I dive back into the Chinese-only environment... Well, it is pretty intense. The other foreigners have been gone for over a week now, and I still have another solid month before they return. I haven't done any traveling this summer so far, and right now, it looks as though I will stay in Baoding the whole summer. Most days, I am spending much of my time studying Chinese. Because of this, the Chinese language has been a big part of everything I do and experience. The studying can be pretty intense at times, especially with the character writing. Right now, I am buried in backlog, and I spend a solid two hours each day just on writing.
What I want to do today is talk a bit about how I experience the language. To me, Chinese is not different. It feels like an extension to English. I don't feel like I am really switching anything, and there is really no difference in the experience. Most of the time, the communication requires me to translate from Chinese to English, and English to Chinese. The thinking is mostly (around 95% or more) done in English, and the information is remembered in English, not Chinese. This means that if someone were to ask me which language was used in a conversation I had with someone that can speak both languages, I usually can't remember for sure if the other person is able to speak English. It may seem like I am contradicting myself by my description above, but I don't really feel like I am. To me, it is just communicating. When I first moved here, a colleague told me that people who are able to speak English really well will say that sometimes they need a few moments to switch to English mode. I haven't experienced this yet, although I will say that I speak Chinese better at certain times than other times. I tend not to do as well when I first wake up.
I was watching a video about Daniel Tammet, a British man with an extraordinary talent with numbers. In the video, he said that when he is doing calculations, he is able to associate the numbers with images of shapes in his mind. When there is a mistake or a change in number order, he experiences emotion. Now, I don't intend to say that I possess the same gift as Daniel, but I can say that I can relate somewhat to that feeling. Over the past few months, I have found that the characters are becoming part of me. What I mean is that sometimes, I can't remember how to write a character, but if I just start to write, usually I find that I am able to remember the character in the end. If I sense a mistake, I don't feel right. This is something that I have felt only in the past few month or so, it hasn't always been like this. I don't experience this with English, just with Chinese. I may have commented elsewhere that I am not a big fan of the oral language, but I really enjoy (usually) working with the characters.
So basically, I am in a constant foreign environment, and I cannot easily use the language barrier excuse to help me avoid problems. It doesn't work as well. Now, people are more intense, and they are not as forgiving as they were when they really couldn't understand me. Well, the other day, I pulled the old 'I can't understand you because I am a foreigner' technique, and I was able to pull it off! Recently I signed up with Taobao, an online store, similar to Amazon.com in the states. Basically, I got a call from a delivery company that they wanted to deliver a package to me. I wasn't at home when they called, but I told them that I would be home within a half hour. After 20 minutes, I called them and told them I was at home, and the driver asked me to go to the university gate to retrieve my package. This is about a half kilometer walk in the rain, and basically I just didn't feel like doing it, nor did I feel as though I should have to. I told the man that he was looking at the wrong address, and told him my address, and he repeated his request. I pretended not to understand him, and finally, he gave up and delivered it to my apartment.... I got away with it, but honestly, I don't expect that the local people would tolerate this either. The thing is that some of these things I am talking about are thought of differently in China. For example, time, and certain types of honesty... People, in certain cases, are expected to be dishonest, and I am starting to think in this way myself! The local culture is beginning to change me!
Well, I don't mean to say that I am anywhere near having this thing mastered... Far from it. Life here is very complex, and I know I have remarked about this elsewhere, but I will say it again now..... people, in a fundamental way, think completely different from the way I think about things that seem so common and ordinary. These differences run deep, and often, it is not possible to simply explain it away... If you have lived here for any period of time, I am sure you can relate at least a little to what I am talking about.
OK, that's all I've got tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment