度地控制，我想他们下意识地喜欢这样。
外国人不说中文几乎是受到鼓励的，因为中国人相信外国人连筷子都不会拿，更不用说学他们的语言了，如果你本来就没什么兴趣，不去学真是太顺水推舟了。只要学会“我喜欢中国文化和中国食物”，你就会得到一阵肤浅的掌声，甚至有时简单的“你好”也会让他们感到高兴。
但是，如果你的中文达到高级水平，当地人就不知道如何处理了，你打破了他们的刻板印象，他们不知道该如何处理这些信息，于是会感到不舒服，就会跑掉，如果你先用英语交谈，他们就会莫名其妙地感觉更舒服，因为他们觉得“嗯，是的，他是一个外国人，所以他当然会说英语”。