Lastly, the Chinese people I’ve met so far have been very accommodating to me. They can see that I’m learning Mandarin, and they genuinely love seeing foreigners learn Chinese. It amuses them. For instance, today I spoke with a pastry vendor. When she could see that I was a non-native Mandarin speaker, she spent more time explaining her pastries to me.

She then told the folks behind me, a middle-aged woman, and what I presume to be the woman’s mother, how I was learning Mandarin, and falsely claimed how good I was. 😅 The older woman kept smiling at me, giving a thumbs up, and saying in Mandarin, “Excellent! Excellent!” It’s what I imagine she does with her grandchildren. In any case, it’s nice to have so many kind strangers willing to accommodate and help me along the way.