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My face is going to China
A Chinese researcher who doesn't speak much English has just arrived at the library (yes, around 4:30 on a Friday...) and I spent about fifteen minutes helping him fill out his registration card. He came over to me for help with it, rather than to the reference desk. I think he likes me because I speak slowly to him. I wish I remembered more than tushuguan (library) from my semester of Chinese - I think he already knew where he was, so tushuguan wasn't doing me much good.
I get the impression, after learning a bit about Chinese and talking to him, that it's tough for those who aren't fluent in English to grasp when a question is being asked. In many Western languages, we often just go up at the end of a sentence to make it into a question. In Chinese, words go up and down and up-down and change meaning because of it.
When we were done filling out the card, had his picture taken with me with his digital camera, because I helped him. So my face gets to go to China, as I'm sure it has many times before. We always have Chinese archivists visiting here and snapping photographs. Sometimes I wonder, when I'm in a touristy spot, if I'm getting into strangers' pictures and they're taking me home with them. Interesting thought, that. Communication is fun. What job can I get where I help foreigners all day?
srah - Friday, 26 July 2002 - 4:51 PM
Tags: language, work
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