How vast is the communication barrier?
We found that some communication barriers are pretty trivial, while others require constant effort to overcome. All four of us had been studying Mandarin for nearly three years prior to our touch down in Beijing. So we were ready, from day one, to get out into the community and start using our language skills. What we found out, really quickly, was that, in some respects, we knew only enough Mandarin “to be dangerous,” so to speak. Sure, we could order certain dishes, even in restaurants with no English or picture menus. And sure we could get into cabs and announce where we wanted to go. But what do we do when the fuwuyuan (servers) and shifu (drivers) start talking back to us, often very quickly and in Beijing-accented speech? Let’s just say that, in those early days, we didn’t always get the food we were expecting or to the destination we had in mind! Before long, these kinds of basic life difficulties had faded into the background as communication barriers. There was no room, though
