Problem
It is a treat to visit Hong Kong. I think of it as the land of Bruce Lee and films in which he starred.
However, Cantonese is not the easiest language for those of us who speak English. What can go wrong, I asked a Brit who lived in Hong Kong.
Answer
Cantonese, like Mandarin, has several tones. The Mandarin language has five, or more, depending on whether you count a base or blank tone. Mandarin is used in China and Singapore. When you get to Hong Kong, you need Cantonese. Mandarin is not enough.
Cantonese speakers claim yet more tones are needed. Despite this my brave friend did his best.
He came unstuck when he visited a Chinese restaurant. He asked for what he thought was a cup of coffee. Instead, he got two empty cups.
This has happened to me before in restaurants, and I have not understood the reason. We debated the reason. We speculated. We assumed that the helpful and willing staff were not being difficult. Maybe the restaurant staff generously employed slow-witted staff. Perhaps the staff were rushed and brought the cups and another member of staff is supposed to fill the cups.
Now we know that if you are not too careful about word order and intonation, you have asked for coffee cups instead of cups of coffee.
Why would anybody want an empty cup? Sometimes you want to share out your drinks, try it with sugar and without, need a cup or glass for a glass of water to take a pill, want to drink milk separately.
If I want an empty cup and I am speaking English, I specify an empty cup.
Rapport
Another friend of mine who specialises in psychology and rapport, said that autism is a spectrum of abilities to relate to other people and see things from their point of view. Some people can be mild, and learn to read signals.
Others more rigid. When told to do something, they don't interact or ask questions. They just follow rules and orders exactly. They think, If I am asked for two coffee cups, that's what I fetch.
So we have various factors to take into consideration, language, personality. If you don't have the ability to develop rapport, chat away, mime and smile and read signals, and neither does the other person. you have to rely on precise language for perfect communication.
I have many more posts on language. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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