When a native #Chinese speaker praises you for your #Mandarin and you're a foreigner, it means you suck.
When a native Chinese speaker says that your Mandarin sucks and you're a foreigner, that means you're nearly proficient but you need to be better.
But if you're Chinese learning to speak Mandarin, unless you speak with a flawless accent, quote chengyu in your sleep and read the classics, you suck. And even if you do all three you will still suck cos there's always room for improvement.
@liztai
Tough! But as long as I suck and not am a suck up I'm still kinda' happy.
@liztai I always tell them their Chinese is good too, to throw them off my trail.
@liztai
I’m at that beginner-intermediate level that elicits suspicious praise and encouragement meaning more or less, how nice that you tried. Like if someone’s dog could say a few words, you’d pet him and say that’s great. (At least that’s how it works for a white American. I suspect if I were ethnically Chinese and spoke as I do, the reaction might be more like, what’s wrong with you?)
@mcmullin yup, accurate. Lots of criticisms. Chinese folks are harsh on other Chinese basically lol. I basically get no praise most of the time
@liztai
It’s a shame but it’s true that as a 老外 I can get away with a lot, and am sometimes afforded respect I don’t deserve.
@mcmullin naaaah Chinese people are just hard on each other. It's a cultural thing lol. Chinese folks tend to be more courteous to foreigners learning Chinese because they are often in awe that you are even trying. But for Chinese folks they are harsher because I am SUPPOSED to know, diaspora or not lol. Never mind that I speak another Chinese language, I am supposed to learn Mandarin via osmosis lol