Fieldnotes From History (30)—Language

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Fieldnotes From History."
One year ago on Round and Square (5 April 2011)—Seinfeld Ethnography: No Soup For You.

[a] Linguicicles RF

Part of an occasional Round and Square series that follows the blog’s main theme (east meets west, round meets square, and past meets present), these snippets from my early fieldnotes are reproduced as they were written by hand—and then revised on an ancient desktop computer—during my first fieldwork stay in Taiwan (1985-1987).  All entries are the way that I left them when I returned to the United States in 1987—some nicely-stated and some embarrassing. Although the series began with my assumption that the entries can stand alone, I have found that separate comments and notes might help readers understand a world that is now, well, history. These are always separate from the original fieldnote.

[b] Climb RF

Comment
This is another example of a note that I include because it is not particularly good. It's important to remember that I had already started to develop the:

 fieldnote →→→ letter-from-the-field 

approach I use to this day. That has advantages (hints of a "sense of audience" even in the fieldnotes) and disadvantages (hints of a "sense of audience" even in the fieldnotes). I describe it in detail in the introduction to this series. For my part, it is just another example of talking through some of those things that people with experience know well (and at which they may even roll their eyes). On the other hand, more general readers have little idea. While I don't think that this note is very good, it is a good example of what we all need to do if we seek to write for people with experiences beyond our own. I roll my eyes at it now, but realize that most people who have not studied Chinese are unfamiliar with these things. I'll have more to say about this dynamic in the future.

Notes
Twenty Lectures in Chinese Culture is a text from Yale University Press that builds the student's knowledge to about 2,000 characters. Back in the old days, it lay somewhere between the worlds of "intermediate" and "advanced" reading. I was about to take a number of big steps just weeks after I wrote this note (more on that later).

It is not difficult to notice a kind of "reading insider" contempt for people who don't bother to learn to read Chinese. This post drips with it. I am probably a bit more polite these days, but I still can't help but think (this happened just about at the time this note was written) of an American peer who, while walking down the street and congratulating himself on knowing a few characters after living in Taiwan for two years, exclaimed "I SEE MEAT!" As a matter of fact, he saw the character for "meat" (肉) on a sign. His misplace linguistic pride probably played its way into the subtext of this little note.

8 January 1986
Taipei 
I am spending most of my class time working on reading modern Chinese. I have built my recognition level up to about 2,000 characters. This is bare literacy, but much better than all but the most industrious foreigners living here, most of whom feel reading and writing are much too hard. 

I have been reading Chinese history, economics, social thought, geography, and literature in a book titled Twenty Lectures in Chinese Culture. It’s not bad, but I’m itching to get at the real thing. To do that, however, I’ll have to recognize well over 3,000 characters (probably closer to 5,000) and have a better feel for the deeper meanings and word combinations they contain. By the end of this year my reading ability should be very respectable. As far as speaking goes, I should be quite competent. 

This language, however, is a lifetime challenge. It’s not something I’ll just “finish” when I leave Taipei. With a solid reading knowledge I’ll have something I can continue with in the future: a key to five thousand years of Chinese thought and culture. Most Westerners who spend time here just don’t seem to see it that way. They only know how to speak Chinese (if that). When they leave Taiwan or China, they leave the culture behind. Short of writing a book or finding a Chinese mate, their experiences are gone.

[c] Thousands RF