Primary Sources 1A.12—Through the Mountain Tunnel 過山洞

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Primary Sources."

One year ago on Round and Square (30 June 2011)—Flowers Bloom: An Open Book
Click here to access Round and Square's "Primary Sources" Resource Center  

[a] Through RF

Over the course of the next year or so, Round and Square will take readers step-by-step through a very particular kind of primary source—the elementary school readers used in the mid-1980s in the Republic of China educational system. Every schoolchild on the island of Taiwan read these texts back then, and they are the foundation for understanding matters of education, acculturation, language acquisition, and translation. They were also the source of a very large chunk of my early anthropological and historical education. This is not a "language learning" series. It is meant to be an inquiry into the territory where studies of history, language, and culture meet.

I encourage readers of Round and Square to follow these posts whether or not they read Chinese. It is clear enough where I begin speaking to language learners (it starts in the "translation notes," but it is worth hanging on through there, even if you have never seen a Chinese character in your life). The section called "language notes" at the end is geared to people who have learned a little Chinese. Everything else, with the exception of the actual Chinese text, can be understood by anyone who takes the time to think about what an entire education from the ground up might be like. How many of us have thought about that element of culture since we were twelve years old? Only those terrific teachers who keep the society of learners moving along. The introduction to this series explains these matters thoroughly, and will be posted soon. In the meantime, take a look at how first-graders (for that is where we begin) started to read their world in Taiwan a generation ago. This is "textbooks from history," and there is much to learn. Let's get to work.

We finish the first semester of first grade with a strangely difficult little text that opens up themes of hard work, adventure, and word play. Yes, word play. It's first grade, but we have our first clear example here of rhyme, assumptions about pronunciation, and a gotcha moment...of sorts (it's first grade, after all).

We'll get into the details in a moment, but let's start with the trip itself. The kids are zipping through the mountain tunnels on their train trip to we-know-not-where (we are not told). Mother and daughters share a family moment as the train burrows through the mountain's innards. It's a truly Chinese-cultural family moment in another way, too. You see, someone is studying. Someone is always studying in Chinese family life, and not just in K-6 textbooks. This time it's math, and it turns out to be a little bit like...counting sheep. Take a look. 

12—Through the Mountain Tunnel
Riding the train; passing through the mountain tunnel
The tunnel stretches out at length
Little sister studies her numbers, seeing how high she can count
Before the train finally passes through the tunnel

Riding the train; passing through the mountain tunnel
The tunnels are many and frequent
We pass through one after another
Little sister counts on
Counting, counting...and then sleeping

過 山 坐 山 看 妹 山 坐

了 洞 火 洞 看 妹 洞 火  十

一 多 車 才 數 學 長 車  二

個 又     過 到 數 又

又 多 過 完 幾 數 長 過  過

一     山         兒     山  山

個     洞                 洞  洞 

 _____________________________________________ 

[b] 過山洞 RF

數 妹
著 妹
數 數
著 不
睡 完

 著

了  _____________________________________________

數 妹 又 長 車火 洞 山 過

著 完 才  (數)shù   (著)zháo

睡  幾

Text in Simplified Chinese (简体字)*

十二  过山洞
坐火车过山洞   山洞长又长     
妹妹学数数儿   看看数到几   山洞才过完
坐火车过山洞   山洞多又多   过了一个又一个
妹妹数不完       数着数着睡着了

*A simplified text is unthinkable in an ROC worldview. I don't "work" for them, though, and am including it for two reasons. First, an almost disturbingly large number of my students these days can't read traditional characters. This is problematic, but I acknowledge (grudgingly) the reality. Second, it should be an eye-opener for students on either side of the "simplified/traditional" divide. Just look. Finally, if you want to read anything written before 1950, you need to learn traditional forms. Get over it. It's not political. It's literature...and politics and history. If you can only read simplified forms, you can read what (Mao) wrote, but not what he read (unless it has been edited and adapted). Think about it.

[c] Trip RF

History and Culture Notes

Studying on a family trip. That's childhood in China, and that goes for both "Republics." As the train barrels through mountain tunnels, little sister counts as high as she can. Remember family trips? Kids play games such as naming the state capitals (U.S.), recognizing the departément number on vehicles (France), and doing calculus all of the time (China). If the last part doesn't make sense, click the link.

Kids play games on trips. It is as natural as counting, and a lot more fun. The girls, traveling with mom, behave themselves (this is clear from the picture), and little sister sees how high she can count as the train passes through the dark. Fun you say? Yes, it's always fun until someone gets hurt. 

[d] Long 又 long RF

Uh, wait... O.k., nobody gets hurt when little sister counts. Never mind. This isn't like playing Red Rover or anything like that. Trust me. Once you have read the text, you will realize that it isn't at all like the other kinds of games kids play. This one is a real snoozer, if you read all of the way to the end. Little sister counts and counts...and falls asleep. If you want to see why that is especially relevant to this text, you'll have to "read" a little Chinese. Stay with me through the language notes for the punch line.

Translation Notes

This text is a good example of how "easy" language can be for a native speaker, and how even a first-grade text can befuddle even relatively able foreign learners. It begins simply enough: "Sit fire car; enter mountain cave." O.k., o.k., I'm trying to be funny. Any first-year Chinese student from abroad can recognize that "we're" riding a train through a mountain tunnel. No problem. Next comes a 又 construction. This is not difficult in a grammatical sense, but it presents a wee bit of a translation problem. 山洞長又長 looks a little like "the mountain tunnels are long and long again." Of course, it "means" something like "the mountain tunnels are really long." I have made a choice about how to translate it, but I can imagine a dozen pretty good ones. The same goes for 山洞多又多. They are really numerous. The grammar is easy. Is it important to give a "feel" for 多又多? That's up to you, but it's straightforward in the last one. 過了一個又一個 sets up nicely for the translated 又—"...passing through one after another." 

[e] Onward RF

Language Notes

The language and grammar have two little issues that are "easy" for native speakers (the first-graders studying the text) but a little difficult for language learners in colleges across the world. 看看數到幾 is not a phrase that most of my second year students will interpret without effort, although just thinking about it for a while should do the trick. A little kid in Taiwan will have heard it or said it hundreds of times by first grade. This is one of the best reasons to "read" a native-speaker education, as we are doing in this series. There are just a whole bunch of challenging little things you'll never learn in textbooks (or, better put, things that will be exceedingly difficult to learn through traditional collegiate channels).

The real kicker comes at the end, though, and it introduces little first-graders to the first "same graph, different pronunciation" (破音字) character of their educations. The continuous aspect marker 著 punctuates the first two phrases, but then—suddenly—the textbook writers pop up with a little word play. The same character (著) becomes the second part of a common phrase for falling asleep. It "looks" the same, but it is being used differently here, and continuous (aspect) counting gives way to sleepy finality (睡著了). 

Fun stuff. Now get some rest.

[f] Mountain RF