Do you know why people don't understand you
After said something about the possible reasons of why you don't understand other people, it's time to say the other way: why people don't understand you.Successful communications take two ways. For a Mandarin Chinese learner, it's not uncommon that they tried so hard to say something, and that something didn't get across to the other end at all. I have witnessed countless times when this happened. It's very discouraging to any learners indeed.
Most people will naturally point it out that it's the pronunciation that fails the learners. Especially Mandarin, a radically different language, has so many different sounds, and so tonal. However, from my observation, this is the last thing between you and your listeners. There are other things far more important. Here are my three points listed in order of importance:
1) Language structure and habit
2) How to use the vocab you know to say something you don't know
3) Your accent (pronunciation)
Most people get tumbled on the first point when they think it's everything but. For instance, one person wanted to order water in a restaurant. He learned that water is "shui" with the third tone. So he told the waitress: "shui3." And the waitress looked all confused and didn't understand what he wanted. It's not that he said anything wrong. It's that he didn't know when Chinese people order water they wouldn't only say "shui3" as a westerner would do in a western restaurant. Chinese people tend to say a bit more like: "yi ping kuang quan shui", or "yi bei shui", or "yi bei re shui", or something shui.
The second point baffled so many people. One common complain is that "I don't have enough vocab." Probably nobody will ever have enough vocab even for native speakers. The trick is that as a second language speaker one needs to change some speaking patterns that he is so used to as a first language speaker. If you don't know how to say "Don't hurry.", you can say "We have time" (wo men you shi jian.) instead. For those diligent students, they will look up a dictionary and find hurry as "gan jin 赶紧", or "cang cu 仓促", etc. But then they tend to fall in the first catch of neglecting structure or habit and say something like: bu cang cu. And that will not get your meaning across.
The last part that may hinder people understand you is your accent (pronunciation). If you have taken care of the first and second points, you are fine most of the time. If you know "don't hurry" is "bie zhao ji 别着急", you can assure that people will understand you even you say the phrase in a quite different accent. A person from Qing Dao will say "bie zhao ji" quite differently from a person from Luo Yang. And you, just add some flavor to hundreds of different accents that Chinese people already have, get a quite nice and distinctive Spanish accent, German accent, or English accent. No big deal.
Now it's time to think what is the real thing that stands between you and a smooth communication.
posted by april zhang @ 2/09/2008 08:38:00 PM
9 Comments:
我比较喜欢喝青岛！服务员，来一瓶青岛。
The problem is, how do you ask that i a polite fashion? In Cantonese I might ask: 一樽青岛唔該.
Actually, these days I am trying to express more complicated ideas. Here is some homework I did recently where we had to choose a 生病 topic and write something about it.
Here is what I have so far (after some help from 我的同事和太太）but it is mostly my work:
因为我牙疼，昨天下午我去了牙医。对我来说，牙科椅好像一个电椅！那是因为我长大的时候，我有很多牙被蛀了，受了很多补牙之苦，所以坐了在牙科椅很多次。
这次医生说我还需要补牙，可是我不太高兴，因为我不喜欢打针，也不喜欢补牙的钻。不过，在牙科椅上我真练习写“牙疼”！
Perhaps you can help me improve it.
My longer term goal is to be able to read this book: Samba 开发使用手册. After that there is llots of Chinese literature to read.
昨天因为我牙疼，所以下午我去看了牙医。对我来说，牙科椅子就好像是一个电椅！我小时候有很多蛀牙，要经常去补牙,所以受了很多补牙之苦，更要命的是这些痛苦都和牙科椅子一起留在了我的记忆中。现在我只要看到牙科椅子,就开始痛苦了!
昨天下午医生说我还需要补牙，我听了以后很不情愿。我不喜欢打针，更不喜欢牙钻。在牙科椅子上我唯一能做的是练习写“牙疼”！
Wow, thank you so much. It is so much better now. My colleague (who is from Taiwan) probably thought that he would offend me if he changed things too much, but what you have suggested seems so much better.
I will study what you have suggested, and was planning to add some more detail about the location of the sore tooth, etc.
The instructor (老师)often calls on us to read out our attempts, which helps reinforce the learning we have done.
However, one question I have is: Is it clear enough that what follows "对我来说，牙科椅子就好像是一个电椅！" serves to explain why I feel that way, and as a result I don't need to say "那是因为"?
I think you can pass getting into too much details like the location of the sore tooth. Feelings are more readable than the actual location. Don't you think?
And for 那时因为, different people will have different opinions. Mine is that when things are very clear, it's not necessary.
I think you can pass getting into too much details like the location of the sore tooth. Feelings are more readable than the actual location. Don't you think?
Well, in general that is true, but I have to consider my audience. Approximately half of them are male, and males prefer more detail than feelings, so I need a good balance :-)
However, thank you for your feedback and help.
In learning a new language you have to be willing to make mistakes. You have to be able to get over the fear of being laughed at, because, in my view, you learn the most from your mistakes.
One thing I have now learned is that I cannot write: 我去了牙医
I have to write something like: 我去看了牙医
Being able to admit your mistakes and trying to rectify them is key to improving.
Absolutely! I can't agree more with your last input.
>> "don't hurry" is "bie zhao ji 别着急"
I always thought bie zhao ji 别着急 meant "don't worry", not "don't hurry"
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