INTRODUCTION
Throughout time as far as history can remember, differences in geography were matched by the differences in culture, in peoples. Language as the tool of communication was always and of course still remains the key to understanding the far reaches of a mankind that together can only be understood as variegated. Centuries back a motivating factor in achieving knowledge of another people’s language was for the purpose of trade. Coin languages such as Greek were adopted for the purpose of universalizing the human experience in the world-at-large; in fact, many people being able to share a single language lent great impetus to advancements of humankind. When goods could be sold across geographic reach, prosperity could abound. If there were differences that cropped up in commercial enterprise, or if trade agreements were broken, or even in the face of a poor distribution of wealth, or simple threats to the sovereignty of peoples, nation-states, tribes or nations or established empires, then language again became ascendant and vital towards the self-determination of the very destiny of peoples regardless of their respective nationalistic entities. Indeed, at critical times when the stakes were highest and even rising unto warring between peoples, the more skilled a diplomat or a messenger might be in communicating simply by knowing the other people’s language, then the greater the chances were to alleviate any conflict of interests or misunderstandings that could cause an escalation of unrest. The most profound element of diplomacy is profound indeed: it is not only love of peace and love of prosperity, it is also love for fellow people in the sense of forming a certain unity with them. Certainly, when a person elects to honor another people’s ways and culture by learning that people’s own language, a sense of communality most akin to love for one another is transparently disposed. Moreover, this comity for two different peoples ultimately can be engendered also unto useful tasks and exchanges of culture and goods for the enrichment of all. Both parties to knowledge of a new language, the foreigner and the native speaker, feel an appreciation as much as even a deep love that they can now stretch across a pre-existing barrier to communication and share of the mind and of the heart with one another simply by speaking with one another. How remarkably profound it becomes to learn a language of another nation; even still, think how the direction of mankind has been guided and influenced by the power of the knowledge of foreign language. At the same time that it is obvious that this is the case, reflect upon the fact that it cannot be measured — the power of the influence of language upon the course of the peoples of the Earth throughout its history can never be even closely measured or truly known. Proof of this comes with the power of linguists who can read source writings that tell of the true history of man, the deepest accounts of the experiences of peoples and nations.
Preface
Welcome to: Jìxù Dàibiǎo Yōu Yōu Zhōng Wén.
To find a teacher who is truly dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge is a gift to a student. An earnest student of any branch of knowledge or even as concerns a simple topic within a given discipline will benefit from the experience of learning from such a dedicated teacher. Indeed, it becomes more of a joy to learn from someone who is also earnestly teaching and has gone deeply into how best to get the material across to the interested learner.
When a language is the object of learning, it quite simply involves communication. In teaching a language, the attributes of a teacher bear down upon the learning experience of the student quite remarkably. There can be no pretentiousness between teacher and student since knowledge of how to speak, how to communicate, is either there or it is not there – and what is communicated can only build mutual understanding if it can build on what is known by the student, what has been learned by the student.
When a dedicated teacher is also experienced and therefore knowledgeable about how a student will best understand the language, and if she also knows how a student actually learns what is at hand, then another dimension of capability in the teacher comes into play. This elevated didacticism of the more capable language teacher will heighten the communication level from teacher to student. The student will gain a facility in the learning process with such a perspicacious teacher who somehow knows how people learn, and, therefore, how they will learn best.
The reputation of Mandarin as a language that is at best extremely difficult or impossible for the Western mind to learn is a long-standing comment in the academic frame of reference as well as in common parlance. Even if the average person knows not a word of Chinese, still, that person will be likely to say one thing for sure: Chinese is the most difficult language in the world to learn. At Yoyo Chinese you have come across a talented teacher who sees more deeply than that iteration of the sheer difficulty of learning Mandarin bordering on the impossible. Yoyo Chinese indeed goes way beyond the parameters of difficulty as the ruling feature of learning Mandarin. Yoyo Chinese as a teaching itself will undo that commonly held misconception about Mandarin as being impossible to learn!
It just so happened that I fell in love with Mandarin, and this came about since I as a martial artist became fond of watching martial arts movies in Mandarin. The English subtitles were of course vital to me, but one day my ear became caught in the language. I began to experiment using a translator application, and then I started to decipher for myself what was being said now in the drama but on a minuscule scale, very minuscule. I would pick up a few words a day and relish them. I also could say the words I looked up, and I cherished saying them. It became a challenge to phonetically sound out certain chosen words I was hearing and from there to try to find the real Mandarin word itself with its pinyin counterpart in what became the ultimate source for me, the Pleco Dictionary. After thus familiarizing myself with words and expressions from drama videos, I began to pose phrases and sentences in English, input them into the translator, and hear their translations spoken in Mandarin. I would simply read the pinyin and match it with its English counterpart. This became for me like opening the door to Mandarin even further; I was enraptured to be able to cross that chasm of ignorance to knowledge and see what could be said. That drove me to memorize many, many sentences I had myself composed. So began my own journey into learning this exotic language, one whose almost sing-songy nature I had always admired from a tremendous distance for its enchanting sound and monosyllabic nature as I seemingly understood intuitively its nature.
In searching for ways to improve my understanding of Mandarin through vocabulary building, I traveled all throughout the Internet. Ultimately, I landed at Yoyo Chinese. YangYang Cheng, the founder and teacher at Yoyo Chinese, immediately caught my attention when I came across her in a video where she was teaching pinyin. I saw her as one whose attributes as a teacher clearly demonstrated to me that through good fortune I had found a most unusually gifted teacher. It became obvious to me that YangYang would be one who matches the idea that she can not only teach but also can teach from the fundamental idea of getting the truth across to her students successfully. It seemed to me that reaching the student was clearly YangYang’s top priority. It is this precise equation – comprehension from teacher to student — to which she has to the utmost devoted herself, and that equation is her distinctive element of excellence. In a language learning experience, this is everything; this is it. In fact, YangYang actually seems to teach so well that she makes things easier for the student whereas another teacher may not do so. I have experienced this phenomenon while learning from YangYang many times. Indeed, YangYang just streams her knowledge forth effortlessly and with a kind of wisdom or know-how that makes the listener feel confident and composed.
May I describe further some of my experience while learning at YoyoChinese. I for one had the sense that the teacher I had found had her syllabus all configured sequentially so as to elicit the best results in her students. YangYang places a premium value on clear presentation as she teaches. She compassionately tells you that learning Mandarin will be easy, and then she proceeds to display that very element of easiness transparently as she unfolds her lesson. This is like a win-win situation in a language being taught and learned. Mandarin’s tonal nature, for instance, may tend to baffle the mind of a Western student unless there is confidence conveyed from teacher to student! The teacher YangYang enthusiastically teaches to win the student to knowledge, and, as she succeeds, the student also wins the knowledge. In fact, YangYang has created a unique, highly original way of teaching the tones of Mandarin in pinyin that simply leap over barriers to realizing how to speak in the beginning learner’s platform. YangYang’s beginners’ platform for pinyin just flattens any difficulties that might be there for the student. If any reader here has attempted to learn Mandarin and resigned to being permanently rejected as to success due to not understanding how to approach the tones, then my highest, most compassionate recommendation is to study this with YangYang online at yoyochinese. YangYang performs the magic of making the student see that tones are also used in speaking English, and as she sets up a correspondence in tones between the two languages, she creates reference points for the new speaker of Mandarin by tapping tones drawn from English vernacular or way of saying things that match the Mandarin tones. This is an act of genius on the part of YangYang. She, I believe, devised a way to use the power of association between the two languages as far as achieving proper tones.
Let us face the fact also that the pictorial nature of the characters in the language of Mandarin are novel to the mind of a Romance language native speaker. YangYang guided me right through that challenge with expert, knowing advice: let the Hanzi wait while you concentrate on the tones, the pinyin. Even so, with only pinyin at first, one is early on speaking conversationally on and on and on under her tutelage and that of the rest of her dedicated team at Yoyo Chinese.
This article, Jìxù Dàibiǎo YōuYōu Zhōngwén，is dedicated to YangYang Cheng since it emanates from the opportunity I have in being her student and thus learning Mandarin from her. It is my hope that this article will help you, the reader, gain a chance to stretch your wings into Mandarin. Yet, the pithy topic at hand may persuade you of what I say. It may also cultivate in your mind a deeper understanding of what YangYang through her teaching method has delivered to me for one; therefore, a more profound learning experience in Mandarin may be yours as I in turn pass it on to you. I am so inspired by this teacher that I want to pass on the nugget of how she has taught me in Mandarin. May I add that this inspiration had literally driven me to express what I will next relate to you in this preface, and this regards five fundamental points to train the mind to pick up Mandarin.
The section called, Five Basic Key Points of ‘Xiangfa’ When Speaking in Chinese, will render the student some deeper insights into how to cultivate the mind for learning Mandarin, for learning how to speak Mandarin. These five points I have extracted exactly from how YangYang teaches — from how I began to form sentences in Mandarin under her tutelage.
Perhaps you as reader here will immediately grapple with the exact meaning of the word 想法 xiǎngfǎ. Let us first parse the word xiǎngfǎ, also pronounced as xiǎngfa wherein the second syllable assumes a neutral tone instead of a third tone.
想 xiǎng means to think, ponder or consider. It also can mean to suppose or reckon.
法fǎ means law, method, way, mode, standard or model.
When the two words xiǎng and fǎ are put together to comprise
xiǎngfǎ，then the definition in Pleco dictionary leaps to ‘idea’ or ‘what one has in mind.’
Xiǎngfǎ as used in the sense in this article means ‘what one has in mind.’ I would like to draw more succinctly from the fǎ component, stressing the definition of ‘way’ for fǎ and see xiǎngfǎ more carefully as ‘way of thinking.’ This may sound abstract, and it is also just that: abstract; nevertheless, xiǎngfǎ does, indeed, precipitate into the real, the concrete, during live conversation or in writing unavoidably when a student is conceptualizing in the language Mandarin. However, it would be ideal for me to illustrate certain shades or modalities of meanings for xiǎngfǎ as used herein so that it will be more useful to you from the outset of its introduction in the work at hand.
Certainly, as you become more and more acclimated to the language of Mandarin, so will you become more knowing of Chinese culture. In my own personal instance in this vein, the martial arts culture of ancient China and of China right down through the ages to the present day simply engrossed me in the language once I committed myself religiously to learning it. I became immersed in China TV dramas in the form of videos spoken in Mandarin (relying on subtitles, naturally) that are extensively available to the seeker in the media. Others might be fascinated by the architecture of China, by its fine cuisine or its ancient history, its calligraphy, or by the power of Chinese acupuncture. However the Chinese culture may gain the interest of any foreigner is one thing; but, from whatever facet or multi-faceted channel of input or study that may attract one to become a student of the language of Mandarin there is yet another thing that is profoundly true: learning the language of a people constitutes an in-depth way of understanding the culture of the people. To be educated unto the culture of a people builds an understanding of those people – those people can be thus better understood. In this world a better understanding of people can open eyes, it can open doors, and it can open new conference capability whether in business or in diplomacy; and colloquially, exchanges with people one-on-one in an everyday context can muster a new day for those individuals. No entity is more important than the individual. If art reflects the soul of a culture as I believe it does, then to even approach an understanding of any art of China in hand with a familiarity of the language of China must be engaging if not enlightening.
For me to say that as one learns Mandarin one becomes adept at how the native speakers of Mandarin think is not as bold nor as distantly true as one might surmise. This topic may not lend itself to any ease of persuasion at first; however, I am willing to delve into it in deference to its salient positing of method in learning Mandarin that is the very gist of the academic side of this article.
As one goes along in studying Mandarin, one is bound to come across idioms. One such idiom that comes to mind immediately is this:
见义勇为 jiànyìyǒngwéi. This is defined in the MDBG.net dictionary as: “to see what is right and act courageously (idiom, from Analects); to stand up bravely for the truth / acting heroically in a just cause.” Pleco dictionary defines this idiom as: “see what is right and have the courage to do it; ready to take up the cudgels for a just cause.”
As one who is by spiritual remand given deeply to devotion to a martial art, though a practitioner of Korean karate and not a Chinese martial art, this idiom sums up for me how it is that I was ever even led into the study of Mandarin. I thrived on movies that told the great stories of heroic ventures, depicting the heroism and moral righteousness of warriors caught up in empire wars of ancient China. I also found movies of individual martial artists, wuxia, or knights errant, who captivate the audience with their brave journeys and heroic deeds. Thus, both for individual martial artists and for empires with trained armies together was the magnetic spirit of heroism imparted to me, but there was one catch: the language was Mandarin, and moreover, the culture was Chinese.
May I act as guide to any who are newer to Chinese than I and say that these four words, 见义勇为 jiànyìyǒng wéi, describe a philosophical soundness of mind and moral virtue that are the very keel and source of action versus inaction thinking from which the entire worldview of a warrior is built or should be properly built: it is known as the strict code, or the martial arts code. This code sets up the following: for the use of action in the physical, for any use of the martial art, it is required by the strict code that such action is for use in self-defense and in self-defense only. To put it more directly, according to the martial arts code techniques may be known by the proficient practitioner, but those techniques cannot be used except for the purpose of self-defence.
The strict code just cited is even encapsulated by standing social mores in the classical argument of school children being corrected out of fight by a reasoning authority whereby one of the contenders will declare innocence by stating that the other had started the fight.
How such righteousness perfuses the mind of the warrior of truth, indeed, is summed up profoundly by 见义勇为 jiànyìyǒngwéi. Centuries of the passing down from teacher to student in the various spiritual disciplines of martial arts can be viewed as having been guided with such a meaningful mode of righteous conduct in the wider world and in any local sense certainly; that is, wars have been guided by moral righteousness and so have daily lives of martial arts practitioners living out their individual lives. The righteousness that guides the practice of knowledge of self-defence preserves the practioners, the masters and the entire style or tradition of art of those masters, and this has been so from ancient times down through the ages to the present. That righteousness in defence fundamentally also defines and saves nations, thus preserving nations for birth itself or for a justified battle for a better place in the wider world according to any such socio-political conditions as might prevail for any given nation or nations together.
Thus, is the mind not captivated by these four pithy words of Confucius? The first one, 见 jiàn， meaning to see, speaks of how the mind will work from a vision. In essence, the xiǎngfǎ of anyone, not just the warrior or martial artist, is thus cited through the word 见 jiàn and is simply the premise of the three words that succeed 见 jiàn in this idiom.
To break down the translation of this 成语 chéngyǔ (chéngyǔ = idiom) not even so much as a case in point relating to the larger article would be my great joy, for then I might relish in the idiom itself for its own worth before moving on in the essay herein. However, this chosen idiom will further help to unravel the ‘way of thinking’ or xiǎngfǎ as conveyed through the meaning of its words eminently well, comprising a careful case in point so as not to digress ultimately from the article at hand.
Therefore, if a given idiom can exemplify how to understand what is xiǎngfǎ in any sense at all, then a significant stride has been made towards the goal of learning Mandarin. In fact, further on, the nugget of this article, Five Basic Key Points of Xiǎngfǎ When Speaking in Chinese, is explicated, starting on page 28. Gaining a sense of what is xiǎngfǎ will engender a preparedness in the mind of the reader for the material being presented in that respective part of this article just referred to as the nugget. Indeed, this meaning of xiǎngfǎ as introduced through such a pithy saying from Confucius himself, a venerated sage of ancient China, can easily be extended to the selfsame xiǎngfǎ that is applied in learning to speak conversational Mandarin.
见 义 勇 为
Jiànyìyǒngwéi ：An Idiom Unfurled
The words in this idiom are defined as follows:
- 见 jiàn: to see; to appear to be something
- 义 yì: righteousness, justice
- 勇yǒng: brave, courageous
- wéi: to take something as; to act as; to serve as; to behave as; to become; to be; to do; to act; to govern; to handle
- 义勇 yìyǒng: righteous and courageous
Literally, this four-word idiom would be taken as follows: ‘see righteousness brave act.’
In this literal translation itself is implanted greater meaning than what is spelled out, and this is true to the nature of many Chinese idioms. Interestingly, it may come as no surprise that some idioms can only be understood within a perspective that is the result of cultural familiarity since such idioms might be related to an historical fact or a culturally imparted sense of tradition or way of regarding things: all things Chinese. Without further discourse on a topic with which I am familiar but not an expert, let us simply consider this particular idiom as best as we can.
This idiom for me actually becomes centrally disposed as to why I ever began to learn Mandarin in the first place. In the martial arts videos and episodic dramas I watched the theme at the forefront of my mind and heart was exactly as summed up in
jiànyìyǒngwéi. To pursue stories and characters who portrayed the essence of heroism while facing embattlement or while in the heat of battle for me became solidly linked to the language Mandarin. Repeating here the literal translation,‘see righteousness brave act,’a solution to know-how in living is offered the inquirer who would be likely to ponder how to conduct oneself in general in life if stirred deeply by this idiom; would it not be so? Yet the paucity of words in the idiom may tend to simplify its meaning, thereby obviating a deeper inquiry into that meaning for the shallow-minded individual. In fact, such verbiage so sparse on its surface might even oversimplify the idiom unto an expressly made answer to a narrow question, a single incident of happenstance or blind fate. Well then, which is it? If one defers humbly to the sagacity of Confucius, then one is inspired or indeed compelled to think more deeply upon the true meaning of jiànyìyǒngwéi; one may reflect that applying this idea of the nature of action as owing its source to ‘how to see’ could embrace more than a single instance of performing a deed out of bravery, indeed.
Immediately, then, the doer of an action has to make a choice as to what extent doership may prevail in a more general sense. The four words have leaped into a wider, more universal consideration – that of seeing according to a code given down from Confucius that finds its roots in the mind for righteousness. It is not that this idiom is a piece of advice for a single event, for one event that may by the law of probability in anyone’s life just happen one day. By following that narrow path to good behavior just once in a lifetime – is that what the idiom means, forsooth? Accordingly, this idiom would signify that once to have bravely acted through right deed as derived from proper discernment of mind would be all that should be expected; that never would one have to worry that such experience may visit the life again and form a pattern or a likelihood? Is this what Confucius himself meant to impart to mankind in this idiom? Or do those four words, ‘see righteousness brave act,’ in reality’s light actually mean more than a simple prescription in a perilous situation that places its burden on the soul but once or twice in an entire lifetime?
The Chinese mind is already prepared to contemplate a greater sense to an idiom, a sense that is in its true worth a totality greater than the sum of its parts. This is not a minor point. Although this may even be obvious, nor is it simple. Any person who abides by a good conscience born of a discerning mind is likely to know that to convey and to inspire this truth in others of an algorithm to good behavior born of a conviction of mind that honors at once courage and righteousness is no small task. Notwithstanding, entire cultural values center on it. Entire legal systems center on it. Lives are made or broken according to its dictum, the very dictum of righteousness.
Yet, in real life of action that rises off the page wherein words are written for contemplation, Confucius may teach you that to see by righteousness alone by itself requires an ingredient of bravery in the very first place; then to act according to that vision requires bravery. Thus do the two words most notably fuse to give 义勇 yìyǒng: definitionally, righteous and courageous. Righteousness and courage become one.
This one word, yìyǒng, that has fused from two, or these two individuated words as yì (righteous) and yǒng (courageous,) are further flanked and enriched in their meaning by the verb 为 wéi. Moreover, this second verb in the greater sequence of words that comprise the idiom jiànyìyǒngwéi reflects precisely back to the first verb in the idiom, jiàn, meaning to see. Take now for the sake of contemplative reference the meaning of wéi as ‘to become.’ At the start of one’s journey to righteousness of mind in regards to all things, one may only see the value of goodness, of kindness, of heroic heart. One may not know how to impart that inchoate vision of goodness in daily matters or in urgent considerations. However, if one seeks the guidance of a seer, of a seer’s idiom as cited here, knowhow can be achieved. This idiom of Confucius will upon summon speak succinctly to the question of moral conduct while at the same time it will expand the mind through the heart’s quest for correct behavior; inevitably, through the test of trials one can actually become,
wéi, true to oneself as reliably heroic. Seeing, jiàn, becomes, wéi, operative upon action as according to yìyǒng, or the righteous and the courageous. Vision has now melded into what defines the character as noble. Righteousness and courage are two essential ingredients to such a development of high character that can prescribe for an individual a useful course of action in life that may even embue the mind unto a beatific mindset, an essential vision, that will never die even when tested in actions.
One may see what is right from a cowardly stance and not be able to enact according to good conscience, and thus would one fall to unrighteous behavior in many instances due to lack of courage. For the page of written word to be unfurled into real life’s action constitutes a feat. The page may be unfurled unto a vision now unfolded from the mind’s eye, from the very xiǎngfǎ with which we concern ourselves in this discourse. In the heart linked to the mind there is a premeditated vision of reason to pursue the path of righteousness. Therewith does the courage of conviction of mind impart an entire way of thinking. This way of thinking, this xiǎngfǎ, would be translated into some instantaneous or carefully sought out course of action. Wisdom thus known is knowledge placed in the how-to. Now the idiom of Confucius says all of this in four words: jiànyìyǒngwéi. A student of Mandarin forming an entire xiǎngfǎ requisite to knowing how to communicate with native Chinese people must simply surrender to the pictorial, the profoundly expansive, conceptual nature of Mandarin such that this ancient language can be so terse. This idiom is a perfect illustration of that warning, or, kindlier, reminder. I may say ‘warning’ since it can be trying as a student of Mandarin to see into the words of some sentences where one would see omissions rather than terseness! This way of thinking according to the mandates of Mandarin where certain words will be left out for the sake of economy unto brevity becomes a valuable insight into how the Chinese people speak and think.
Perhaps this lengthy analysis of an idiom spoken by Confucius can convince the mind trained by birth in Western language. It is in Western languages such as English where the resolve of words is by its own natural proliferation a normative diction. Conversely, Mandarin can speak yet beyond what is precisely uttered. English poetry can accomplish the same thing by its own extension through picturesque brand.
From the foregoing, one can gather how xiǎngfǎ is unfolded in the mind. The mind is introduced to some words, however few or however many. In this case of the four words of an idiom, jiànyìyǒngwéi, it is demonstrated that if one contemplates the four words together for how they interconnect, then an entire vision can be cultivated that will guide the doer into right action at any given time. This power of right conduct is born of seeing, jiàn. Yet would an elder simply say to a child who may be learning how to fend on the playground where bullies enter and contend for unjust fight, “Just see. That is all. Just see.” See what? See how? The child may know that the elder means well in any advice given, but this terse advice will not engender a way of thinking that will be helpful or holistic in the mind of the child unless the child is some kind of precocious philosophical/metaphysical prodigy who can make tremendous sense of the word ‘see’ and need no other coaching. In fact, what may present visually to the child may be so threatening and atrocious when a bully presents his/her aggression that the mind is obliterated as to any choice in action as an answer to what is being witnessed. A child can freeze in fear of a threat from a bully, not knowing what to do on the spot.
This instance above of a parent paring down the four-word idiom to one word as advice to the child, the idiom’s seminal conceptual word of jiàn, illustrates how xiǎngfǎ forms in the mind – in a sense the thinking itself must be complete. A simple part or fragment will not necessarily convey, will not spawn, a contemplative ardor for truth so as to foment an entire way of thinking, a xiǎngfǎ. In contrast, entire readiness for action when danger strikes for the self or for another can be formed in the mind through the power of the Confucius idiom.
In real life, what presents may be not only danger. In real life also, entire decisions that relate to hallowed destiny’s hold may be formed from a xiǎngfǎ that is exactly derived from jiànyìyǒngwéi. A student may be struggling with a question as to what to become in the way of professional occupation. Lo and behold, up comes a xiǎngfǎ, a way of thinking, that has been formulated previously and over long years and hard experience. Now the student is solving a puzzle in life as to destiny, and how the student derives an answer as to a chosen pursuit of livelihood has been etched into the mind already much as a formula. This etching resides in the mind and waits only to be tapped: it is to find a daily life in the future as to occupation or profession that will build from having an opportunity to fend for that which is right and that which is good towards others all the time on a typical day. All that will be relevant in such a destiny will be pre-defined as concerning a ‘way of thinking’ that is in definitional harmony with a way of acting that helps others. The moral virtue of a youth was formed somewhere up in northern China when years before attending university that youth as a mere child had one day encountered a saying of Confucius, jiànyìyǒngwéi. In this founding of a mindset by the power of words to influence and mold the inner, philosophical eye of a growing child was born a doctor, or a policeman, or a soldier, or a lawyer in the making. The child began to live to love and do good, and now in choosing destiny, the same rules apply as according to a certain xiǎngfǎ.
Confucius did not mean to disconnect the second and third words as more relevant than the first and the fourth, did he? A bully can be brave in doing what is wrong to others, mistaking wrong for right due to false ego. A bully may simply not understand the synergy of four words that go together in sound heard or on the reading assignment page he or she looks over in passing.
Similarly, a student of Mandarin may hear a grammatical construction once or twice, read its translation, analyze it, and yet fall short of solidly learning it. Such a student may not have yet built a ‘way of thinking’ or xiǎngfǎ that will reside in the mind for use in speaking correctly according to that exact grammatical structure. Such a deficiency in the manner of expression may baffle a native Mandarin speaker who would have to exert extra effort in order to comprehend what kind of quirky thing has been said!
As an example of a hazy concept of how to use a grammatical construction and how this uncertainty can interrupt clear communication of precise meaning, let us imagine a foreigner in China who is trying his best to help the police find a wanted criminal who has robbed a bank. In the course of the dialogue with the questioners the non-native speaker of Mandarin innocently says the following: “我 说了 对 您 他 那 时候 是 很 多 钱 的 人 的 .” “Wǒ shuōle duì nín tā nà shíhòu shì hěn duō qián de rén de.” The police had asked him to repeat this sentence because they were trying to figure out what exactly he had meant! As the statement stands, the good Samaritan was saying this: “I said to you that he was a lot of money at that time.” Yet he could have been meaning to say that his friend or acquaintance was looking for a way to have a large sum of money at that time, that a large sum of money lived as a desire in the mind of the man under the scrutiny of detectives who were looking for a bank robber.
If more succinctly stated, the sentence would have been spoken according to a shì . . . de structure with the detail of ‘at that time’ properly incorporated within the shì . . . de structure; secondly, within that structure would have been the proper verb ‘yǒu’ to indicate possession of money as opposed to somehow trying to describe but mistakenly so the identity of the man through the verb to be, shì.
See this correction for yourself: “我 说了 对 您, 他 是 那时候 一个 很 有 多 钱 的 人 的。” “Wǒ shuōle duì nín, tā shì nà shíhòu yīgè hěn yǒu duō qián de rén de.” “I said that he was a very rich person at that time.” The ambivalence in what was being recounted in the inquiry by the police about a man who was a suspect in a bank robbery would naturally bother them – a rich man is much less likely to rob a bank than one who is desperately poor. Every clue is vital in detective work to success in solving the crime. Yet, the good Samaritan cannot speak with proper grammar in order to describe his knowledge of their suspect as not needing money at the time of the bank robbery. Although he is speaking well to an extent, his way of thinking, his xiǎngfǎ, lacks the proper shì . . . de construction word order. Somehow, he thinks that as long as nà shíhòu, an adverb describing time, comes before the verb shi, he will be understood. If he had once grapsed well that the shì . . . de construction acts like a kind of operator as if it is bracketing details under the governance of the verb shì, then he would have known that within that bracketing are contained details usually from the past; and those details most importantly may express with their own verb quite separate from the verb to be, shì. In fact, in this instance yǒu, to have, rightly takes its place within the shì . . . de. The time concept so vital to the detectives, nà shíhòu, at that time, also will lie within the shì . . . de as a matter of course. Had the xiǎngfǎ of the good Samaritan incorporated already the true nature of the powerful and very prevalent shì . . . de grammatical construction, he would have known how better to have described the time frame in question, and further, he would have been able to successfully state that the man in question was simply very wealthy by using the phrase . . . 很 有 多 钱 的 人 (hěn yǒu duō qián de rén) as vital details to render the police. A useful ‘way of thinking’ or xiǎngfǎ as regards shì . . . de is to see it as a master set that governs a subset, and that subset lies or comes within structural limits of shì . . . de. That subset can become a phrase unto itself with its own separate verb, and the subset contains the details to be related that are set off by the word shì.
When this good Samaritan realizes that the police do not understand him perfectly, he musters another sentence as he draws from another facet of his ‘way of thinking’ like Chinese people. He decides to illustrate in a specific way what he saw in the lifestyle of the man in question that will demonstrate clearly that this man must have been worth a great deal of money in the time period of the robbery. Thus, he says more persuasively, “那 时候 . . . 那个 . . . 我 的 朋友 . . . 那个 . . . 我 的 朋友 月月 休过了 长假。” “Nà shíhòu . . . nàgè . . . wǒ de péngyǒu . . . nàgè . . . wǒ de péngyǒu yuèyuè xiūguòle chángjià.” “At that time . . . um . . . my friend . . . um . . . my friend took long vacations month after month.” With that imposition of truth clearly stated even with some stammering the police nod in the affirmative, understanding the likely financial status of their suspect much better.
Again, in the same manner of reasoning, any xiǎngfǎ does not have to be as complex as words in formation together like in a grammatical structure. Simple word definitions will come into play, and since homophony (two words sound alike but differ in meaning) can complicate matters, the vocabulary of Mandarin will be of the utmost importance in contributing to the formation of xiǎngfǎ since xiǎngfǎ will inevitably contribute most vitally to language comprehension. In this sense, the parts – the actual words – also most vitally contribute to the sense of the whole although in a more direct manner than in an idiom perhaps.
One example of this comes to mind in my own learning experience. Here in America, I am familiar with getting food and beverages ‘to go’ from the handy drive-thru or from a restaurant on foot. These commodities are taken out as opposed to eaten in. I heard in a teaching video the word 绿茶 lǜchá and could read the pinyin beneath the hanzi. Having a certain readiness of mind due to vocabulary learned and knowing that lǜ means road or journey while chá means tea, I drew from my pre-existing mindset of life in America. I quickly reasoned that food and drink ‘to go’ might be also there in China. In fact, I paused the video just to reflect on what might be the meaning of this word lǜchá. Based on pre-existing knowledge, I drew up an excellent case for it, using the very xiǎngfǎ so dear to my heart that had been formed from watching videos in Mandarin. The adventurous romance of being a wandering 武侠 wǔxiá (knight errant where errant means traveling) on the road in ancient China was set in my mind from watching so many Mandarin dramas that portrayed the lives of such as those wandering, chivalrous martial artists. Many times in such dramas, the protagonist would come upon a roadside food stand or open-air pavilion right in the middle of a bucolic setting on a road or trail. Since the table was so close to the trail, I even went so far as to envision an ancient derivation of the ‘to go’ concept for the Chinese culture centering around the word 绿茶 lǜchá. Through my vocabulary I interpreted a homophonous word for 绿 lǜ, meaning green, as lù, meaning journey or road, path or way (路 lù.) I was reading of course the pinyin only. When I saw lǜ innocently as journey or road coupled with chá meaning tea, I leaped to the idea that this was a reference to tea that one would procure on a journey – similar to our ‘tea to go.’ This was tea for a journey, to be taken close by the side of the road while on a journey; for us in America now, it would be to take out for the road. In my imagination this lǜchá could even have come from the ancient Chinese roadside stand where travelers would stop for tea and food while traveling in the countryside. Little did I know that that there was another word, meaning green, that was also a ‘lu.’In this instance, my apperception of the culture of China as relates to tea for a journey or alongside an ancient road leaped to a xiǎngfǎ that was highly idiosyncratic to the real thing in front of me–simple green tea! However, if one approaches an understanding of a language from such a rich cultural context and combines with this the correct vocabulary useage, then one is certainly bound to form a proper xiǎngfǎ. In a sense, it is all a journey.
Having unfolded some of the finer shades of meaning of what can become an understanding of how Mandarin speakers think, their essential xiǎngfǎ in the widest generic sense, may I continue to introduce in this careful preface what lies in the actual Mandarin written and spoken in the body proper of this article.
The entire article is divided for the reader’s convenience into three different presentations: the first section gives the Hanyu, pinyin and English in direct succession, paragraph-by-paragraph. The second, third and fourth sections are devoted to Hanyu, pinyin and English, respectively, as stand-alones. These paragraphs are arbitrarily numbered since when I began writing this material, confessedly, I had little idea of how to write and little idea of how to speak conversationally past the beginner’s level. However, I was reading sentences in Pleco dictionary and elsewhere everyday, and from insight gained from that reading and further exploration did I feel I could write something. I found I needed to say a great deal about a great teacher, YangYang. That I could reach a higher level of realizing Mandarin by writing I had experienced indeed once before, so I had some amount of confidence, having broken the ice.
While writing this article, indeed, I was actively learning from the dictionary and books and Internet searches as I went along in writing it.
I must point out most emphatically that I gained an inestimably great wealth of knowledge about Mandarin by writing Jìxù Dàibiǎo YōuYōu Zhōngwén. If any of you students/readers here would like to increase your understanding of Mandarin, I would encourage you to pick up the pen and go to work writing something — anything. This would be a great academic exercise for any serious student of Mandarin. I cannot in English praise this kind of project, writing sentences, highly enough. Only by approaching such a project as writing on your own will you understand its true worth in molding and solidifying your knowledge of Mandarin.
Thank you for reading here. May the best of fortune always bless your journey in learning Mandarin. It is my honor to present this article to you since it was written in a didactic frame of reference, and we all owe its inspiration and all praises to the teacher, YangYang Cheng.
Marilynn Stark February 25, 2019
Narrative on the Behalf of Yoyo Chinese
作家 / Zuòjiā / Author Marilynn Stark
记叙 代表 优优中文
Jìxù Dàibiǎo Yōuyōu Zhōngwén
Table of Contents
§1. 汉语，拼音 和 英语/ Hànyǔ, Pīnyīn hé Yīngyǔ/ Chinese, Transliteration and English
不久前 秧秧 发 我 一 封 电邮。她 在 电邮 要了 我 录像 一个 记叙，因为 我 是 她的 学生。所以 去年 我 也 开始 写 这个 盛赞 给 她， 由于 我 想 表示 钦佩 我们 的 老师。( 一 ）
Bùjiǔ qián yāng yāng fā wǒ yī fēng diànyóu. Tā zài diànyóu yàole wǒ lùxiàng yígè jìxù, yīnwèi wǒ shì tā de xuéshēng.
Suǒyǐ qùnián wǒ yě kāishǐ xiě zhège shèngzàn gěi[ tā, yóuyú wǒ xiǎng biǎoshì qīnpèi wǒmen de lǎoshī. (1)
Not long ago, YangYang sent me an email. In the email she asked me to make a video recording of a narrative because I am her student. Thus, last year I started to write this accolade to her since I want to express admiration for our teacher. (1)
秧秧 常常 说 普通话 不 太 难 了。她 这 个 人 很 有意思。 人人 应该 真 信了， 可是 在 学习 起初 说 中文 说 得 不 容易 了。不过 如果 您 一个人 试试 学 外语， 您 应当 想想 不同 的 东西，而是 您 真 的 应当 想法 得 很 新。不要 骇怕。 思考 不 一样 一下。大家 的 想法， 您 都 摸底。用 中文 人家怎么样 想法， 您 也 怎么样 说。 我 看 这个 办法 可行。
也许 在未来 您 会 说 您 的 朋友，“现在 我们 喝 茶 和 谈谈 吧。”
您 自己 想想 这 件事 那么 相应 想法 的 很 新：您[ 的 眼睛 会 远望， 那 您 的 声 会 说 得 好听。（二）
Yāng yāng chángcháng shuō pǔtōnghuà bù tài nánle. Tā zhè gè rén hěn yǒuyìsi. Rén rén yīnggāi zhēn xìnle, kěshì zài xuéxí qǐchū shuō zhōngwén shuō dé bù róngyì le. Bùguò rúguǒ nín yīgèrén shì shì xué wài yǔ, nín yīngdāng xiǎng xiǎng bùtóng de dōngxī, ér shì nín zhēn de yīngdāng xiǎngfǎ dé hěn xīn. Bùyào hàipà. Sīkǎo bù yíyàng yíxià. Dàjiā de xiǎngfǎ, nín dōu mōdǐ. Yòng zhōngwén rénjiā zěnme yàng xiǎngfǎ, nín yě zěnme yàng shuō. Wǒ kàn zhège bànfǎ kěxíng.
Yěxǔ zài wèilái nín huì shuō nín de péngyǒu,”xiànzài wǒmen hē chá hé tántán ba.”
Nín zìjǐ xiǎng xiǎng zhè jiàn shì nàme xiāngyìng xiǎngfǎ[ de hěn xīn: Nín de yǎnjīng huì yuán wàng, nà nín de shēng huìshuō dé hǎotīng。
YangYang often says that Mandarin is not difficult. She is very interesting. Everyone ought to come to believe it, but at the outset of learning to speak Chinese, it is not easy. However,if you try to study a foreign language by yourself, you should think about different things; rather, you should try to think of a very new way to think. Have no fear. Try to think deeply and differently. You already know quite well what everyone is thinking. Knowing how others of the Chinese culture think, you surely then know how to speak. I think this method is feasible.
Perhaps in the future you will say to your friend, “Now let’s drink some tea and chat.”
Think for yourself about this thing in that way that corresponds to a new way of thinking: Your eyes can gaze afar; then your voice can sound beautiful. (2)
