With almost 1 in every 3 people in the world being Chinese, the chances are you will have to communicate with a Chinese person, at one point or another in your life. Therefore learning their language is a useful tool. But it is much easier said then done. It’s always fascinating how much of an issue it is when you go abroad and have to communicate with people in their native language, but it’s all part of the experience. So book your China Flights and test your Mandarin on your China Travels.
During my time in China so far, I have come across many sticky situations where not being able to speak Mandarin proved to be a big problem. One of the main problems is trying to get a taxi to the right place. Even if you know the right way, if you can’t say, ‘take the next left’ then you’re in for a long taxi ride. A good tip is to have the address written of the place you need to go in Chinese, as the majority of taxi drivers can’t read English. Sometimes even if you can speak a little Mandarin, there is still misunderstanding between both parties. Once in a taxi, we asked the taxi driver how he was, and he ended up closing the windows and turning the air con on! 
Another mishap that occurred due to language barriers was when we went to the corner shop to buy milk, as we were longing for English Tea. We got home to find the milk was in fact yoghurt, but put in a bottle which looked identical to milk. We had asked the lady in English if it was milk and she nodded. Not only that but we bought chicken stock granules instead of sugar. It took us 2 days to make the tea, if we could speak basic Mandarin, this wouldn’t have occurred.
Something as simple as ordering food also provides an entertaining experience in China. Many restaurants don’t have people who can speak English in them, so trying to order food poses a question, especially when you don’t really know what your ordering and you can’t ask them to specify in detail what a ‘meat ball’ includes. Sometimes you have to look at the picture and go by that. At least in KFC you know, you can’t be served anything except chicken, win-win really. So in times like these knowing phrases such as, ‘I am vegetarian’ or ‘is this chicken’ could prove to be very useful.
Also I became ill in China and went to pharmacy to buy some medicine for my cold. In England it would be easy, go supermarket and buy some paracetamol. In China, it’s not as easy as that, the medicines are completely different, you can’t explain your symptoms and acting it out isn’t the best option as if your acting is bad, you may be taking medicine for something completely unrelated to what you have got.
These stories are just some of my experiences of language barriers in China, but don’t let them put you off, it’s all part of the fun, and the memories you will always remember. So book your trip of a life time today and fly with Air China.
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