Stranger Translation Thoughts

I forgot to mention, I also began thinking about the ways that English and Chinese were different...besides the obvious, I mean. Sure, one is tonal, the other isn't (and if you have to ask me to clarify which is which...I might just cry. Don't make me cry). And then there's that whole "Chinese characters versus English words" thing, which is also fairly obvious.

But for me, the hard part is often the fact that in Chinese, the same sound or sounds can mean totally different things, depending on the context. We have the similar situation in English with homonyms, but that's a small section of our language overall, really. In the majority of the English vernacular, each word is different. Per example, look at the last sentence. Does any word have a homonym? No. (And if it does, please tell me so I can feel foolish and then change this assertion...) So that's one reason the Chinese language is more difficult for English speakers, I think. Also, each sound is a word by itself in Chinese. And I don't think there's a proper parallel for that in English. We look at a word, and even if we don't understand the meaning, we can at least try to say the word. In Chinese, it's different. Almost exactly opposite. If you have a thorough understanding of the Chinese radicals, you can usually guess the meaning, but the sound...I don't know how people here determine that. Tradition, I suppose. And each sound, again, can mean so many different things! It's insanely difficult in its simplicity. 逗，都， and 豆 all have different meanings (funny, all, and bean), but all are pronounced "dou". And that's not even considering the other "dou"s that are said with other sounds to make completely different words!

I feel like it's a game where I have all the pieces (the sounds), but I don't know where to put them down to employ the best move or if I should even put them down in the first place. I'm learning the rules of the game, though, and even though I doubt very much I'll ever be a grandmaster, I certainly can hold my own against other players well enough.

Food for thought.

再见
杜楷