I'm a Chinese and I can speak Mandarin pretty well but communicating with a Chinese from the mainland China is totally a different experience. I'd this experience during my 10-day stay in Beijing last August.
I stayed in Trader's Hotel and each morning I was greeted by the friendly Beijingers. The hotel staff "NI HAO MA?" in english, how are you? Which made me very happy before I started my tour for the day whether to Forbidden City or to climb the Great Wall of China.
But when you're OUT from the hotel, in the streets of Beijing or small alleys or "hutongs", you'll see a different scenario Beijing, a mega city is a good place to shop, as the goods are so, so damn cheap!
Bbbuutt... you need to BARGAIN in order to slash the price down. The mandarin that we Malaysian Chinese speak is quite different. Why? cause we don't speak Mandarin with the same intonation or pronunciation. To sum up, we don't speak with the Beijing accents, the "shh..sh.shh." You get me, don't you? :)
The traders know we're not local and thus we've a tough time haggling over the price of a hand-bag or a blouse. But I'm still better than my poor auntie who can't speak a single word of Mandarin. We both bought some similar oriental paintings/drawings but I paid ONLY a fraction of what she paid. *laugh my *** off!* :P so when you're in Beijing, try speaking Mandarin and if possible speak with the correct accent then you'll be truly rewarded.
See how important communication is.
By Julien Lim Zhen-Wei
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