Language Barrier

One time a student asked me in class, “Was it hard for you to learn English?  How is your English so good?”

If I were talking to an American, I would assume this to be sarcasm and I would reply in kind: “Obviously my English is good because it’s the language I’ve been speaking since I was a toddler!”  But sarcasm does not exist in China, and these questions brought me to some realizations.

These seemingly stupid questions got me thinking.  I was reminded of how cut-off some Chinese people are from the rest of the world.  I am in pretty remote area and I am the first foreigner that many of them have met- and not only that, but I LOOK like an American, with my pale skin, green eyes, and semi-blonde hair, which is something they’ve maybe only seen on TV or in advertising.  I realized that I had had a similar way of thinking when I was a child.  I distinctly remember thinking that everyone in the world spoke English- it was as if other languages were spoken only for show.  I thought everyone thought in English, and any display of another language had to come from English first and then be translated.  If someone spoke or wrote in another language, they first had had to translate from the English thoughts in their mind.  This doesn’t make any sense to even me now, and I can’t really explain it.  But that’s because since then I’ve been exposed to different cultures and diverse groups of people, and I now know that people speak the language their parents teach them, and they probably think in that language, too. 

On the other hand, many people in China have not had exposure to foreigners so it may still be hard for them to fathom the differences.  The exception is people who live in the cities because there are a number of foreigners attending university or conducting business.  This explains why some people here find it so fascinating that I don’t understand what they’re saying and that I can’t read a single Chinese character.  There are many times when people say something really fast in Chinese, see my blank stare, and then laugh and say “ting bu dong” (which I mentioned before means, roughly, “listen but don’t understand”) as if it were a funny joke.  They’re equally surprised when I demonstrate that I DO know some Chinese- some people find that even funnier, which isn’t really encouraging when you’re trying to learn a new language! Or students will point to something written in characters as if that would make everything clear!  Not to be offensive, but it still looks like chicken scratch to me.  It’s pretty, but completely incomprehensible.  I’m always getting texts and instant messages written only in characters- I don’t think they realize that it means nothing to me.

This experience is definitely a lesson in humility.  As close-minded as I feel some people are here, I have to remind myself that from their point of view, I’m equally close-minded.  I want them to understand my culture and that I wasn’t raised speaking Chinese and writing characters, but if I expect them to change in order to accept me, then I also need to make concessions and change to accept their culture.  This means I need to worker harder to learn their language and writing system.

Their reactions to my appearance and what I say are definitely something I have to get used to, and sometimes I have to calm myself down and not get upset, or reply condescendingly to questions like those I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  The more that things like that happen, the more I can understand their point of view and way of thinking- this is new to me, too, and I have to be gracious and accommodating.