Im chinese american, do chinese people look down on chinese who don't know chinese?

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Mike S

Don't take it too personally. She was just surprised that your bf was able to speak mandarin and ordered the menu and you being the girlfriend wasn't able to. The fact that your bf is white added fuel as the waitress assumed that you would be able to speak the language as your bf

I doubt it was a dirty look. If I was a waiter and I saw a white girl speaking fluent mandarin but her chinese bf was clueless, I would be surprised too.

JHYUN

maybe because you're chinese, yet you don't speak it. However, your bf who's not even chinese knows how to speak.
Maybe that's why?
She was probably just shocked.

Stretch

Because she just assumed that you being chinese could speak chinese,common mistake but if you have lived most of your life in USA then she should understand why you are english speaking. oh and by the way I love chinese resturants and buffet.

è²æŒ

If you were in China, I don't think you would get weird dirty looks. They may just think it interesting that a Chinese looking girl doesn't speak Chinese. But you might if they thought you were a Chinese. I guess the weird look came from the contrast between your Caucasian bf and you.:)

Panda

Hi above two Chinese girls in US and Au,
I am a Chinese girl in Beijing, China. I can speak Chinese, but could not speak English very well even I practice every day,cause it's not my mother language. Even I practice it very hard but I still could not speak it like people from English speaking countries. Whether you could speak Chinese or not, In fact it does not a matter. Because Chinese is not your mother tongue, you do not speak it every day like English. And some times you may get the dirty looks, do not mind, just smile and forgive them. Love someone who do not love you or understand you. Anyway if you wanna speak Chinese, you could learn it as your second language.

God loves you girls
Dew Cao from China

Mr Hex Vision

I hate to say it but like every there else in the world there are people like this.

The odds are she is one of the kind who is very proud of being Chinese. She gave you a look because she most likely thought that you were betraying your Chinese roots by not learning to speak mandarin.

Mai

I live in China and when the Chinese people here meet someone who is obviously ethnicly Chinese but cannot speak mandarin, it's more confusion than anything else. Some people feel a bit of anger but for the most part its like, what, you should understand me but you don't...

China has been closed off for so many years that I guess they are still not used to acknowledging people who are a little different. Just like regardless if a white person was born here, speaks fluently and maybe has Chinese citizenship, no Chinese person would ever consider them Chinese.

It's a difficult point of view to understand to people who come from countries of immigrants but the Chinese have built a society that has long fostered isolation and racism.

aririnkichiri

well..... i kinda find it like not a good thing. i moved from china when i was 10 yrs old but now i speak two languages =D. but yea it was probably cause you are chinese and hes white and hes know chinese and you dont.

Rabbityama

Well, I think she did it because the situation seemed backwords. The white guy speaking Chinese and the Chinese girl not knowing what's being said. Although you are American and not a Chinese national, I think there is still a bit of comedic value to the situation. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Chinese in China will not look down on you IF THEY KNOW you are from America however, if you are just walking down the street or sitting somewhere and you are not behaving properly (as a Chinese), onlookers will probably view you as rude, because they will assume you ARE a native. This happens to Chinese Americans who go to China. Once they know that you are American, they will forgive you for not understanding certain customs or ways of behaving, but until they know, they will judge you as one of them.

GReeeN

Like most Chinese people they think it's quite sad that you can't speak the language of your heritage..

Chloe

I suppose she was just plain lazy to repeat her question.
Met a Chinese national shop attendant who spoke Mandarin in her hometown accent. I couldn't understand her and she gave me a disgusted look.

CheeyoDeeyo

In short:
Yes, even Chinese americans look down on us to some degree.

My Chinese is very limited, and I always receive insults on how I am not truly Chinese even though the fact that I do not know Chinese fluently is not my fault.

Perhaps its because it reminds them of how their ethnic group has been assimilated by another culture and thus does not resemble them except in physical appearance and blood.
This bothers me, as it is not my fault. I take pride in being Chinese, and it really bothers me when someone tells me I'm not.
But don't let someone tell what you are are are not.

That is a struggle of Asian American in general, White washed Asians struggle to find their identity.
Are they Chinese or are they American...this is probably more then just Asians, probably Latinos, Arabs, and Africans as well...
I am culturally American, but also Chinese.
Don't worry about it, i would encourage you to try and pick up Chinese though.

That being said, I usually don't have problems.
Most Chinese are still warm to me(esp if they actually know I'm Chinese) even if I don't speak very well...when I mean I speak... I'm basically say I don't (even though I do)

Panda is an example of how the situation should be taken, I admire her for her understanding.
Some people are just stubborn though.

å£_å£

Well I am Australian Chinese and personally i do look down on Chinese who don;t know Chinese.

Seriously your Chinese and you should not forget something so important that your family has been using for thousands of years.

Angus

Before I went to work in China, I didn't speak a word of Chinese. I used to be so embarassed if someone who's not of Chinese origin (white, black, filipino, etc) can speak Chinese, and yet I can't.

During my time in China, I learned Chinese and speak fluently now. My wife is Chinese, so that helps a lot with my Chinese.

I think you having Chinese blood should try and learn your mother language. Isn't it such an irony that your boyfriend who's white can speak Chinese and you can't?

White people go to China to learn Chinese literature, caligraphy, gong gu, history, wear Chinese qi bao, see the wonders of China, and still many Chinese overseas do not feel the urge to do the same. So sad.

DDCat

Well, I think its all depend on you. If you like Chinaã€€and want to know more about your parents maybe your grandparents, you should learn, or else just forget it. Life is yours, right? Anyhow, Chinese culture is a treasure, it will be a little pity if you miss it.

Azn*Girl

chinese adults usually do this. the teens and kids don't care. the adults care b/c they want the younger generation to still respect and keep in touch with the culture. i'm cantonese but can speak both cantonese and mandarin but i came to the US when i was 6 so i had to learn english and had to push aside mandarin. 9my parents spoke cantonese so i didn't 'lose' the language). now i'm taking mandarin in high school.

Texas Cowboy

Maybe she thought that you could speak Chinese but would not with your white boyfriend. New York can be a hard place. Most chinese I know tell ABC's welcome back when they come back to China.

Don't worry! There is no one attitude and nice people will always accept you.

In China, including HK, the Chinese will speak Chinese to most people with an East Asian appearance. Some of them do give you a special look if you reply in English.

celticagent

I don't think so. In my experience, chinese people are very open-minded.

helloworld

To RACH: only some Singaporean think speaking Chinese is uncool, please do not generalize. I'm Singaporean. My friend and I always speak Chinese. :)

Back to your question, I think she is just surprised that your bf can speak and you can't. Anyway, it's always cool to learn some Chinese! :)

Wang Z

Kk D

because you look interesting

Stan the Rocker

You should not be making generalities. You will run into both types. If you went to China, you could very well run into people who are looking for opportunities to practice their English.

But the question you need to ask yourself is why you never learned to speak Chinese. Did you consider it uncool to speak Chinese? Did you think that the Chinese language was only for FOB's?

ohayo

Maybe she knew you're 50 % Chinese, and she expected you to understand Chinese language.
You don't know Chinese language, but it's natural because you're raised in US. She might have been neither an American citizen nor a permanent resident, and then her insult might have come from her jealousy. You'd better forget about that. There're many nice Chinese!

DeleraTwinkie

She thought that you had purposely feigned ignorance when in fact you really can't speak Mandarin. She must be thinking that your bf had learnt his Mandarin from you! Well, don't be too bothered. I'm often mistaken for being monolingual whenever people hear me speak in English (with a UK/US accent). However, when they knew I speak a mixture of European & Asian languages, they were in awe.

Btw, there's a difference between the 2 terms "Chinese" and "Mandarin". "Chinese" can refer to the ethnicity, nationality in China and/or even the written language. "Mandarin" is the spoken form. Be careful in using these 2 terms.

Rach

It is considered as an insult. I live in Singapore, and this place is a totally different place. I'm Chinese-Korean but yet i can speak Chinese so fluently i've got no problem communicating with native Chinese. My Chinese friends, on the other hand, think it's shameful to speak Chinese, and i can't understand why. It's ridiculous.

It's pointless for me to explain why Chinese are so touchy when their own people can't speak their mother tongue because you won't understand, but most Chinese despise all the Western influences that has been apparently forced on Asians by the Westerners.

They view Chinese who can't speak Chinese as a threat to their very existence. What if one day, the Chinese can't even speak their own mother tongue and can just speak English? Won't it threaten the very existence of the Chinese race? What about the traditional morals and values of the Chinese? They would all just be gone forever.

Seriously though, if you don't even know a word of Chinese, it's about time for you to learn it, if you want to sustain a good career for yourself in the future. Even the non-Chinese are starting to learn the language.

i'm chinese in australia and i don't speak chinese.

a lot of asian people here start talking to me in chinese but when i explain i don't understand most of them don't seem to mind and speak to me in english. i haven't gotten any dirty looks for not speaking chinese, mostly they just tell me i should learn it because its a good language to know.

i HAVE gotten dirty looks when i walk around with my boyfriend (he's white) from white and asian people. i dont know why people have a problem with it.

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