Several years ago, I went to China using a tour with my family.
One day, when we have free time and went to a market, there are a lot of things with expensive price. When I ask the price and try to negotiate with “broken” Chinese language, they refuse and do not even want to decrease the price a bit because they may realize that I am tourist and they know that tourists usually bring big sum of money to buy for gifts or souvenirs. And even when my father who can speak Chinese fluently try to negotiate, they still did not want to decrease the price because they know that we are tourists. What if I can speak chinese fluently and pretend to be Chinese people? I am sure that they will give cheaper price. That is the moment when I realize that language is very
important.
That is one of the reason why I decided to go study in America and separated with my family for one and half year. This is so hard for me because I actually want to stay with my parents and stay in Indonesia, but my parents say that language are really important and in the future, not knowing English will be significant disadvantage compared to other competitors. Even after I finish my degree in U.S., my parents plan to send me to China again to study In China to learn Chinese language. This is because I heard that china is growing really fast and will be the center of every market in the future.
However, do not judge people from the way they speak, because sometimes, people who speak bad language, it means that they know more than one language which is great. So people who speak “broken” language does not mean that they are stupid, it just not their primary language. I learned that we have to respect other people who are learning, not to make fun of them. Mistakes is the process through success.