Hello in Chinese. That's the most useful thing we learned while in China; oh, and 'xie xie' (pronounced shay shay and means thank you). The tones are so complicated and would take a very long time to master.
The language barrier experienced in China was something extremely new to me (and probably anyone from a western culture). It was different from even Costa Rica, where I knew virtually no Spanish but was still able communicate with body language. There were times in China were I felt they didn't even know what I was motioning. When this happened there was nothing else we could say to each other, so we would stand awkwardly for a moment and then walk away. I think the main difference between Spanish and Chinese is that there are NO English words used when speaking in Chinese. If you were speaking Spanish and said 'Gustavus,' it would still be pronounced 'Gustavus.' In Chinese, it actually has its own tones and is a completely different word.
Sometimes I just felt like a bitch for standing there and not knowing what to say. They may have felt the same. It's just a weird feeling. When we were bargaining (which was always), we would just punch a price into the calculator. If we needed to order food, pointing to the menu worked just fine. It was good traveling with a large group. Our tour guides solved any big problems we had. Going out on our own was when we were forced to be creative and find a common language.
It was nice when we returned to the LA airport and we could ask a question knowing we wouldn't get any weird looks, and even better, an answer!
