Keep Chinese Close, But English Closer

走出语言困境：Keep Chinese Close, But English Closer 2007-09-15 14:34:25
(http://blog.wenxuecity.com/blogview.php?date=200709&postID=20029)

Have been thinking to write something on the subject of how to improve English, yet not so sure if I am qualified to take on such a heavy topic as I consider my own English a failure – living in an English-speaking country for over a decade, I still find myself in awkward situations from time to time with my English skills, in particular, I always feel intellectually handicapped whenever write in English. Nevertheless, there are certain things, lessons or whatever to be called, that might have characteristics of generalization in terms of language learning and can be shared, and might shed some light for other people’s study.


I am pretty sure that many of us, if not all of the overseas Chinese living in a English country, are constantly struggling between two language systems: in an English-speaking country, we’re entitled and forced to use an alien language, or you’re taking risk of being thrown out the main-stream society, just like some of the Chinese-Americans in Chinatown whose lifetime language commitment is Cantonese. On the other hand, as a Chinese who was born and brought up in Chinese language setting, we all have a “genetic” tendency to find cultural comfort in employing our own mother tongue – it’s an effortless mental process when we speak Chinese; we take a pleasure to read Chinese because the pictographic characters could soothe our mind, to say the least; it won’t pose a linguistic challenge when we write in Chinese, and so forth. In sum, we’re inclined to use the language we were born with; unfortunately the language adds little weight to our survival skills in a society where people speak different language.


In the classic movie, The Godfather II, there is a line, a very famous one if not the most in the movie history, by the young godfather Michael Coreleone, “Keep your friends close, but your enemy closer,” a family-teaching passed onto him from his father, the old godfather, Vito Coreleone. Admiring the sophisticated life philosophy articulated in this simple line, I think it would be also a great metaphor to our English study situation here, as a figure of speech. So, how to balance this equation of English and Chinese? The answer is: Keep your Chinese close, but your English closer. Please allow me to explain how.




It should be fairly easy for us to “keep Chinese close”. Our brains are wired with Chinese to begin with and further reinforced by the education we received back to the Chinese society. Even in a foreign country, we can always find someone who shares the language and with whom we can communicate – nowadays you can probably find Chinese almost in every single corner on this planet, thanks to our people’s survival instinct; we can always call China, talking to family and friends; and we can browse the Chinese-based websites such as Wenxuexity, reading and writing in Chinese. Once again, Chinese is one heritage that we’re born with, not something you could cut it off and walk away from it; rather, it’s something in our blood and you will have to keep it close.


Now, what about English? In what way to keep it closer? Before we move on any further, I would like to make a disclaimer referring back the classical line in The Godfather II. When I say “keep English closer”, I by no means treat English as an “enemy.” The only reason we say “to keep it closer” than Chinese is because it is our second language, and therefore it is something out there alien for us to conquer. To do so, we’ll have to know what we deal with and how; so to speak, to keep it closer.


In order to command a language, one has to immerge himself/herself into it, like swimming in the ocean. It might sound like a cliché talk and easy said than be done. But here are several things, based upon my personal experience, that could help one on the way to be a good swimmer in the ocean of English language. I would like to address these issues starting with a specific question -- no offense to anyone whatsoever, thus to make it more measurable, by which you can see where you fit, and how close you are to your English study.


How often do you read English book? Once a year? Once a month?



Reading is the most fundamental thing to do in terms of improving English skills. If you open any textbook or ask anyone who has good command of language as to how to advance with your study of English, it/he/she will no doubt tell you to read as much as you can. It seems we just can not stress enough how important reading is.


To be specific, reading a book each month might sound too much to do as opposed to one book a year which is too less. How about one book every other month? If you could do this, you will finish reading six books each year; and that means you will read close to one million English words each year if each book averages, let’s say, 150,000 words. Out of this one million words, if you just could remember one percent, it will amount to 10,000. I would say that’s a quite accomplishment; let alone through reading you will also gradually learn grammatical structures, idiom usage and knowledge, etc. The more you read, the better your English skills will be. Speaking and writing definitely benefit a great deal from reading. Unless you have a family library, the local library may be the most convenient reading source. Plus, as a taxpayer, it would be a waste if you don’t take the advantage of the community service when you can.


How often do you listen to radio?



One time a guy, who majored in English in China and just came over to the US, asked me about how to polish his English, as he was baffled when he talked to the locals. I told him listening to radio might help since he as a student did not have much time to read in addition to his study. He seemed distained and scoffed at the idea. “What? Are you kidding? I don’t even listen to radio when I was in China!” I don’t blame on him for saying so. In the age of information exploration when the new media mushrooms in the light speed, radio seems out of fashion for certain people. But, neither does it means it’s out of picture, nor it diminishes its importance to learn English.


As a traditional media, radio still proves to be one of most efficient and accessible tools. You can turn it on in the morning while you’re eating your breakfast; you can listen to it when you drive to & from work, or on a trip – at least it provides a pastime when you’re stuck in a traffic jam; with an earpiece, you can even listen to radio when you’re out jogging or taking a stroll. How convenient could that be!


Beyond its easy accessibility, radio brings you an immense world of information as listening materials. To keep it as a fun instead of a forced task, you’ll have to find something that interests you. Besides the news that all the stations carry, there’s wide range of syndicated talk shows you can choose from, such as Fresh Air by Terry Gross, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Rush Limbaugh Show (not that I like his opinions, but respect his English), Sean Hannity Show, to name a few. Technically, I’d suggest listening to one or two station/show to start with, especially when you’re listening-wise not skilled enough to handle variety of accents, styles and terminologies. Once you’ve got familiar with one show, you can then move on exploring more topics.


Do you write in English? If yes, how often?



Let’s face it, unless you’re a professional writer or in an occupation that requires a lot of writing, most of us probably won’t have much time to sit down racking our brains on an English essay, as we all have work to do, family and friends to be with and all kind of personal things to tend. However, writing is just as important as reading, to not just improve your English to handle daily conversation, but, one step up, to enhance your English on a professional, educated level. Comparing to reading and listening, writing is a much more complex process. That said, it means you can speak English as good as you can, but that does not necessarily means you will automatically have good command of writing skill. When write, you have to think, ponder on your thoughts in English, and organize the thoughts in a logical fashion, and then find proper words, terminologies to express them. Through writing, not only you can have solid grasp of the meaning, the nuance of each word, but also learn different way of expressions by using different grammatical structures. Of course writing does not have to be lengthy and impeccable, you can just write down a short paragraph or even a sentence for sake of practice. Over time, your writing proficiency will grow as your practice accumulates.


Related to the above, when you write an email at work or to a friend, do you just treat it as a routine? or an opportunity to practice your English?



As mentioned before, we hardly have time to sit down writing English just for practice since we all live in a bustled, fast-paced society. However, nowadays email becomes something that on a daily basis we can not escape from, either at work or at home. And more importantly, it actually poses an occasion for English writing practice. Even for business emails at work, you can either put it in a blunt language; or you can choose to elaborate in a more sophisticated and diplomatic way that will yield a better result, and in return your writing skill will advance before you’re even aware of.


When you watch TV, do you pay attention to the captioning?



In our society, TV has become an inseparability of people’s daily life. We get news from TV each day that keeps us updated with what’s going on nationally and internationally; we’re entertained by watching the diversity of TV shows; and we can even get educated from some special TV programs. But for a foreigner, TV can also pave another road for your English study. Unless you can completely understand the language, the best way to catch up with the plot and story is to closely follow the captioning on your screen. In doing so, you can utilize caption-reading to help your listening in case there are issues of vocabulary and mis-hearing; thus put your understanding in sync with the development of the characters and story. With captioning, the drawback is that it may sacrifice your visual enjoyment. But, it will definitely facilitate your language study, and in a long run your eyes will be eventually freed from the caption once your listening gets better.


The issues above we’ve discussed are just my personal experience and opinions that I wanted to share with the forum. Hope it will help; if not, at least a further discussion on the topic is expected.


Last, but not the least, learning a language is not an easy task, but a lifetime commitment; It is a hard work plus proper methodologies, not an overnight magic; It is an odyssey that you will have to go through without taking any short-cut.


So, let’s work on it, shall we?

Today is mid-autumn festival!

Today is the second Mid-Autumn Festvial I spent at United State. Time is going fast, I still remember that last year my wife learned to how to make mooncake at a church. But today, just me alone with my second Mid-Autumn festival, Fortunately, One of my friends invited me to have dinner tonight with his familiy and spend the Mid-Autumn Festival together, which definitely make me feel better and be away from lonely. In fact, the the round shape of mooncake means happiness and family gather. Sometimes, I am thinking that what is most important to me. Career? or Familiy? Maybe I need to look back, and do not need to care about so much things out of myself.


Happy Autumn Moon Festival to All of us. :)



Mid-Autumn Festival
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Mid-Autumn Festival


The Mid-Autumn Moonfestival is also celebrated in Chinese communities like the San Francisco Chinatown
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese: 中秋節
Simplified Chinese: 中秋节
[show]Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōng qiū jié
Min
- Min-nan POJ: Tiong-Chhiu-Chiat
Yue (Cantonese)
- Jyutping: zong1 tsau1 zit3

Japanese name
Kanji: 月見
Kana: つきみ
[show]Transliterations
- Romaji: Tsukimi

Korean name
Hangul: 추석
Hanja: 秋夕
[show]Transliterations
- Revised
Romanization: Ch'usǒk

Vietnamese name
Quoc Ngu: Tết Trung Thu
Chu Nom: 節中秋

Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations in Victoria Park, Hong Kong.
Mooncake is often eaten during the festival.The Mid-Autumn Festival (Simplified Chinese: 中秋节; Traditional Chinese: 中秋節; pinyin: zhōngqiūjié), also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or "Mooncake Festival", which is just the same as "Mid-Autumn Festival" but with different names.

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:

Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
Putting pomelo rinds on one's head
Carrying brightly lit lanterns
Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e
Planting Mid-Autumn trees
Lighting lanterns on towers
Fire Dragon Dances
Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.

Contents [hide]
1 Origin
2 Stories of the Mid-Autumn Festival
2.1 Houyi and Chang'e
2.1.1 Houyi, the archer
2.1.2 Houyi, the builder
2.2 The Hare - Jade Rabbit
2.3 Overthrow of Mongol rule
2.4 Vietnamese version
2.5 Korean Version
3 Dates
4 References
5 See also
6 External links



[edit] Origin
The custom of celebrating the moon (called Xi yue in Chinese) for both the Han Chinese and minority nationalities, can be traced as far back as the ancient Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty of China (20th century BC-1060s BC). In the Zhou Dynasty (1066 BCE-221 BCE), the people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon.

The practice became very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) that people enjoyed and worshipped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), however, people started making round moon cakes, as gifts to their relatives in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. At night, they came out to watch the full moon to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644), and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration has become unprecedentedly popular.


[edit] Stories of the Mid-Autumn Festival

[edit] Houyi and Chang'e
While Westerners may talk about the "man in the moon", the Chinese talk about the "woman in the moon". The story of Chang'e and her flight to the moon, is familiar to every Chinese citizen, and a favourite subject of poets. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e lives in the moon. Tradition places Houyi and Chang'e around 2170 BC, in the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huang Di.

There are so many variations and adaptations of the Chang'e legend that one can become overwhelmed and utterly confused. However, most legends about Chang'e in Chinese mythology involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, the Archer; Chang'e, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality; an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent; an elixir of life; and the Moon:


[edit] Houyi, the archer
There are at least four variations to this story where Houyi was an archer.

Version 1: Houyi himself was an immortal, while Chang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the Jade Emperor's (Emperor of Heaven) (玉帝 pinyin:yùdì) Palace as the attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (wife of the Jade Emperor), just before her marriage. One day, Houyi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang'e, were subsequently banished from heaven, and forced to live by hunting on earth. He became a famous archer.

Now at this time, there were 10 suns that took turns to circle the earth — one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, causing the earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Houyi to shoot down all but one of the suns. Upon the completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life, and advised him: "Make no haste to swallow this pill; first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year". Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter, while he began healing his spirit. While Houyi was healing his sprit, Houyi was summoned again by the emperor. Chang'e, noticing a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, discovered the pill, which she swallowed. Immediately, she found that she could fly. At that moment, Houyi returned home, and, realizing what had happened, began to reprimand her. Chang'e flew out the window into the sky.

With bow in hand, Houyi sped after her, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Houyi had to return to the Earth because of the force of the wind. Chang'e reached the moon, and breathless, she coughed. Part of the pill fell out from her mouth. Now, the hare was already on the moon, and Chang'e commanded the animal to make another pill from it, so that she could return to earth to her husband.

As of today, the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. As for Houyi, he built himself a palace in the sun as "Yang" (the male principle), with Chang'e as "Yin" (the female principle). Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Houyi visits his wife. That is why, that night, the moon is full and beautiful. [2]

This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-24 CE) collections; Shanhaijing (Classic of the Mountains and Seas, a book of travels and tales), and Huainanzi (scientific, historical and philosophical articles, named for the Prince of Huai). [3]

Version 2: Another version, very similar to the above story, had it that the Emperor of Heaven, moved by the people’s suffering caused by the 10 scorching suns, sent the archer, Prince Houyi, from heaven to help Emperor Yao bring order. Houyi, with his wife, Chang'e, descended to earth, carrying a red bow and white arrows given him by the Emperor of Heaven.

Version 3: The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each taking turn to illuminate the earth. One day, however, all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. Houyi, a strong and tyrannical archer, saved the earth by shooting down nine of the suns. He eventually became King, but grew to become a despot.

One day, Houyi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However, his beautiful wife, Chang'e, drank it in order to save the people from the her husband’s tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating, and flew to the moon. Houyi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he did not shoot down the moon.

Version 4: Another version, however, had it that Chang'e and Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously displeased with Houyi’s solution to save the earth. As punishment, he banished Houyi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth.

Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be immortals again. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of the West, who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half a pill to regain immortality.

Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case, and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Houyi wanted to shoot her in order to prevent her from floating further, he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon.

While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, also lived on the moon.

Version 5: In a popular school version, Houyi was a lazy boy who did nothing but to practice his archery. He practiced day and night until he became the greatest archer in the world. One day, the 10 suns all assembled around the earth. Their presence destroyed all vegetation, and hundreds of thousands were perishing. The emperor, who was desperate, offered his crown to anyone who could shoot down the suns. Houyi answered his call. He shot down 9 of the suns, and as he pulled his bow to shoot the last one, the emperor stopped him. Saying the earth must leave 1 sun. Houyi then became the emperor. He was pampered to the extent that he wanted to be emperor forever. He called his advisors to look for a way to make him immortal. His advisors found a way. They found a recipe for the Pill of Immortality. It required 100 adolescent boys to be ground into a biscuit like pill. Every night he was supposed to ground 1 boy. On the hundredth night, his wife Chang'e could not bear to watch her husband become the tyrannical dictator for eternity. She prayed to Xi Wang Mu for help. She stole the pill, with Houyi shooting arrows at her, and flew to the moon grabbing a rabbit to keep her company.


[edit] Houyi, the builder
Houyi, a famous builder, built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven (also called the Royal Mother). In appreciation, she gave Yi a special pill that contained the magic elixir of immortality. But with it, came the condition and warning that he may not use the pill until he had accomplished certain self-purification.

His wife, Chang'e, was a beautiful but inquisitive woman. One day, she discovered the pill, and without telling her husband, swallowed it. The Goddess was very angry, and as a punishment, banished Chang'e to the moon where, according to the legend, she can be seen at her most beautiful, on the night of the bright harvest moon. This holiday is always celebrated during the time when the moon is at its fullest. Children gather around, climbing hills and mountains to be able to see the moon so their wish can be granted


[edit] The Hare - Jade Rabbit

A depiction of Chang'e and the Jade RabbitAccording to tradition, the Jade Rabbit pounds medicine, together with the lady, Chang'e, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang'e herself. You may find that the dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body. [1]

In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men, and begged for food from a fox, a monkey, and a hare. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the hare, empty-handed, jumped into a blazing fire to offer his own flesh instead. The sages were very thankful for the meat and ate it but the sages were so touched by the hare's sacrifice and act of kindness that they let him live in the Moon Palace, where he became the "Jade Rabbit".


[edit] Overthrow of Mongol rule
According to a widespread folk tale (not necessarily supported by historical records), the Mid-Autumn Festival commemorates an uprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1280–1368) in the 14th century. As group gatherings were banned, it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion. Noting that the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, Liu Bowen (劉伯溫) of Zhejiang Province, advisor to the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Tatars on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon" (八月十五殺韃子).[citation needed] On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.