Its been 5 months since we moved from Shenzhen to Gaoan ( Jiangxhi province ) . Life started with people staring at us and commenting at us , as they had never seen any foreigners in the city. Few people welcomed us saying welcome to Gaoan these were mainly students . But in recent 2 months I am surprised and very happy to see people try to speak basic words in English in this small town.

I cant speak Chinese so I asked my friend to talk to the Bike taxi guy to drop me home . My friend negotiated with the bike taxi guy and he agreed to drop me at 15 RMB . I dont know what they spoke but it took 5-8 mins to negotiate with him with what Chinese i could understand he was asking for 20 RMB but my friend bargained and fixed it at 15 RMB. The bike guy starts his bike and then tries to have a conversation with me .

Bike guy - Do you know Chinese ? ( this was in chinese )

Me - Timbadong

Bike guy - Laughs

Me - Can you speak English ?

Bike guy - Says something in Chinese also speaks to some other bike guys while riding .

Me- I was confused and was trying to think what he said.

Bike guy - No English , English poor.

Me - If you speak everyday you can learn easily .

Bike guy - No speak English. No speak.

Me - Practice , Talk in English everyday.

Bike guy - Everyday work , No English speak.

Me - I figured this one out that he doesn't have anyone to speak .

Bike guy - Thank you ( In English ) ,

Me - I give the guy 20 rmb and he tells me thank you in English and in Chinese.

I had some issues with my internet and I call the system administrator guy . He comes to check whats wrong .He always use to shy off or not talk to me at all.

Me - Whats wrong ?

Sys Admin - hmmmmmmm .

Me - Is there a problem ?

Sys Admin - One minute , I will be back .

Me -

After a minute he comes back makes some changes in my computer .

Sys Admin - Your IP changed . You can use Internet .

Me - Thank you so much.

Sys Admin - Smiles and walks off.

My wife had some issues with her 3G we walk into a store and a pretty healthy lady greats us with "Hello , May i Help you?" . I kept telling my wife that your going to have a tough time to explain and get this problem solved. My wife kept telling me lets try. Before going to this shop we tried 2-3 small stores using a Google translator and they couldn't understand us and we couldn't explain what was the problem.So we walk into one store .

My wife - Nihow , My internet doesn't work .

Phone Lady - No problem , No problem . We Check . We Check .Give phone.

My wife -

Phone Lady - She calls customer service and speaks for a while. Wait a moment .

My wife - What happened ?

Phone Lady - It is working now.

My wife - she checks the phone and replies back it works , Thank you.

Phone Lady - No Thank you . Come back again.

My wife -

When I came to this town I was pressurized by everyone to learn Chinese but after seeing these incidents I think the time is changing.