Western and eastern language differences

Ive always gotten to be the brunt of some good natured joking by the native speakers in China, when I worked there. I tried my damndest to pick up and learn the language, but I kept screwing up on the intonations . Often to embarrasing ends.
I once ordered "a little boy" instead of "silk yardage" in a silk market in Taipei. The subtle variations in the sound were difficult for me to pick up. Everyone had a good laugh and I just had a puzzled look until a multilingually fluent person came over and explaind that ZZZZW and ZZZZW? were 2 different words. Hence the laughter. How the hell did they know that maybe I wasnt just some perv from NAMBLA?

Also, no matter how long I worked there, I never got used to how people mostly shouted their sentences. Im a rather soft spoken person .

Hi Mezzie,

I'm sorry not to be able to reply sooner. I've been quite busy....
Hope you don't mind.

What you mentioned about linguists is very true. They don't even agree with each other (as far as I know) :wink:
Some Vietnamese linguists had tried to impose Western grammar rules onto Vietnamese... which I think is absurd. Anyhow, I just pray that one day, they'll come to an agreement...

I've been learning Vietnamese, and the language used before 1975 is a bit different from the one used now in Vietnam. I've just realized that it's probably the same as British English & American English...
I've got the idea... that Buddhism had a big influence on Vietnamese, not only because of the tenses are always in "present time", but there are other common terms that are related to Buddhist thinking.
I'm sharing what I know, and of course, I'm not a linguist, therefore my points of view are yet subjective. Hope you all will forgive if I'm wrong.

Thank you Silver for bringing up this interesting subject.
Wish you all well. Have a nice day .

Hi Aqua,

You said some very interesting things I didn't know about!

<quote>
Some Vietnamese linguists had tried to impose Western grammar rules onto Vietnamese... which I think is absurd.
<\quote>

This sounds similar to the moronic attempts of 18th-century "linguists" who loved Latin and tried to make English grammar conform to it. You said it best: "absurd"!

One thing worth pointing out: when I use the term "linguist", I'm referring to the group of people who are objective scientists studying language as it actually is used in order to gain insight into how it's represented in the brain. I'm NOT talking about self-professed "linguists" who simply speak a few languages fluently, consider themselves an "expert" in grammar through a wide knowledge of literature and NO scientific study of language, or any number of others with little or no "real" linguistic training.

There are a lot of well-meaning people who think they are knowledgeable about language; unfortunately, usually it's the wrong kind of knowledge to be helpful!

Yes, definitely a good topic, lots of different angles to talk about


Could you clarify? Are you talking about having a degree as pertaining to real linguistic training? I would most likely agree with you. I feel I have a lot of experience with languages and grammar, but think I'm lacking this training of which you speak. Also, what areas of knowledge does one gain with this training that would otherwise be difficult to achive without it? I've always wanted to take some linguistic courses but besides not having the time, am confused as to what they would offer me. Thanks!

Yeah, prescriptive versus descriptive grammar and all that.

What kinds of terms do you mean, aqua? I've noticed some pretty prevalent metaphors in English over time, and it's really fascinating - is it something like that?

Hi rufio,

I might say that my points of view regarding Vietnamese language was probably more descriptive than prescriptive .

I've realized that in order to understand Vietnamese language, one has to learn Chữ Nôm which is an ancient Vietnamese written language; and I haven't learnt this yet.
The official alphabetized Vietnamese writing that we use today, had been developed in 18th century, under the French domination.
Then, after the French, there was civil war... until 1975. Before 1975, Vietnamese language used in the South had been different from the one used in the North. Nowadays, there's probably a mixture of dialectical terms that are used in everyday life.
There are still some discords between Vietnamese linguists, so I just hope that one day they would come to an agreement, and that will definitely help my learning.

Sorry if I've disgressed. However, I just hope that my reply will more or less clarify my personal opinion.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you All for your inputs.

Farmerman - have you used a chinese/english dictionary before? I am happy to elaborate a bit more if you are not sure what they are, or how to use them. I think it will help you alot, and not in just in definitions and translations wise.

Uncle:

In Chinese we have more specific callings for my father's younger brother, my father's elder brother, my mother's younger brother, my mother's elder brother.

Also the callings vary in different parts of China.