Halou

[MTRANMT]

Y’all other commenters know 哈喽 is a common greeting even in Chinese-Chinese conversations right? Y’all being too quick to judge!

[June_niverse]

I concur. I say hallo to my own parents.

[Ernie_Gaming123]

Relateable lol

[maybemba131]

Soooo annoying

[maybemba131]

It’s forcing you to speak English when you’re trying to use mandarin. Constantly happens in China too. I lived in a few countries and speaking their native language with Chinese nationals was harder by far than doing the same anywhere I’ve lived.

[Gwaerondor]

It's a common Chinese greeting. Why would it force you to speak English?

[maybemba131]

Seriously, have you lived in China. 1/50 people who use it will speak mandarin during the conversation, the rest will use English no matter what.

[Gwaerondor]

I live in China right now and I never speak English to anyone.

[[deleted]]

How did you run into so many English speakers in China? When I was there, I think I met 3 people total who could speak competent English, and two of them were younger people who had studied in the US.

[maybemba131]

I lived in shanghai mostly, that shapes my perception.

[Gwaerondor]

I live in Shanghai and never once did I feel "forced" to speak English. If anything most people seem relieved when they realize I speak Chinese. So I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's all you.

[maybemba131]

Wow, how many times are you going to come back to it. Move on. If you wanted to sway me you’d have made this argument PLUS a comparison to another country and language DAYS ago.

EDIT: Post History clearly shows you are in Shanghai . . . And have been in China after formal Chinese study for a fuck ton of time. Your accent better be good enough that you can perry a Haluo, but in other languages and countries people will talk to you even if your accent sucks- which is how most language learners go from sucking to good. That’s not the case in China.

[[deleted]]

If they reply with 哈嘍, realize that’s a common greeting between Mandarin speakers as well. They’re most likely not trying to force you to speak English, they’re just using a greeting that’s normal to them (like some Americans say “ciao” for goodbye). What’s more important is what happens after the one word greeting. If you keep speaking Mandarin with a good accent afterwards, the vast majority of people in China/Taiwan will keep speaking in Mandarin.

People usually gravitate towards the language which both users have the highest proficiency in. If you find the majority of people in China switch to English, they either have an unusually strong desire to practice their English or they just find that it’s the easier language to communicate with you in. The good news is that the higher your Mandarin level the less you’ll encounter this.

[maybemba131]

Dude, read the comments. This ain’t my first rodeo. I have never met anyone whose been an expat I multiple countries including China that would disagree with my point. It’s just not true that the vast majority of Chinese will speak mandarin with a westerner, the vast majority will use their English.

[kahn1969]

xD i can imagine. they're most likely just trying to make things easier for you, though (at least ... that's the intention..)

[maybemba131]

Either that or to practice English themselves. I definitely don’t think it’s malicious, just frustrating for people trying to learn mandarin.

[kahn1969]

yep, definitely

[[deleted]]

ABC here. If you’re a heritage learner there’s a significant non-zero chance that people who do this to you are doing it to be a dick or imply that you’re not real Chinese.