Thursday, December 18, 2003
Ken and Judy's Christmas Tree in China
Merry Christmas everyone!
Monday, December 15, 2003
Staying In Character - Learning Chinese
See photos related to this posting.
Yesterday in class, Judy asked a question in Chinese. Immediately there were great bursts of laughter, and many suggestions of how to pronounce the words correctly. She accepted the advice, but pointed out that she didn’t laugh at them when they spoke in English! They were all suitably contrite, with many an “I’m sorry, teacher” throughout the room.
Students asked Ken what we do when we went shopping for fruits and vegetables at the neighborhood stalls, when we don’t know the names of the items? Ken told them that there were two kinds of vegetables and fruits - zhige and nage (jayguh and nahguh) --”this one” and “that one”. As many travelers in foreign lands know, sign language - especially pointing – can work very well, when you’re after the necessities!
We were fortunate enough to have a very good Chinese teacher for a few months before we arrived here. Brain Mullin, with his amazing talent for languages, was very helpful in teaching us some basic vocabulary, and also explaining how the Chinese language works. Therefore, we came with some understanding, which has helped us in our efforts to communicate.
After we’d been here for about 6 weeks, we decided we should learn more about the language. One of the teachers at the school was brave enough to take us on. Su Kuh, whose English name is Jerri, is in her mid-twenties, and has been teaching English at Huairou Yi Zhong for 3 years. She is in the same office with Ken, and they both teach Senior 2 students. Jerri comes every Monday night for an hour, answers our many questions about words and phrases we’ve heard (but not understood) during the week, and then takes us through vocabulary and sentences which will be useful both at school and in our travels. We’ve bought a small tape recorder/player which Jerri uses to pronounce the words correctly for us. During the week, we’re constantly saying, “How did Jerri pronounce this?” We go to the tape and play her back.
Of course, we are surrounded by the Chinese language. All the signs and storefront advertising, all the newspapers and magazines, all the people gossiping in the street, all the sales staff, the restaurant staff, the bus and taxi drivers, all the students and most of the teachers at school, all the school notices and announcements, all the school meetings and lectures. Everything in the grocery store is in Chinese, but Judy is getting very good at figuring out what the equivalent instructions in English might be on a soup package or a package of frozen dumplings in the freezer section. There are usually many diagrams with the cooking instructions, and that helps. And so we feel that we’re managing!
Yesterday Judy went to the local mall to buy a pair of tweed pants. She knew she was a size 24. A salesgirl helped her select a couple of pairs to try on. They agreed that one pair were too short (Judy’s much taller than an average Chinese woman) but that the other pair fit well but needed to be shortened by about 2 inches. Once Judy had paid for the pants, the clerk took her to the in-store alterations department, where she watched the pants being cut, the raw edge refinished and hemmed. They did all this with minimal Chinese and no English. It was fine.
Ken decided that we needed new calling cards to give to our friends here, so that they would know our street and email addresses, and our telephone number. With some help from Keyan, he was able to order these cards, pay for them and pick them up a few days later. No problem.
Ken has been dealing with a tailor who has his shop across the street from our apartment. He has made many visits to have clothing made, and gone back again for fittings and to pick up the completed item. All of this has been negotiated in Chinese, and very successfully too. Keyan has helped when details were required.
In class we are both good at “you mai you zhege “, do you have or don’t you have this? Well if you do, “na chu “, ... find it. When someone admits to having lost the latest class handout, students get a real charge out of Ken saying “mai you!” ... (you don’t have it !), suitably intoned in mock Chinese outrage, all play acted of course, with gesticulations and an earnest “thank you teacher” when given a replacement.
We’ve learned that the Chinese language is very basic and simple. There is no plural form of nouns or verbs, no verb tenses, no differentiated pronouns (his, hers, its), no definite or indefinite articles (the, a). The vocabulary is composed of words with one or two syllables, and many words are add-ons of other basic words. For example, “dian” is store. “Yao dian” is a drug store; “mianbao dian” is a bakery; “lifa dian” is the hairdresser’s. However, unlike many European languages based on Greek and Latin roots, where one can figure out the meaning by parsing the word’s origins, there is no such cross over for us with Chinese, except for words that have come into the language recently. For example, kafei is coffee, qiaokeli is chocolate (q is pronounced as ch in Chinese) and kele is coca cola.
From our observations, Chinese uses numbers to advantage. The days of the week, starting on Monday, are numbered - day one (xingqi yi), day two (xingqi er) and so on. Sunday is the exception - xinqi tian - heaven day. The months of the year are numbers - first month (yi yue), second month (er yue), and so on. People’s names often have numbers in them – Hang Yi Peng is the number one Hang child (yi is one). You can imagine the puzzlement of Chinese English speakers when they find out that although December is the 12th month of the year, its name comes from the Roman number ten (decem). The same thing applies to September, October and November! (seven, eight and nine in Roman terms). It’s a logic that escapes most native English speakers too.
However, there are a few unusual aspects to Chinese. The first is the four tones, which are essential to learn, but very difficult to discern to a Western ear! Because there are only so many ways to combine sounds, the Chinese quadruple their vocabulary by assigning one of four different tones to the same word.
The tones are numbered one through 4. The first tone is high and level; the second rises; the third dips and rises; and the fourth falls sharply, like a military command. Using the wrong tone for a word can create fits of laughter to native Chinese speakers, and bafflement to the Western speaker. Ask us, we know! The Chinese word for a teacher is “laoshi”. The Chinese word for a mouse or a rat is “laoshu”. Only the tone of the “shi” distinguishes the meaning. We have called ourselves mice/rats when we meant to say we were teachers!
The second unusual aspect is the use of measure words for all nouns. We have this in English in such things as a piece of cake, a spool of thread. In Chinese, this applies to categories of words. We enjoy reading about these words, but doubt that we will ever be sophisticated enough to use them correctly. For example, the measure word for objects with a handle or with something a person can hold, such as a brush, a knife, keys or umbrellas is “ba”; for flowers and clouds, use “duo”; for long, thin objects use “gen”; and for long narrow things, such as a towel, boat, pair of trousers, skirt, river, road, street, snake, fish, dog (!!!) use “tiao”. Perhaps we should reconsider the words basic and simple when describing the Chinese language?
We are getting better with the spoken Chinese, and amazingly, we’re beginning to recognize some of the Chinese characters. There are 54,768 Chinese characters, but we are relieved to know only 4500 are in general use in daily life. Sometimes our Chinese friends are stumped by a character, and have to look it up or try to understand it in context. This makes us feel better! Very quickly we learned which was the men’s and which the women’s washrooms! However, in most places, there are pictures of someone in pants and someone in a skirt. We have Keyan’s home address and our address on cards, which we show the taxi driver when we go visiting. Last night we were bold enough to give the taxi driver our address in Chinese rather than using our card. We ended up only one stop beyond our destination! These add to the small language triumphs of the day. If we need to explain something in Chinese, we ask one of the teachers to write it out for us. Similarly, we ask them to translate something which is in Chinese, such as the weekly school schedule. We’ve even taken photos of Chinese signs so that we can ask someone to translate it for us later on. It all works out.
We have mastered the characters for food items such as types of meat, and for types of fabric when we go shopping. We know the characters for silk, wool, cotton and so on. Knowing the characters for silk is especially helpful when shopping -- every stall salesperson insists that the item is pure silk, and of course, many of them are not. We were innocent only once to this scam!
And there is something to be said for not being able to understand the barrage of Chinese signs, and the constant conversations around us. We don’t have to pay attention! This in itself is a novelty we hadn’t expected. In Canada, we pay attention to it all, and often suffer information overload. Not so here. When we do tune in to conversations, we’ve noticed that there is a particular bark to the Beijinger’s pronunciation, which comes down hard on the “r” sounds, often changing an ending from “an” to “ar”. For example, a major heritage shopping street and tourist mecca in Beijing is called Dachelan, but pronounced Dachelar by Beijingers. Jerri has often pointed this out to us in our lessons, stressing that this is the “Beijing accent”.
And the other side of this is viewing English from a non-speaker’s point of view. We are both in offices with other English teachers, and are often asked to explain puzzles in our language. How do we pronounce heroine and heroin to distinguish their meaning? What about a heroine who shoots heroin? What’s the difference between an event and an incident? Between persuade and urge? These have put us on our mark and make us analyze our own language, which is good for us. And of course, in class we are always explaining the meanings of words. We find our students don’t know Santa Claus, but do know Father Christmas. But they know “and so on” and they enjoy saying “Oh, my God!”, “Wow!” (which we taught them) and BANG! especially when it’s accompanied by whacking the desk at the same time.
Their English is surprisingly good. They have been learning the language for about 6 years. When we think that they’ve had to learn a completely different language notation system (the alphabet) as well as vocabulary and pronunciation, they are doing quite well! They learn by speaking in unison, which we find allows the weak students to hide. So we ask individuals to repeat the word, phrase or sentence, usually down one row at a time. Their favorite interval expression is “nige” (neegah) which is equivalent to “um”, “er” or “ah”. Most of their English teachers were trained to speak with a British accent, and so our students have the same accents. They say “I caahnt” when they mean “I can’t”. They also have a distinctly British vocabulary, using words like flat for apartment, sweets for candy. They use over the top phrases like “It is my pleasure” and many bow as they say good morning or good afternoon when they pass us on campus. In the course of a day, we respond to endless “Hello!s”, many delivered with the force of a command - the fourth tone. These must be answered! Students are most disappointed if we don’t respond.
All in all, we feel we’ve moved past the desperate stage, when we thought we wouldn’t get fed, clothed or transported, nor move beyond life’s necessities. We are always delighted when a Chinese person responds to whatever we have to say in their language, for instance, “mei wen ti” (no problem) - third tone, second tone, fourth tone. However, our Chinese is very much a work in progress. And so we close by wishing you “zaijian” (goodbye!).
See photos related to this posting.
Yesterday in class, Judy asked a question in Chinese. Immediately there were great bursts of laughter, and many suggestions of how to pronounce the words correctly. She accepted the advice, but pointed out that she didn’t laugh at them when they spoke in English! They were all suitably contrite, with many an “I’m sorry, teacher” throughout the room.
Students asked Ken what we do when we went shopping for fruits and vegetables at the neighborhood stalls, when we don’t know the names of the items? Ken told them that there were two kinds of vegetables and fruits - zhige and nage (jayguh and nahguh) --”this one” and “that one”. As many travelers in foreign lands know, sign language - especially pointing – can work very well, when you’re after the necessities!
We were fortunate enough to have a very good Chinese teacher for a few months before we arrived here. Brain Mullin, with his amazing talent for languages, was very helpful in teaching us some basic vocabulary, and also explaining how the Chinese language works. Therefore, we came with some understanding, which has helped us in our efforts to communicate.
After we’d been here for about 6 weeks, we decided we should learn more about the language. One of the teachers at the school was brave enough to take us on. Su Kuh, whose English name is Jerri, is in her mid-twenties, and has been teaching English at Huairou Yi Zhong for 3 years. She is in the same office with Ken, and they both teach Senior 2 students. Jerri comes every Monday night for an hour, answers our many questions about words and phrases we’ve heard (but not understood) during the week, and then takes us through vocabulary and sentences which will be useful both at school and in our travels. We’ve bought a small tape recorder/player which Jerri uses to pronounce the words correctly for us. During the week, we’re constantly saying, “How did Jerri pronounce this?” We go to the tape and play her back.
Of course, we are surrounded by the Chinese language. All the signs and storefront advertising, all the newspapers and magazines, all the people gossiping in the street, all the sales staff, the restaurant staff, the bus and taxi drivers, all the students and most of the teachers at school, all the school notices and announcements, all the school meetings and lectures. Everything in the grocery store is in Chinese, but Judy is getting very good at figuring out what the equivalent instructions in English might be on a soup package or a package of frozen dumplings in the freezer section. There are usually many diagrams with the cooking instructions, and that helps. And so we feel that we’re managing!
Yesterday Judy went to the local mall to buy a pair of tweed pants. She knew she was a size 24. A salesgirl helped her select a couple of pairs to try on. They agreed that one pair were too short (Judy’s much taller than an average Chinese woman) but that the other pair fit well but needed to be shortened by about 2 inches. Once Judy had paid for the pants, the clerk took her to the in-store alterations department, where she watched the pants being cut, the raw edge refinished and hemmed. They did all this with minimal Chinese and no English. It was fine.
Ken decided that we needed new calling cards to give to our friends here, so that they would know our street and email addresses, and our telephone number. With some help from Keyan, he was able to order these cards, pay for them and pick them up a few days later. No problem.
Ken has been dealing with a tailor who has his shop across the street from our apartment. He has made many visits to have clothing made, and gone back again for fittings and to pick up the completed item. All of this has been negotiated in Chinese, and very successfully too. Keyan has helped when details were required.
In class we are both good at “you mai you zhege “, do you have or don’t you have this? Well if you do, “na chu “, ... find it. When someone admits to having lost the latest class handout, students get a real charge out of Ken saying “mai you!” ... (you don’t have it !), suitably intoned in mock Chinese outrage, all play acted of course, with gesticulations and an earnest “thank you teacher” when given a replacement.
We’ve learned that the Chinese language is very basic and simple. There is no plural form of nouns or verbs, no verb tenses, no differentiated pronouns (his, hers, its), no definite or indefinite articles (the, a). The vocabulary is composed of words with one or two syllables, and many words are add-ons of other basic words. For example, “dian” is store. “Yao dian” is a drug store; “mianbao dian” is a bakery; “lifa dian” is the hairdresser’s. However, unlike many European languages based on Greek and Latin roots, where one can figure out the meaning by parsing the word’s origins, there is no such cross over for us with Chinese, except for words that have come into the language recently. For example, kafei is coffee, qiaokeli is chocolate (q is pronounced as ch in Chinese) and kele is coca cola.
From our observations, Chinese uses numbers to advantage. The days of the week, starting on Monday, are numbered - day one (xingqi yi), day two (xingqi er) and so on. Sunday is the exception - xinqi tian - heaven day. The months of the year are numbers - first month (yi yue), second month (er yue), and so on. People’s names often have numbers in them – Hang Yi Peng is the number one Hang child (yi is one). You can imagine the puzzlement of Chinese English speakers when they find out that although December is the 12th month of the year, its name comes from the Roman number ten (decem). The same thing applies to September, October and November! (seven, eight and nine in Roman terms). It’s a logic that escapes most native English speakers too.
However, there are a few unusual aspects to Chinese. The first is the four tones, which are essential to learn, but very difficult to discern to a Western ear! Because there are only so many ways to combine sounds, the Chinese quadruple their vocabulary by assigning one of four different tones to the same word.
The tones are numbered one through 4. The first tone is high and level; the second rises; the third dips and rises; and the fourth falls sharply, like a military command. Using the wrong tone for a word can create fits of laughter to native Chinese speakers, and bafflement to the Western speaker. Ask us, we know! The Chinese word for a teacher is “laoshi”. The Chinese word for a mouse or a rat is “laoshu”. Only the tone of the “shi” distinguishes the meaning. We have called ourselves mice/rats when we meant to say we were teachers!
The second unusual aspect is the use of measure words for all nouns. We have this in English in such things as a piece of cake, a spool of thread. In Chinese, this applies to categories of words. We enjoy reading about these words, but doubt that we will ever be sophisticated enough to use them correctly. For example, the measure word for objects with a handle or with something a person can hold, such as a brush, a knife, keys or umbrellas is “ba”; for flowers and clouds, use “duo”; for long, thin objects use “gen”; and for long narrow things, such as a towel, boat, pair of trousers, skirt, river, road, street, snake, fish, dog (!!!) use “tiao”. Perhaps we should reconsider the words basic and simple when describing the Chinese language?
We are getting better with the spoken Chinese, and amazingly, we’re beginning to recognize some of the Chinese characters. There are 54,768 Chinese characters, but we are relieved to know only 4500 are in general use in daily life. Sometimes our Chinese friends are stumped by a character, and have to look it up or try to understand it in context. This makes us feel better! Very quickly we learned which was the men’s and which the women’s washrooms! However, in most places, there are pictures of someone in pants and someone in a skirt. We have Keyan’s home address and our address on cards, which we show the taxi driver when we go visiting. Last night we were bold enough to give the taxi driver our address in Chinese rather than using our card. We ended up only one stop beyond our destination! These add to the small language triumphs of the day. If we need to explain something in Chinese, we ask one of the teachers to write it out for us. Similarly, we ask them to translate something which is in Chinese, such as the weekly school schedule. We’ve even taken photos of Chinese signs so that we can ask someone to translate it for us later on. It all works out.
We have mastered the characters for food items such as types of meat, and for types of fabric when we go shopping. We know the characters for silk, wool, cotton and so on. Knowing the characters for silk is especially helpful when shopping -- every stall salesperson insists that the item is pure silk, and of course, many of them are not. We were innocent only once to this scam!
And there is something to be said for not being able to understand the barrage of Chinese signs, and the constant conversations around us. We don’t have to pay attention! This in itself is a novelty we hadn’t expected. In Canada, we pay attention to it all, and often suffer information overload. Not so here. When we do tune in to conversations, we’ve noticed that there is a particular bark to the Beijinger’s pronunciation, which comes down hard on the “r” sounds, often changing an ending from “an” to “ar”. For example, a major heritage shopping street and tourist mecca in Beijing is called Dachelan, but pronounced Dachelar by Beijingers. Jerri has often pointed this out to us in our lessons, stressing that this is the “Beijing accent”.
And the other side of this is viewing English from a non-speaker’s point of view. We are both in offices with other English teachers, and are often asked to explain puzzles in our language. How do we pronounce heroine and heroin to distinguish their meaning? What about a heroine who shoots heroin? What’s the difference between an event and an incident? Between persuade and urge? These have put us on our mark and make us analyze our own language, which is good for us. And of course, in class we are always explaining the meanings of words. We find our students don’t know Santa Claus, but do know Father Christmas. But they know “and so on” and they enjoy saying “Oh, my God!”, “Wow!” (which we taught them) and BANG! especially when it’s accompanied by whacking the desk at the same time.
Their English is surprisingly good. They have been learning the language for about 6 years. When we think that they’ve had to learn a completely different language notation system (the alphabet) as well as vocabulary and pronunciation, they are doing quite well! They learn by speaking in unison, which we find allows the weak students to hide. So we ask individuals to repeat the word, phrase or sentence, usually down one row at a time. Their favorite interval expression is “nige” (neegah) which is equivalent to “um”, “er” or “ah”. Most of their English teachers were trained to speak with a British accent, and so our students have the same accents. They say “I caahnt” when they mean “I can’t”. They also have a distinctly British vocabulary, using words like flat for apartment, sweets for candy. They use over the top phrases like “It is my pleasure” and many bow as they say good morning or good afternoon when they pass us on campus. In the course of a day, we respond to endless “Hello!s”, many delivered with the force of a command - the fourth tone. These must be answered! Students are most disappointed if we don’t respond.
All in all, we feel we’ve moved past the desperate stage, when we thought we wouldn’t get fed, clothed or transported, nor move beyond life’s necessities. We are always delighted when a Chinese person responds to whatever we have to say in their language, for instance, “mei wen ti” (no problem) - third tone, second tone, fourth tone. However, our Chinese is very much a work in progress. And so we close by wishing you “zaijian” (goodbye!).
All text and photography © copyright Harkaway, 2003 - 2004
