language

A French client asked me last week: "Why does everyone keep asking if I have eaten? Is it a trick question?" She had been in Beijing for three days and every local she met greeted her with "你吃了吗" (have you eaten?). The hotel front desk, the vegetable vendor, even the security guard at the Forbidden City. I explained: it is not an invitation to eat. It is the Chinese version of "how are you." We ask about food because for centuries, having enough to eat was the most important concern. The question means "I care about your wellbeing." The correct answer is just "吃了" (yes, I have eaten) or "还没吃" (not yet) — and then you move on. She found it charming. By the end of her trip she was greeting people with "你吃了吗" herself. Her Chinese was terrible but nobody cared — they just smiled because she was playing the game. Three phrases I make every client learn: 谢谢 (thank you), 多少钱 (how much), and 我吃了 (I have eaten). The third one always gets the biggest smiles.

A German client asked me worriedly last week: "Will I survive China without speaking Chinese?" I told him about the time I watched a Swedish tourist order dinner at a busy Chengdu restaurant entirely through charades. He pointed at a neighbour's bowl, held up two fingers, and gave a thumbs up. The waiter nodded, came back ten minutes with the exact same dish, and the guy ate it happily. You don't need Chinese to travel China. But you do need three things: 1. Google Translate with Chinese downloaded offline. Point camera at menu, get translation. Not perfect, but good enough. 2. Pleco dictionary for when Translate fails. The handwriting input is a lifesaver for single characters. 3. A willingness to be wrong. You'll point at the wrong menu item, order something unexpected, and discover your new memorable dish. That's not a mistake — that's the experience. The three phrases I make every client learn: 谢谢 (thank you), 多少钱 (how much), and 这个 (this one — accompanied by pointing). With those three, you can handle 90% of daily interactions. My client survived. Thrived, actually. Ate his way through three cities without a single English menu.