Shakespeare in Chinese
To be or not to be…that is the question? Well, apparently that is the question in Chinese as well. In order to ask several questions, you just use descriptor + not descriptor again to form the question.
For example,
Lai bu lai (are you coming or are you not coming)
Hao bu hao (good or not good)
Was Shakespeare actually thinking in Chinese?
More questions
The other way to form a question is to add “ma” to the end of the sentence. The teacher kept making us practice this sound because it is supposed to have no known. As English speakers (especially ones from Lancaster County, PA like myself) we tend to want to go up at the end of a sentence to indicate that it is a question. This is definitely something hard to train yourself out of doing.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Context
This week I had several experiences context; transferring knowledge to a new context, reading or using the language in an authentic context, and remembering words according to context.
Let’s start from the beginning with the good news. My students received a form this week in school that needed to be completed by parents and then returned. There were several translated versions available, so I took this opportunity to look over some Chinese characters in authentic material. I was so excited that I was able to recognize the character for the word “month” and the word “day” and proudly shared this knowledge with my Chinese speaking student who I was giving the form to. She got a smile on her face, but did not seem as thrilled as I was. I expect my students to have a million victories like this every week, so for them simple vocabulary recognition is an expected task.
This weekend I took the Chinatown bus for a weekend trip. Even though I had taken this particular bus before and knew exactly what to expect, I had some illusion that some circumstance would come about in which I would need to save the day with my Chinese skills. While my Spanish skills have “saved the day” in public places before, there was no way that my simple Chinese phrases were going to serve me quite so well.
Then today I had a real opportunity to use my Chinese skills. A Chinese parent was visiting the school and he spoke very little English. With my students, I never had any reservation about practicing my new skills, but with this adult, I could not muster up the courage to do it. On the one hand, I worried that my string of Chinese phrases would just come across as awkward and confusing. On the other hand, I was just too nervous. I racked my brain with everything that I had learned so far to think of the perfect simple phrase that would let him know I am learning Chinese and would like to help him in our school. It was not until tonight in class that I remembered the first word that my teacher said to us 100 times on the first day of class “Huan yin” (Welcome). It would have been the perfect word to use in this situation, but I did not think of the word until I was in the actual context of the place that I had learned it.
The other physical space where I use Chinese is in my car on the way home when I repeat everything that I can remember that we learned that week (sometimes on the phone to my sister). Another classmate mentioned that she pasted her notes on her mirror so that she would practice her numbers as she brushed her hair. I pictured a Marsha Brady image of hair brushing and counting; only the numbers were in Chinese.
Today it was hard getting started in class. I had missed two weeks of class (doctor appointment and elections) so I felt almost like I was starting over. We worked on the words that indicate time/tense. There is no actual past or future tense for verbs in Chinese, so this is indicated through the use of words that signify past, now, or in the future. Besides being a difficult concept to grasp, we combined these words with the literal time words for morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Without a picture, it seemed just like a lot of sounds that had no meaning for me (but isn’t that what all Chinese is to me until it becomes meaningful through pictures, repetition, and personalization?). I decided that if I was going to learn these words, I would need to make pictures to go along with them, practice each one at the correct time of day, or some other trick to make it stick with me. While I am having a lot of fun and my student help has been amazing, my motivation for learning Chinese is not always strong enough to make the extra effort to do all of these little things. Perhaps I need to start thinking seriously about booking a plane ticket to China to kick up a notch my motivation level.
Let’s start from the beginning with the good news. My students received a form this week in school that needed to be completed by parents and then returned. There were several translated versions available, so I took this opportunity to look over some Chinese characters in authentic material. I was so excited that I was able to recognize the character for the word “month” and the word “day” and proudly shared this knowledge with my Chinese speaking student who I was giving the form to. She got a smile on her face, but did not seem as thrilled as I was. I expect my students to have a million victories like this every week, so for them simple vocabulary recognition is an expected task.
This weekend I took the Chinatown bus for a weekend trip. Even though I had taken this particular bus before and knew exactly what to expect, I had some illusion that some circumstance would come about in which I would need to save the day with my Chinese skills. While my Spanish skills have “saved the day” in public places before, there was no way that my simple Chinese phrases were going to serve me quite so well.
Then today I had a real opportunity to use my Chinese skills. A Chinese parent was visiting the school and he spoke very little English. With my students, I never had any reservation about practicing my new skills, but with this adult, I could not muster up the courage to do it. On the one hand, I worried that my string of Chinese phrases would just come across as awkward and confusing. On the other hand, I was just too nervous. I racked my brain with everything that I had learned so far to think of the perfect simple phrase that would let him know I am learning Chinese and would like to help him in our school. It was not until tonight in class that I remembered the first word that my teacher said to us 100 times on the first day of class “Huan yin” (Welcome). It would have been the perfect word to use in this situation, but I did not think of the word until I was in the actual context of the place that I had learned it.
The other physical space where I use Chinese is in my car on the way home when I repeat everything that I can remember that we learned that week (sometimes on the phone to my sister). Another classmate mentioned that she pasted her notes on her mirror so that she would practice her numbers as she brushed her hair. I pictured a Marsha Brady image of hair brushing and counting; only the numbers were in Chinese.
Today it was hard getting started in class. I had missed two weeks of class (doctor appointment and elections) so I felt almost like I was starting over. We worked on the words that indicate time/tense. There is no actual past or future tense for verbs in Chinese, so this is indicated through the use of words that signify past, now, or in the future. Besides being a difficult concept to grasp, we combined these words with the literal time words for morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Without a picture, it seemed just like a lot of sounds that had no meaning for me (but isn’t that what all Chinese is to me until it becomes meaningful through pictures, repetition, and personalization?). I decided that if I was going to learn these words, I would need to make pictures to go along with them, practice each one at the correct time of day, or some other trick to make it stick with me. While I am having a lot of fun and my student help has been amazing, my motivation for learning Chinese is not always strong enough to make the extra effort to do all of these little things. Perhaps I need to start thinking seriously about booking a plane ticket to China to kick up a notch my motivation level.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)