Originally Posted by Jamoldo

Ditto with the Chinese, except no one speaks English here. For a country in which people are running about and never queue (line) up, the Chinese, in most of my experiences, have an incredible amount of patience for foreigners trying to speak their language. They are convinced that Mandarin is one of the most difficult languages to learn and learn well (a huge source of pride, along with their history and culture). They'll stand there and say numerous things to help you understand what's going on, and if you begin to play charades to show them waht you mean (I really have no shame when it comes to this), they'll play along and try to help you out. It's very encouraging, and it's made me hate hearing the phrase, "We're in America, speak English!"