However, instead of pictures and talking about a "place" today, I thought I'd make this posting all about the Chinese language. (NB...the pictures attached are kind of boring....a menu, sign and map but are there to help illustrate what the Chinese characters look like). On Wednesday night, I went for dinner with Ryan, and we had a long discussion as to just how difficult it is to understand anything regarding the Chinese language.....and by anything.....I actually mean EVERYTHING! (i.e. writing, reading, speaking and listening).
Speaking and Listening
Ryan has been here a year (and is staying for the summer and teaching again next year) and says that even though every week he has someone actually trying to teach him Chinese, he is only now starting to catch on. So far, he states that he is only fluent in "Chinese menu" and I can easily understand this! I have been here a month, and when two Chinese are speaking to each other, I can not follow any of it...outside of maybe two "sounds".....Ni-How (which is hello) and Nigger (seriously...but in China this is not a derogatory term...they use it the same way we use the words like "like...or ummm" i.e. they use it as a "pause" so that they can gather their thoughts). Most of the teachers responsible for teaching student's English try to get their students to say something else...but it is almost impossible....and would be similar to us trying to take the "umm", "huh", or "like" out of our teenagers' conversations!
NB: I still promise to write more about the other foreign teacher's here at E&A and the famous (or infamous) Friday night dinners some other time (maybe on Saturday as we are having a "beach party").
Anyway, if we think the English language is confusing, with our "multiple definition" words such as there, their and they're...That is nothing - the Chinese language basically has four meanings for many, many words; and what they "mean" depends on the tone and the context.
I understand that there are technically 4 "tones", but that only 3 are used most of the time....and depending on what tone is used, that is what the word/phrase means. For example Ma, has 3 "definitions" and supposedly (and I certainly believe this) we have trouble picking out the different tones they are using. I think this is why sometimes it seems like they might be yelling at each other? (unless of course they are just yelling at each other!...fender-benders here are hilarious, I have seen two of them, and CLEARLY the driver at fault is decided strictly based on who is maddest and yells the most!!!)
Further, Southern China has a different tone (or dialect?) than Northern China. Therefore, people from Shanghai can not understand what people in Beijing say, and vice-versa (of course most of the other foreign teachers are all from Tennessee, and when they get really rolling and switch into Southern Drawls, it can also be hard for me to understand what they are saying!)
In terms of the language, there are lots of other differences as well. For example, the Chinese have no way of specifying different sexes, or groups....i.e. he, she, us, you, they etc. (I don't know what these are called - articles? maybe pronouns?...I know they are not verbs...whatever! (P.S. good thing they have me teaching business communication!). The Chinese have just "one thing", and this is why student's often have trouble with this part of a conversation, and will say things like he has gone home (if they were talking about Miranda going home). Because of all these differences, when people speak to each other, to me it all just sounds like one long string of grunts and moans.
Reading and Writing
There is also the whole writing and reading thing! Believe it or not, there are over 5000 characters in their written language.....and just to make it really interesting, there is an "old formal" style of writing, and a "new simplified" character style. I believe this might be one of the reasons the Chinese seem to have such strong memorization skills. They have to learn how to memorize numerous sounds and characters right from the time they are a baby. Of course, it is not like I know this to be one of the reasons, or actually even if they do truly have incredible memorization skills....I just think they do?
In fact, many of the comments above could be complete bullshit. This is just what I have taken away from various conversations, sprinkled in with my own observations and thoughts. In other words, before thinking of any of this stuff as a "fact", some actual "fact checking" might be in order! (Jordyn and Chad would already know this....as sometimes on holiday's if they asked what some landmark was all about, and I didn't know, I'd still babble away and make up some elaborate story (they still laugh about this today!).....but having said that, what the heck, if it gets said enough, it slowly becomes a fact! (right Mom/the family murtled potato's story?)
Sorry, off-topic, and heading back to the discussion on Chinese writing. Supposedly the characters are kind of based on a picture or representation of the object. For example "train" in Chinese (both spoken and written) can be roughly translated into "Fire Car". The reason for this was because back in the old days when they were steam engines, smoke would come billowing out of the pipe - and it kind of looked like a "car on fire" so that is what they called it and how they "drew it".
Jeff (another teacher) says the same thing is true of many of the symbols, namely that they are drawn to kind of represent the object. In addition to this, he says that while there are 5000 characters, there are much fewer common symbols that you need to know in order to be able to actually read something (this makes sense, when was the last time you used a word like Xylophone in a sentence?).....and that even among these more common symbols there are some further "clues" that can help you pick out a word (for example anything mentioning liquid has 3 sort of small comma's attached to it on the top left side of the character...so pop, water, beer, liquid soap etc. etc. would all have this as part of their symbol)
Because the symbols seem so elaborate and detailed, it seems like it should take much longer to write Chinese than English. However Jeff says this is not true and has had numerous writing races with his students......he says that no mater what the material, he will finish at about the same time as the students.
In summary, Chinese is Greek to me (haha).....I have been alone too long I am now starting to laugh at my own written jokes (yikes)...time to get home soon! Rather than end that way, one of the student's described the whole language thing much more eloquently. He stated that our English language has many rules, and is based on logic and patterns. Therefore it comes from the mind, but that Chinese is more natural and artistic, and therefore comes from the heart!
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