Running some chinese players through a low-level dungeon

Yesterday was unusual. As I was picking herbs in Un'goro and leveling herbalism with my hunter alt I noticed something peculiar : A player trying to look for more (LFM) on both the 中国 (china) channel AND on the world channel (EN). With both good english and chinese. This lead to me talking with this guy and making a guide for chinese-english World of Warcraft players... And to a dungeon run with players talking chinese!

That was... interesting, to say the least. Let me explain.

First a little group-making. Even if you are from China you still have to walk to the dungeon entrance. Apparently SFK is said YY in chinese. So let us go to YY, I'm all for it! *Note the incredible yells from English players in the zone*. All players in the group had some very basic English, but Ibrahim and Destruct were those that understood it best. Regardless, others also gave it a try. All that talk about chinese players not trying.

Let me be honest, I keep jumping between Google translate and asking for help to understand. There are basic words or sentences that I begin to grasp (like thank you, china or LFM) but letters mostly look the same and they are much too small for me to see the difference. Also, Destruct wanted to understand better why many of us think that chinese players are bad, I think that was a very interesting and telling question about us.

We might not understand eachother that well but "GO" is the same whatever the language. Just as usual they shared all quests at the beginning and often talked about how to complete them, what they still needed. They sometimes pointed at monsters they wanted to kill, the usual dungeon run.

The best way to make a guide on how to communicate with players that talk chinese might be to play with them in the first place and see what I would like or need to tell. Marks are important in groups, thus knowing how to say those will be useful.

It seems like saying "please heal me" in chinese when no healer is in the group is doomed to lead to players not understanding what I meant. Learning a language won't happen in a day, my mistake!

They might not understand all I say, that doesn't mean they aren't polite. Thank you for the run! :)

I liked it. It wasn't easy, I didn't get everything they said, but it worked. They were happy for the run, I was happy to help them, everyone gave a try at English and chinese. Some had more troubles than others but it went well.

Now, doing a full dungeon run at the right level would be harder, sure. Just like a raid with them. Switching back and forth between game and translator is a hassle. But I think it is still doable, with some efforts on both sides. Hopefully someone makes an addon to communicate together, that would be so much easier.

I want to hope for a day where English players go to the china channel and ask for help. Let me dream.

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