Learning Chinese – Part I. 另一种语言

.

It is not easy learning another language. Especially Chinese which is universally acknowledge as one of the most difficult in the world. But I had to do it. Why? Being of Chinese descent is a good reason. But more so because I once read that –

If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language.
-Andrew Cohen, professor of linguistics (1944- )
如果你只会一种语言,你就是它的暴政囚犯.

rúguǒ nǐ zhǐhuì yīzhǒng yǔyán, nǐ jiùshì nà yǔyán de bàozhèng qiúfàn

And you never know how true that is until you start to learn another language. You thought the language you mastered contained all you need and you took pride in the beauty of your language until you took up another and see a whole new world. It will not in any way diminish the appreciation of your own language, but enhance it by broadening your views. Federico Fellini puts it better –

A different language is a different vision of life.
另一种语言是生活的另一种眼光.
lìngyīzhǒng yǔyán shì lìngyīzhǒng yǎnguāng

Learning another language is like stepping through the door to another dimension. You can only go to that dimension if you have that magic key, and that magic key is its language. The greater your command of that language, the richer is the unfolding scenery. I am determined that it is worth the sacrifice for the Czech 捷克人 jiékèrén said it is living a new life.

Kolik jazyků znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem.
You live a new life for every new language you speak.
If you know only one language, you live only once.
(Czech proverb)

If you followed this blog, you will already know how much I gained by travelling down this unfamiliar road. The experience I had, the people I met, the knowledge I gained; I will never have enjoyed that had I not made those “desperate” attempts to bridge the gap. It was not all fun. I found myself in some rather uncomfortable situations when my attempt to communicate fell flat. I found people at the other end of the divide who could not warm up to me because I could not effectively communicate (being a rather reserved person did not help either). I was not “one of them” because I could not speak their lingo. The problem is not with them. The problem is with of my command of the language. And only I can do something about it. For the Russian 苏联人 Sūliánrén said –

Language is not honey but it can bind everything (person).

语言不是蜜，却可粘住一切东西。
yǔyán bùshì mì, quèkě zhānzhù yīqiè dōngxi.

I am under no illusion how difficult this will be. But I know how much I stand to gain. I can only hope it will get easier as it goes along for everything is more difficult at the start. 凡是总是由难而易 fánshì zǒngshì yóunán éryì. After all Chinese has an old saying that said “Bitter first, sweet later” 先苦后甜 xiānkǔhòutián…

.

Trying Hard to Chew 贪多嚼不烂

Sitting in the large hall with a few hundred other participants, the thought I must have bitten off more than I could chew 贪多嚼不烂 tānduō jiáobulàn crossed my mind. Here I was attending a seminar given totally in Mandarin on emotion 情绪 qíng xù when I did not even know what this word was before I signed up. When I started this blog, I intended to immerse myself into the Chinese speaking world to see what rubs off besides the language. Anyway, I believed that to really learn something, one has to leave familiar ground and extend beyond our comfort zone.

So there I sat, stretching my ears to pick up unfamiliar sounds, words and phrases from 1 p.m. in the afternoon to 9 p.m. at night. At the end, my ears were exhausted and my head was swimming but I was still thinking in English. I could comprehend maybe 80% to 90% of what was conveyed in general (and much less word for word) and which was not good enough for I would not want the doctor who is deciding whether I am sane or not to only understand 90% of what I was saying and guessing the rest!

This team of experts from Taiwan was led by Dr. Xu TianSheng 许添盛 (also Hsu Tien-Sheng due to the way Chinese is pronounced in English). They asked a provocative question – did you invite your depression 忧郁症 yōuyùzhèng, chronic diseases 慢性病 mànxìngbìng and cancer 癌症 áizhèng to be your spokesman? All 5 talks were preceded by a short sketch that impressed upon the audience how little control we have on our emotions. How we let powerful emotions such as panic 恐慌 kǒnghuāng, anxiety 焦虑 jiāolǜ, anger 愤怒 fènnù, self-reproach 自责 zìzé and jealousy 妒忌 dùjì rule us. I was swarmed not only by feelings but also words of feelings! Now I was beginning to feel a little inadequate, 不自量力 bùzìliànglì, of trying to run before I could walk. “没关系” méi guānxi (never mind), I tried to console myself. A missed word or two here and there was not going to trip me.

The speakers told us how we recognize these emotions as negative so we strived to restrain and suppress them. But this misunderstanding slowly and gradually leads to a distortion of our energy that affected both our physical and mental health. And as a result, we became afflicted with diseases. It also resulted in wasting a precious opportunity to reflect on what our body and emotion is trying to tell us. I was beginning to understand what 普悦 pǔyuè meant (see April 5 post on Emotional Utopia) when she told us that she listened to what her cancer was saying to her…

.

(to be continued…)