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Q: Do you feel you can look at someone, and guess if they can speak English or not?
On the subway or at a restaurant, I fell like I can sense if a local can speak English or not. Maybe it's their clothes or just the way they carry themsellves.
Generally if it is a chinese girl under 30 there a good chance she will speak at least some english. Boys, probably not much more than Helllllooooo! heheheh.
I have a white foreign friend (who is quite ill at the moment, sadly), he can't speak english - only portugese and putonghua - so we often get shocked looks from the locals when we hang out babbling away in terrible chinese.
RandomGuy:
I noticed this too! Why do you think it is that girls usually speak better English than boys?
iWolf:
My best guess is that the boys get dad's money and business so the girls have to make their own life and English skills can lead to a good job with a decent salary. Just my guess.
I wouldn't even be able to do that in on the streets of London.... meaning, education level, with some exceptions, is not a visual thing
BHGAL:
beg to differ ... often I have met english speaking folks by me being the initial contact.
Generally if it is a chinese girl under 30 there a good chance she will speak at least some english. Boys, probably not much more than Helllllooooo! heheheh.
I have a white foreign friend (who is quite ill at the moment, sadly), he can't speak english - only portugese and putonghua - so we often get shocked looks from the locals when we hang out babbling away in terrible chinese.
RandomGuy:
I noticed this too! Why do you think it is that girls usually speak better English than boys?
iWolf:
My best guess is that the boys get dad's money and business so the girls have to make their own life and English skills can lead to a good job with a decent salary. Just my guess.
With the amount of English Teachers in China, everyone should be speaking English, ha ha 
.
But seriously, in China, it makes no difference to me what language people can speak. If an Asian looking person speaks to me in perfect English, I don't say "Wow, your English is so good, where did you learn it?".
Shining_brow:
I do. If it's heavily accented (Chinese) and still fairly imperfect, it normally indicates that they went overseas - and I'm curious about where they went. Sometimes that leads to some nice discussions. This often means their attitudes towards the world have been changed.
ScotsAlan:
But Shining, I know this is a strange question to ask, do you assume every Chinese looking person in China is Chinese?
I know the above statement seems daft, but if you were in London or Sydney, would you assume every Chinese looking person is Chinese?
I find this sort of stuff interesting. Assumptions based on looks.
