Comments on: Sign Language Expression VS Chinese Culture

By: Green dragon

Green dragon — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:04:03 +0000

My Chinese work colleagues, have a wealth of facial expressions! They have smiles, frowns, sly grins and other ones that are just as vibrant as those I've seen back at home.

I seem to notice that older people are more stoic. So perhaps the trend is changing for the new Chinese (At least where I work in Tianjin).

By: Feisan

Feisan — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:48:28 +0000

Just remotely related ... can anyone recommend a good voice engine (Chinese) for Windows, for free download?

Thanks.

By: No Chinese Story Voices | Sinosplice: Life in China

No Chinese Story Voices | Sinosplice: Life in China — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:46:48 +0000

[...] a comment on my Sign Language Expression post, commenter Justin [...]

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:05:14 +0000

So do you think I could improve my perceived fluency in Mandarin by making a poker face whilst speaking instead of throwing the facial expressions out there like I’m speaking English and actually care what I’m saying? You know what else I noticed? Chinese don’t make any voices but their own when delivering stories. Of course relating real stories my “bad ass dad” voice and “bitchy mom” voice are nothing like my parent’s real voices, but they can reveal a lot about my attitude towards the things they would say to me. (Be it authoritarian or intentionally trying to annoy me by talk on about trivial affairs.)

By: sophie

sophie — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:34:49 +0000

呵呵 thank you！我只是怕我用中文留言你们会觉得不受尊重。我也想用英文写啊可是实在是能力有限:-) ，见谅了！

By: John

John — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:50:00 +0000

sophie,

当然不介意啊！欢迎中国人用自己的语言来留言。

By: sophie

sophie — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:25:22 +0000

中国传统的教育就教会我们要严肃一点呵呵。从小妈妈经常说的话就是“不要嬉皮笑脸的，严肃一点”呵呵，在这种耳提面命之下，想要表情丰富恐怕也很难吧，而且在中国的文化中严肃的表情往往是权威的象征，是你作为一个大人该有的表情是成熟的表现，相对的总是嘻嘻哈哈的就显的有点幼稚呵呵。同时中国人经常会有心事不外漏的想法。古语有云“胸有激雷而面如平湖者可拜上将军也”就是讲的这个道理。所以就造就了我们稀少的面部表情呵呵。英语表达对我来说还有点困难呵呵所以就写了中文的评论，应该不介意吧？john

By: Feds

Feds — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:34:59 +0000

@ Ben,

I've done Chinese tones with hand gestures before as well. Despite the progress I've made with tones and speaking in general, if I say something out of context it more often results in furrowed brows as whoever I'm talking to tries to comprehend. (I find that more often than not I say things that are out of context for many Chinese people simply because of our cultural differences.) But I've never seen a native speaker use hand gestures for tones except when teaching foreigners.

By: peng

peng — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:19:29 +0000

I had friends who mimicked all their tones with their head. Not only did Chinese people laugh at them, but the bobble-head language made people who had no clue what they were saying laugh too. I think the arm think is better because it is easier to hide.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:48:30 +0000

I think we often underestimate the importance of facial expressions in communication. They are even more important when there is a language barrier. I work as a medical interpreter for Chinese here in the US. Quite often I notice patients who can barely understand English predicting the doctor's meaning based on facial expressions. More often than not, their suppositions are accurate. This can create problems as well. On several occasions I have had a doctor say an off-color, or sometimes even offensive remark to me on the premise that the patient cannot understand what is being said. While the patient cannot understand directly what is being said, they usually get the gist of the comment which they were not intended to understand.

When we learn a language for the first time, we often subconsciously rely on getures and facial expressions to compensate for the lack of oral language. For me, I have noticed that many of these original gestures and expressions have carried over from when I began learning Chinese until today...now they are more of a nuissance, that just make me look goofy when I talk. I also went through a period when I would subconsciously represent the rising and falling of Chinese tones with my hands. I can only imagine how ridiculous this must have looked to native speakers.