I recently posted about code switching on Sinosplice. I supplied a reali-life example taken from a conversation between Song Shen and me. For your convenience, I’ll reproduce it below.

Her: Can’t I park here? Guard: No, you need to park over there. Her: Oh, over there? Guard: Yeah. Her: OK, got it, thanks. Guard: No problem. Me: Why did you use Mandarin just now? Her: I wasn’t sure if he knew Shanghainese. Me: What are you talking about? He spoke to you in Shanghainese, and you were replying at first in Shanghainese. Her: Oh. Me: So why did you switch? Her: I don’t know. Why are you giving me a hard time?

To my surprise, Carl said he really liked that entry. I didn’t think he was too into linguistics issues, so I asked him why. He said it was because the simple conversation sample revealed a lot about me and about Song Shen and about how we interact.

Yeah, I think that’s true. :)