Once in a while, when I really don't feel like using my English, I try to force people into using Chinese.

My strategy that doesn't always work for some reason, is that I just tell them I'm Mexican.

People who know where Mexico is and what language they speak usually start speaking in Chinese.

For the majority of people, they just assume that if you look white you speak English . But If I really need to, I just say that I can't speak English, and if they happen to speak Spanish I can speak to them in Spanish, but I haven't met a single soul here yet that speaks Spanish at a conversational level.

I feel bad lying though. Really bad.

What do you guys do?

My strategy for most people is just to speak Chinese or Taiwanese. Only once in a long while do I come across someone who refuses to speak it, and for those few individuals, I suppose I could tell them I'm Russian or Mexican. My Spanish and Russian aren't so good, though, and I probably couldn't get past a few sentences with a fluent speaker of either language. But it doesn't happen that often so I've never really felt compelled to try.

A friend of mind studying in Shanghai many years ago adopted the strategy of telling would be English practicers he was a non-English speaking Albanian. A good strategy at that time as Albania was the only other Maoist country on the planet, and he figured the last thing any Chinese wanting to practice their English hoped to encounter was another bloody commie.

Worked well for a year, until he met some poor bastard that had studied Albanian, of all languages, for five years. The guy was beside himself when my mate failed to understand a single word after all those years of study. My mate offered the face saving excuse that he was from a poor village and didn't speak the national language.

HG

Yeah, I've spoken Spanish when pulled over by the cops.

Get someone to drive a scooter into you.

A real small scooter.

yeah, no kidding

Hi,

I'm planning on moving from Taichung to Taipei.
I'm a bit worried about how it may affect my language learning as
when I speak Chinese in Taipei people keep replying in English.
Maybe I should just say:
我不會說英文我是法國人

Any suggestions, tips, experiences??

For some reason, many people seem to be learning French here. I would choose a language they definitely don't know. I enjoy telling them I am from Poland.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard that old bitch and whine.