I remember once, earlier on in my time in China I got the words '吸管' and '西瓜' mixed up and this Singaporean guy told me something like, "Yeah, in Singapore we use Mandarin too, but we tend to just call a straw, a 'straw', it's far simpler, there's no need to invent these silly Chinese words for everything just for the sake of it". To be fair, he seemed far more competent at speaking English than Mandarin despite a Chinese background, so how true what he said actually was, I do not know.

When it comes to Aussie small talk, even a winging pom like me can find it a little tricky, my mate's commonly used expression "We're not here to f**k spiders" confused me to death, until I realised it just meant people needed to work faster and get things done.

As for the Chinese not understanding small talk and stuff, I just remind some students how racist and intolerant Western people can be if you do not try hard enough to understand them regardless of their accent/dialect or slang. Works especially well with those who actually plan to study or work abroad. Some Chinese strangely associate learning English with prestige and view colloquial expressions and slang as something that is a dirty impurity but when you consider how people use it in their daily lives, regardless of what language they speak, it is something that they really should learn.

"Awkward" as in converse to the 1300 - 1600 + dialects/languages that China has? Before any Chinese wants to complain about "small talk" being hard to understand, they should think about whether their own language is any better with making things clear. For Chinese Americans some of them prefer using English when speaking to Chinese people who do not have a high level of English because they would have an even harder time getting the message across if they used Mandarin. When I worked at a bilingual position back in college I found this to be all too true. Many Chinese will feign not understanding any English just so they can speak to someone who understands Mandarin. But when Mandarin is used it is like they do not trust any of the answers and will ask and ask and ask until the same answer is given at least several times over. However, using English such as phrasing it in a way that makes the answer sound firm and clear yields a much better chance of acceptance.

If the Chinese really want themselves to be accepted and be treated more equally, they would do good by not using their own language as an excuse to make life harder for others. Things that pertain to common sense need to be kept simple, while things that are more sophisticated need to be held up and communicated with logic. Both areas are very lacking.

http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1292823/chinese-immigrants-find-australian-small-talk-too-awkward

I am sure there is an aussie who can advise the pommies and septics on these boards, is it hard for chinese to talk in australia? and if so, why so? And yes, I posted the smcp first much to the chagrin of the OP!!!! End of Story!