Language as a tool

The screwdriver is a tool. It consists of a head and a handle. Many people know how to use a screwdriver: you press the tip of the head on the head of a screw and twist.

The traffic light is a tool. It consists of three lights—a red, a yellow and a green. The use of this tool involves two parties: the traffic controller and the road-user. The traffic controller (though nowadays a robot in most cases) so maneuvers the combination of the three lights that the road-user understands how he is allowed to use the road. When a road-user “understands” the traffic light signal, he is known to be able to “decode” the signal, that is, he knows that the red means “stop” and green means “go”, etc. As such, the traffic light is a tool of “communication”. The use of a tool of communication involves two parties: the one who codes it and the one who decodes it.

Music is a tool and it is a tool of communication as well. This tool consists of more elements than what the traffic light does. It consists of pitch, rhythm, tempo, etc. The composer so maneuvers those elements that a tune is composed and at a later time is played by a vocalist or an instrument player. The ability of composing a piece of tune is in most cases acquired through training on the part of the composer. He must learn to know about the pitch, about the rhythm, about the tempo, etc. and learn how they can work together in music. On the part of the listeners, however, some are trained to “decode” music and many are not trained. In most cases, the trained listeners can decode music better than those who are not trained. Trained listeners understand better what the composer means to express in his music. When a listener understands a music piece, its composer is happy. When a composer has produced a piece but has not seen anyone understand it, he may not feel bothered; he is satisfied when he feels he has expressed in the piece how he feels within him. In the case where the composer expects the music to be understood, music is used as a tool of communication; in the case where the composer does not expect too much on the part of the listener, music is used as a tool of expression—the composer uses music only to express how he feels within him.

Language is a tool. In almost all cases, language is used as a tool of communication, especially in daily life. Language as a tool consists of vocabulary and grammar. The use of this tool involves two parties: the speaker and the listener. To produce an utterance, the speaker so maneuvers the vocabulary and grammar that a sentence is produced. The native speakers of a language start to be trained to maneuver the vocabulary and grammar since they were born. When they are grown up they have learned to use the tool—they have learned to speak in that language and understand it spoken. In almost all cases they are not aware of the process where they were undergoing training. However, in the case of learning a foreign language, a student will have to attentively learn about the vocabulary and the grammar and anything about that target language and will have to attentively observe how the speakers of that language use the language so that he can also use that language.

A screwdriver is a tool, the traffic light is a tool, music is a tool and language is a tool. There are many other tools in this world. Some tools are more widely used than others. Some tools are easier to learn to use than others. Language is a tool that is very widely used and is not too easy to learn to use.

When learning Mandarin: What do you do when you have no one to speak to?

I got an email from a former student of mine,  who wrote: 

Hi James

I took a few of your classes. Ni hao.

I really need to improve my Mandarin especially in business situations. As you may recall I took the advanced level last fall and I liked it but did not feel super stretched. Since then I have been reading a lot but I realized never speak out loud. You once told me that language lives in the air. So I need to speak more but also would like to really be challenged.

Any suggestions??

Kind regards
Bregg

 

 

 

The following is what I wrote to him:

Hi Bregg, 

Glad to receive your mail.

I have thought about it for a couple of days. Well, you know what, yours is really a tough question.

It goes without saying you MUST speak it when you learn a language. But on the other hand, it is a universal problem for most foreign language learners that they don’t have people to speak to; they don’t have chances to speak.

What can I suggest then? Let’s consider the following:

1) Pick at one (or several, but at least one) of your friends who does speak Mandarin and talk to him. Always try to find chances to speak to him. Tell yourself that you will never speak English with him but Mandarin; pretend that he does not know English and when you are speaking with him pretend that you do not know English.

2) Find one or more talk-mates. Some of my students do this. They found talk-mates on www.craigslist.com. One of them has three talk-mates and meet them three times per week. The talk-mates are Mandarin native speakers living in Vancouver. Though those talkmates are not teachers and therefore do not talk in a way that a teacher does, it is a help to talk to them. I highly suggest this.

3) Speak to yourself.   This sounds like a crazy suggestion. Yes, when you do speak to yourself, you do look crazy. But you speak to yourself alone in an empty room where no one will find you crazy. Relax and close your eyes if you wish. Imagine you have a guest in front of you and begin telling him about what you saw on your way home, about what you did last weekend, why you did not buy the printer you saw last week in Future Shop, etc. When you are not sure how to express yourself at some point, stop and look up a dictionary. This should make you realize it is after all an excellent way to practice speaking where you can keep your own pace and you have the time completely to yourself.

4) Read out loud. Take up something that is about the right level for you and read it out loud. Reading is different from speaking in that the latter is a process of active message production while the former is not essentially a message production. But it is still very helpful in training the speaker in articulation of messages. Try it and you will see how it can work for you. 5) Scribble. By this I mean writing “journals”. Just write anything that comes to your mind. Never mind whether what you write makes sense. You are happy so long as what you write is Mandarin. You may ask what has writing to do with speaking. Well,both writing and speaking are a matter of message production, one using a pen and the other using your mouth. The psychological processes are the same. When you cannot even write coherently it is not likely you can speak coherently. If you cannot write characters, just write pinyin.

Well, those are what I have at the moment. What do you think?

James

Don’t write yet; listen

When a teacher gives the class a word or a phrase, say, 公司, many student are apt to ask the teacher, “How do you spell it?” At this, the teacher may write the pinyin on the board. The students then hasten to copy the pinyin down in their notebook, reading to themselves the pinyin. A serious problem could occur here! If you were the student, I would like to ask you, “Do you know pinyin really well?” If yes, that’s fine. But the fact is 9 out of 10 chances are a student at this level does NOT know pinyin well enough; if he did, he could very well be at the advanced level and in that case he would not even ask the teacher for the pinyin! If, then, he does not know pinyin well enough, though he has written down the pinyin for 公司as “gongsi” he could probably make mistakes in reading it. He may, say, pronounce “gong” as something like gong as he would when reading the English word gong (a musical instrument). He may read si as something “see”. Did you see that a “short-circuit” occurred there—he did not bother to listen carefully how the teacher pronounced the word; his ears did not try to analyse the sound; he did not try to mimic the sound. Instead, he read what he wrote down from the board, which, unfortunately, he mispronounced! So, next time try not to ask the teacher for the “spelling” but listen. Imitate the teacher by saying it out loud. If you are wrong, the teacher will correct you. If you do want to write, write down what you think the sound is like—even though your spelling might not be exact to the teacher’s. It is you who will read it again, after all, not others.

On the Two Types of Students

Students enrolled in“higher level” classes often fall in two categories: those who have acquired their much Mandarin in real life and those who have acquired their much Mandarin by attending Mandarin classes on lower levels.

Learning a language in real life is radically different from learning a language in classroom. Therefore students of the former category are radically different in their orientation toward learning the language from those of the latter category.

Though the language learned in the classroom might not feel as “genuine” as that learned in real life, the experiences in learning the language in the classroom certainly should have a very positive impact on the students’ orientation toward learning the language. An important effect of this impact is that those students should have learned “how to learn” a language.

They should have learned that by responding to the teacher in the target language, however limited their competence in it could be, they are actually learning the language.

They should have learned by observing how other students respond to the teacher and/or responding to peers they are learning on their own part.

They should have learned that when a peer student is answering the teacher’s question, they are wise to answer the same question in their heart, comparing how they could be different from or the same as the student who is answering the question.

They should have learned that it could be very unrealistic, and frustrating too, to expect to understand “every single element” the teacher works on in the class. They know that they are well off enough to have grasped what they have happened to get already.

They should have learned that the target language is not supposed to be comparable “element to element” to their own languages. What they expect is they just take what is taught them “as is”; they will be able to use them in no time.

In summery, years’ of classroom learning has taught those students not only the target language but also “how to learn” the target language.

Learning a Language: Learning Biology vs Learning to Play the Piano

Would you compare learning a language to learning biology or would you compare it to learning to play the piano?

When I put this question to my class the other day, one of them answered: “Certainly to playing the piano.” When asked why, she said, “In both of them there’s a lot of tune.”

I said, “Yes, there is a lot of tune in both of them but how about if I compare it to swimming?”

She right away took the hint and concluded that learning a language is better compared to learning to play the piano (or swimming J) than learning the biology.

What do I mean?

Let’s look at what we do when learning biology. When learning biology, we work on the anatomy of creatures learning to know what it is like and how it works.

Then what do you do when learning to play the piano? You are trained (or you train yourself) to maneuver your limbs so that you can play a tune on the piano.

What do you do then when learning a language? The teacher may show you the anatomy of the target language by explaining to you the vocabulary and grammar. Do you think that on your side your job is to understand the teacher and memorize all you learn? You are right. But an even more important phase is ignored—When learning a language you are learning to maneuver your mouth and mind so that you can produce an utterance in that target language. (Learning to write down the utterance is a minor thing.)

So, learning biology is about “knowing” and learning to play the piano (or swimming) is about “doing”.

That having been said, here is the difference between learning biology and learning to play the piano: when learning the former, you learn to know how what you learn works while when learning to play the piano you learn to work yourself so that you can play a tune.

Have you realized what I am trying to say about learning a language? When learning a language what you are supposed to do is to practically use your mind and mouth and speak. You must not stop when, say, taking Mandarin for example, you have learned that

“wo” is “I”
“hui” is “can”
“kaiche” is “to drive”

You must testify by interacting with people, or with your partner in class, to see that you can make people know you can drive by uttering a statement of:

“Wo hui kaiche.”

On the name of “中国(Zhōnɡ Guó)”

“中国(Zhōnɡ Guó)” is the short form of the full term “中华民国(Zhōnɡ Huá Mín Guó)” which was established under the leadership of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1911 who initiated and led the 辛亥革命(Xīn Hài Gé Mìnɡ) which ended up overthrowing the 清(Qīnɡ) dynasty, the last dynasty in China, establishing the Republic.

In 1949, when 共产党(Gònɡ Chǎn Dǎnɡ) defeated 国民党(Guó Mín Dǎnɡ), the former established 中华人民共和国(Zhōnɡ Huá Rén Mín Gònɡ Hé Guó). The short form of 中华人民共和国(ZhōnɡHuá Rén Mín Gònɡ Hé Guó) is also “中国(Zhōnɡ Guó)”.

民国(Mín Guó) is public and 共和国(Gònɡ Hé Guó) is also public or “republic”. 人民共和国(Rén Mín Gònɡ Hé Guó) is “the people’s republic”. Therefore, “中华民国(Zhōnɡ Huá Mín Guó) and 中华人民共和国(Zhōnɡ Huá Rén Mín Gònɡ Hé Guó)are two names that are essentially the same in meaning.

Then, how about 中华(Zhōnɡ Huá) that appears in both of the names?

Firstly, let’s look at 华(Huá). According to legend, a race of people was living on the land of what is China today. Those people are known as the华夏(Huá Xià) people, that is, 华夏(Huá Xià), or 华(Huá), is the name of this race of people. As the place there were living in was at the Yellow River and its vicinity which is at about the center of what is China today, that place and its people are referred to today as 中华(Zhōnɡ Huá), in which 中(Zhōnɡ) means the middle or center.

Now, it is thousands of years ago that those 华(Huá) people were living there. At that time, primitively civilized as they were, they probably had no way to realize how big the land was on which they live and, even if they did, they probably had no reason to decide on the boundary of this vast piece of land as is decided today to refer to what the territory of China is. So it is highly doubtful that they could decide that they were at the “center” of this vast land. Therefore, it could be reasonably concluded that the name 华(Huá) or 华夏(Huá Xià)is what people of today give to those people.

Historic information tells us that “dynasties” were the political orders that were ruling this vast land since as early as history records. Those dynasties did not call themselves “中华(Zhōnɡ Huá)” but the names of the dynasties, for example, the Qin Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, etc. Domestically, to their subordinates, the emperors, or the governments, referred to their “kingdoms” by using many names, none of which, as historic records suggest, is “中华(Zhōnɡ Huá) ” or 中国(Zhōnɡ Guó). The last dynasty is the 清朝(Qīnɡ Cháo) (the Qing Dynasty). This dynasty referred to itself, domestically and internationally, 大清帝国(Dà Qīnɡ Dì Guó), literally “the Great Kingdom of the Qing”.

It is only after the “the Great Kingdom of the Qing” was overthrown in 1911 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his party that the term, or the name, of 中国(Zhōnɡ Guó) started to be used as the name of this country. After the defeat of “中华民国(Zhōnɡ Huá Mín Guó), and together with it, the establishment of 中华人民共和国(Zhōnɡ Huá Rén Mín Gònɡ Hé Guó)，中国(Zhōnɡ Guó) went on to be used as the name of this country,. So, 中国(Zhōnɡ Guó)is a pretty young name.

How about, next, the English version of this country’s name China? It is widely observed that people’s names, place names, country names, etc, when introduced into another language, go phonetically translated, for example, Mao Ze-dong, London, Italy, etc. Based on the analysis of how 中国(Zhōnɡ Guó) came into use, we can see that the ancestors of the Chinese people did not use 中国(Zhōnɡ Guó)as the name for their country, or countries, or kingdoms, or whatever “national” institutions they established and maintained. They used the names of their kingdoms or dynasties instead. Also, the name the term 中国(Zhōnɡ Guó) did not come into being until as late as 1911. If we take a look at what the name of this country is in all the major languages in the world, we can see that they all share about one similarity, that is, they almost all pronounce something like china, or cina, or chinne, or kina, or chini, or cini, etc. –They are all phonetic translations of about one single original name.

What is this original name then? Historic information suggests that this original name is “cina”, a name the ancient people of Indo used in their language to refer to what is now China. When the early Chinese scholars, or Buddhists, introduced the Indian culture into China, they translated cina into 支那(Zhī Nà), or 至那 (Zhì Nà), or 脂那(Zhī Nà), etc. Those Indian people could have used this name in their communication with other countries world-wide, as a result of which, in almost all major languages world-wide, the name of this country is phonetically similar to “cina”. When this name was introduced into Japan, together with Buddhism, in their translation of this name into Japanese, the Japanese adopted the character version of 支那(Zhī Nà), because in Japan, there was already a place whose name in Japanese was 中国; they adopted 支那(Zhī Nà) to differentiate their 中国 from the other 中国 (Zhōnɡ Guó). On the part of China, when the Chinese saw the Japanese using 支那(Zhī Nà) to refer to China, they were indignant and have refused this name ever since.

The Names of This Language

You could have often heard people say “I speak Mandarin” or “I speak Chinese” or “Wo hui shuo Zhongguo hua” or “Wo hui shuo Zhongwen”, etc. By saying so, they all seem to mean the same thing.

What, at all, are Mandarin, Chinese, Zhongguo hua (中国话), Zhongwen (中文), Guoyu (国语), etc? Do these different terms refer to the same thing at all?

Very broadly speaking, they do refer to the same thing, which is what most Chinese people speak. But slight differences do exist among them.

Generally speaking, “hua (话) refers to the oral speech. Therefore, “Zhongguo hua （中国话）refers to what people speak as opposed to what they write. So, we can say “He speaks Zhongguo hua (中国话); we cannot say “This letter is written in Zhongguo hua.”

“Yu (语) refers to “language”. Language exists in two forms: the spoken form and the written form. Therefore, “language” can mean speech and written words. In the light of this, we can say, “This Italian girl can speak and write Hanyu.”

“Wen (文)” can refer to both “wenzi文字” and “yuwen (语文)”. When it is used to mean “wenzi”, it refers to the written words and when it is used to mean language, it refers to language, which, again, exists in spoken form and written form. Therefore, we can say “This Korean guy can speak as well write Zhongwen (中文).”

Hanyu (汉语) refers to the language used by the Han nationality. But, in China, besides the Han people, Hui people and Man people also speak Hanyu as their own language. According to the 2005 statistics, the Han people takes up about 90.56% of the Chinese population. Therefore, there are about 1200 million people speaking Hanyu in China, including Hui people and Man people, which means that 86% of the Chinese population speak Hanyu. That should explain why many people use the term “Hanyu” to refer to “Chinese language”.

Guoyu (Mandarin) is a term mostly used by Hong Kong people and oversea Chinese to mean Hanyu.

Those, briefly, are the differences among the four terms.

How Punctuation Marks Were Introduced into China

In February 1868, a visiting delegation was sent to Europe and America by the Chinese government, in which there was a student by the name of De-yi Zhang

De-yi had a habit of noting down whatever he saw as local features in the countries he visited and publishing them in a small brochure named “Locality”. By 1869, he published another “Locality” which is now known as “Travels to Europe and America”. In this book he talked about the punctuation marks he observed abroad. He said, “Their books carried so many bothering marks. When a sentence is complete, they end it with a ‘.’; if not complete, they end it with a ‘,’; if not complete yet connected with the previous sentence, they end it with a ‘;’ if not complete but another sentence is added, the added sentence is ended with a ‘:’; if a sentence is an exclamation, it is ended with a ‘!’, if a question, ‘?’, if a quotation, ‘ “”’ or ‘ ‘’ ’; if a note is given, the note is written between a pair of ‘()’; they also use a ‘— ’ to connect two paragraphs.

Thought De-yi, in this book, is not actively introducing punctuation marks into China, his book did in effect contribute to the development of the punctuation marks in the Chinese written language.
In April 1919, six renowned professors proposed to the Chinese Language Unification Committee that the government adopt the punctuation marks such as ，。；：？！—()《》.

On February 2, 1920, the Chinese government issued the ordinance No. 53, “New Punctuation Marks be Adopted”, which signified the official commencement of usage of punctuation marks in China.