Article by Viory
Merchants at Mexico City’s San Juan Market put up cardboard signs in Mandarin in their butcher stalls to communicate more easily with customers, many of whom are from China.
Footage filmed in the market on Sunday shows butchers serving Chinese customers and offering different cuts of meat.
Vendors said the signs help overcome the language barrier and make sales easier, even when customers do not speak Spanish.
“We started communicating with them through the translator. But then my husband’s idea came up that we should make signs, and my daughter took care of making them,” said a vendor.
She acknowledged that Mandarin is difficult to learn, but said necessity had pushed them to find a way to communicate directly with their customers.
“It is a difficult language, but we have needed to learn it to be able to communicate with customers,” she added.
Another vendor said Chinese customers usually find a way to make themselves understood when asking for the products they want.
“Whenever Chinese customers come in, even if there are only a few, they usually name the cuts themselves, whether it’s the belly, the wings, the feet or the heart. There are many different names, and sometimes we don’t get the words quite right, but they simply point and say: ‘I want that.’ Then we understand,” he explained.
He added that the growing number of Chinese customers brought shopkeepers closer to Asian culture and helped them improve their service.
The use of Mandarin signs in shops across San Juan Market has not only made sales easier, but also reflects the market’s day-to-day interaction with foreign communities in Mexico City.
Article by Viory
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