Comments on: Learning Your Way to Yourself

By: John Pasden

John Pasden — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:04:23 +0000

cathy,

There are no exact equivalents between American-style "comedians" and Chinese xiangsheng performers. Xiangsheng is a fairly popular choice for foreigners interested in "going all the way" with their Chinese abilities, however, which is why I made the reference. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that Dashan is the protoypical example.

By: cathy

cathy — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:31:49 +0000

comedian，可以是“喜剧演员”，“相声演员”，不是“相声”

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:30:28 +0000

You - and your reference - nailed it. I LOVE my language (English). I love speaking it, mixing it, playing with it, sharing it, being passionate in it, creating with it, etc. In Brazil, it kills me to have lost this art... And, I can tell that it's affected my language-learning process.

I remember lamenting to a Brazilian friend one day that there was a whole other side of myself that I wanted to share with him, but that I was still unable -- b/c I lacked the ability.

Fortunately, with time, I'm getting there now. It's been a long slog for me -- with Portuguese, no less. I can't imagine for you & many of your readers learning languages that are so very different from our native one.

-nick

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:10:15 +0000

Great post John -- it's something most all of us who have learned/are learning a foreign language have felt. I'm a decently outgoing person, and it drove (and continues to drive) me nuts that I can't communicate that personality fluently.

In a lot of ways that can work as a motivator to get better, but as you mentioned, and as I've experienced, it can equally be a buzz kill on the road to fluency.

Fantastic and inspirational advice - cheers!

By: Todd

Todd — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:44:09 +0000

Agree with @justin. Half my jokes fail even in my native English, but that has never stopped me trying, either in English or Chinese. Simple jokes often work the best, and physical humour doesn't even require language.

And if only I could resist attempting puns in Chinese, I might actually be able to regain a little of my dignity too!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:36:43 +0000

The reverse is true too. If your personality is silly and immature, then there wont be much of a difference between your actual personality and your language acquiring alter ego.

By: Michael Max

Michael Max — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:35:49 +0000

I experienced something very similar. While generally shy, I found I had to be outgoing in Chinese if I wanted to master it. I had a rather powerful epiphany one day when I realized that no matter whether I spoke good Chinese of lousy Chinese I was still going to sound like a stupid foreigner. I suddenly lost all my fear. It was a given I would be speaking rotten Chinese, I could stop worrying about it; it was completely liberating.

By: Hannah Mae

Hannah Mae — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:24:35 +0000

“Sunset good”… Yep, that’ll be me! Inspirational stuff though, John. Thanks.

By: John Pasden

John Pasden — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:57:21 +0000

Poagao,

I doubt I’ll get all the way there, but I think I can manage at least a rough approximation.

By: John B

John B — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:44:12 +0000

I agree with JB and Prez Life, great post.

Personally, though, I don't want to merge my Chinese and English personalities back into a single one. They're not much different, but "Chinese me" is much better suited to living in China than is "English me," while "English me" is generally more sarcastic and acerbic.

Perhaps my two identities just didn't split as radically as yours, and so I feel less need to reign it in? I dunno.