why do HK'ers pretend not to understand?

[audiot]

this infuriated me yesterday!

my chinese is at a reasonable level -

but then sometimes - like yesterday I spoke to a man in a shop - and for me I just default to speaking cantonese - I know what I want - I clearly know how to say it - and it bypasses a lot of issues a lot of the time. ( like I will never bother attempting english with a cab driver anymore - why waste time? )

and YET at least once a month I get some one who basically wants to let me know he speaks english - and so pretends not to understand,,

my solution yesterday ? ( cos his english wasnt all that? )

I basically asked him in chinese if he spoke cantonese and was he from the mainland?

THEN he spoke cantonese!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! why do THEY do that?

[Renotommy]

Some people like to seize the opportunity to practice their English - good or bad. Just look at how many people in this forum wished to exchange language.

[MovingIn07]

I think your understandable Cantonese may not be perfect and some people are so rude that they only respond to "perfect". Which is daft, when I think about how many times I have had to fill in the gaps with the imperfect English spoken in this place!

[MsPoppins]

I have a native Cantonese speaking friend whom happens to be tone-deaf. Said friend has great problems with making herself understood in her mother tongue!
I reckon it's the tones that are tricky (but of course some people may want to practice their English, be obnoxious or whatever)

[drumbrake]

On the other hand, we never see non-Chinese insisting on speaking Cantonese, even though their tones are all wrong and they just directly translate from English so their sentence structure is also wrong. And we never see the mono-linguist who when they are not understood the first time, will say the sentence again but this time more slowly and louder. And then again even louder when the person still fails to understand. Then they start muttering about falling standards and probably start a thread on some expat forum about it.

[HowardCoombs]

I think your understandable Cantonese may not be perfect and some people are so rude that they only respond to "perfect". Which is daft, when I think about how many times I have had to fill in the gaps with the imperfect English spoken in this place!

That may be true in some cases but I think it doesnt apply in majority of situations.
I have 3 kids who are fluent; they speak as well as any normal Chinese kid but they happen to have round eyes and light coloured hair.

Similar to Audiot's experience, some people just refuse to talk Cantonese to them. Even when their English is barely passable they associate a look with a language and while my bunch asks for something in Cantonese and continues to talk in Cantonese, the person at the other end carries on in badly-broken English. Very odd indeed.

This is much less of a problem in China when the kids speak Mandarin. I think its because most mainlanders cannot speak any English so they naturally respond back in the only language possible but certainly in Hong Kong it is a common annoyance.

[Morrison]

Yesterday, I was in the library's computer room, another user approaches me and bubbles something in Cantonese, I reply "what?" in Mandarin, she walks away to her desk.
I ask the staff why she talked to me, staff asks her, comes back saying she claims not having talked to me. I point out there is a camera and it is all on tape, he walks over again, comes back and said she forgot that she talked to me and just wanted to know this and that. Welcome to Infant's World.

[justjoe86]

Bear in mind the local with bad eng who refuses to speak Canto may also be wondering why the expat with bad canto is refusing to speak English.

[bryant.english]

I always make a point of speaking/using English and I believe that everyone should speak English. I make the effort, why shouldn't they?

[HKEXPO]

Bear in mind the local with bad eng who refuses to speak Canto may also be wondering why the expat with bad canto is refusing to speak English.

but if it is a situation where you are asking something in a shop then the employee should have no demands and just be straight to the point

in a social setting you have a different situation

but if this is happening in a shop the employee should not be making his own choices on what languages he is going to be using assuming of course the OP speaks understandable cantonese