Tips for expats to strike swifter friendships

While visiting scenic or historical sites in China, sometimes foreign tourists have walked up to me and said "Nihao, sir, can you…?" Afraid that I wouldn't understand English, many of them have shown me their smartphones or cameras while pointing at themselves, meaning "Can you take a photograph for us?"

Realizing after the "photo session" that they had come across a Chinese person who could speak "some English", they have normally engaged in a short conversation with me. Some of them have asked for Chinese translations of "How are you!" or "How much is it?", and even corresponding Chinese terms for "madam", "sir" and "miss". Once, after telling one such group that the Chinese terms for "madam", "sir" and "miss" were "nyushi", "xiansheng" and "xiaojie" respectively, I suddenly realized they might run into trouble if they used any of those terms to address somebody in China, because some new meanings of the terms have changed, at least among the Chinese people.

"Madam" can be translated as nyushi, and one can use the term to address women of all ages, and "sir" as nanshi — that's what some Chinese people do — though the latter may have a different meaning for some. In many Hong Kong gangster movies, popular across the country 30 or so years ago, a police officer was always addressed as "sir", a term which became popular among many Chinese mainland fans. It's another matter that many believed "sir" means a high-ranking police officer.