Chinese topic
When you are in high schools in China, remember that in the office of the English teacher, he always sticks to the motto of the revolutionary mentor Marx. It is most suitable for the foreign language teaching and research room.Although Marx is a German, he is actively learning English, so that he can write political theory in English, which is very inspirational.One time I participated in the academic conference and met a colleague scholar who recalled the story of Chinese class struggle in English during her reading, such as "Zhou Shi Pi Yezhong was cheating in the middle of the night to cheat the worker to get up and work."In the future, learning "Marx's English" is better.
Modern Chinese people live on the earth where the West affects the ubiquitous earth. It is really necessary to master English and other foreign languages. Even if it is not engaged in the struggle of life, it is helpful for understanding many concepts.Although "proficient" any foreign language is very difficult, because there is a long history of evolution, complex sources and changes behind any language, and various rational and difficult to explain methods, but a foreign language is used as a reference.Expand the cultural perspective and see some of the limitations of your mother tongue in expression.
Some people who preach Chinese culture and profoundness, like to use many Chinese names about relatives in China, and have no English, which proves that the latter is extremely monotonous.In fact, even in China, with the advancement of urbanization, children who grew up in the core families in the city are also foggy to the "who" and "how" and "how to call" the parents and their families.
Except for studying classical literary works, in reality, there is no need to distinguish between Lin Daiyu and Xue Baozhen who is more necessary for Jiafu.In other words, the simplification in English should be a manifestation of the complicated relationship between large families.If a word of Cousin, who is playing in the world, may be a good thing for young people.
Indeed, in the English, only a person in English has only the main grid I and the Beng ME, and the Chinese culture has accumulated a lot of self -proclaimed and humble names for thousands of years."I" in "I" in "All things", Mencius is already in use, but Mencius also has the "old and old and old people" in Mencius;"Late birth" and the like derogatory or self -confidence based on the occasion.This is essentially the same as relatives, and it is related to the relationship between humanity and social order emphasized in Chinese culture.
However, in expressing abstract concepts, Chinese is not always so profound.The important words in European language to be (German Sein, French être) does not correspond in Chinese, and the concept of "Being" that follows is unable to find it in Chinese.French philosopher Sat's masterpiece generally translates as existence and nothingness. Its original French? Tre et le néant, English translation is Being and Nothingness, which basically corresponds.However, in European language and thinking, BEING, which has the meaning of grammatical function and philosophy, can only barely translate the real word "existence" in Chinese.In the process of understanding, Chinese readers can no longer get the abstraction that they only have when reading the original text.When translating "to be or not to be ...", Chinese can only translate "to be" with abstract and rich connotations into an extremely similar "survival", and turn the whole sentence into a narrow or even embarrassing "survival"The choice between "destruction".
How to translate Confucianism's core concept "Ren" is also scratching in the western Sinology community.Words of English such as Benevolence, Kindness, or Love are not enough to grasp the rich connotation of "benevolence". The academic circles have tried to comment directly with Pinyin Ren.However, BEING is still difficult to deal with it. Using "Bing" unknown and suspected infringement, you can only return to the words "existence" and "here" in Chinese to express one or two.
Because Chinese vocabulary is often continuously added on a roots, not creating new words, the meaning of similar meaning is often mixed.For example, Chinese people at home and abroad have to distinguish between "Chinese", "Overseas Chinese" and "Chinese" again and again, and gradually identify "Chinese" as "former Chinese" who have naturalized foreign nationalities.Assuming that in a family, her husband entered a foreign country, and his wife was still holding a Chinese passport. The former was Chinese, and the latter was an overseas Chinese.Chinese people, in my understanding, also refer to people who are included in foreign countries, at least their second generation of children, because descendants of descendants also.However, some Chinese media often call international students who control Chinese passports "Chinese students", which is not accurate.
There is also a vocabulary group that hinders the cognition of pure Chinese thinkers, which is several composite words related to the word "power".In the economic and nationalist ideas of the late Qing Dynasty, the term "interest in rights" specifically refers to China's economic rights and interests in the competition between Chinese and foreign economies, but the term "rights" generally refers to the political and citizen rights of individual citizens, namely the English Rights.In the use of contemporary Chinese, the "power" is the same as "rights" and is connected. However, it is not the same word, and often disrupts Chinese users."Power" corresponds to English, which mainly refers to the ability to control and affect others in English.Because these two concepts are completely different words in English, they are basically no possibility of confusion and misunderstandings, but in Chinese, "power" and "rights" often need to be constantly distinguished.
The word "privilege" derived from the word "power" is also heard by people who use Chinese as their mother tongue and only Chinese, and they will immediately think of the "special" bureaucracy "with a derogatory" bureaucracy ".Rights / force ".The English word Privilege, which is usually corresponding to this word, is not limited to referring to the privilege of a privilege beyond the public.Because Power, Right, Privilege spelling is not close at all, and the significance is also performed, it also avoids the ambiguity of similar to three words in Chinese.
I let the 15 -year -old son who basically do not understand Chinese, and do not have the corresponding cognitive framework explained the meaning of Privilege. He based on intuition and common sense without checking any information.There are more Options, Goods and Rights."Privilege" was widely regarded as "special benefits" including "more options", "more items" and "more rights".
In the dictionary interpretation, Privilege does have both the meaning of Advantage (advantage), as well as the meaning of Benefit and Special Right (special rights).In this understanding, the rich has more advantages than the poor. White people will have more advantages than non -white people. Men often have more advantages than women. Born in big cities may have more advantages than birth in the countryside.Therefore, everyone can reflect on whether they already have the advantages that others do not have from different perspectives, thereby improving their empathy for others and a sense of protection for the weak.
The "Power, Privilege, and Difference" set up in American universities "organize or curriculum labels with equal rights nature also default Privilege with diversified meaning and often involve themselves.This is far beyond the meaning given by Chinese for "privileges".
In my opinion, there is no great modern significance with a lot of relatives and rich first -person names, and foreign languages may not be "profound".Modern Chinese should still actively and in -depth learning and mastering one or two foreign languages, and then through bilingual and multi -language interoperability, close to some important and more meaningful concepts.
The author is an associate professor at the Department of History of the Academy of Academy in the United States
