| | Feliĉan Esperanto-Tago! (can i say that?)Happy Esperanto Day! (Well, almost; it's December 15th but I might not have time to write tomorrow.)
Now i don't speak Esperanto so instead I'm going to write a little rant about languages and my job. Whee.
Very few of the researchers I've worked with in my line of work, both at DFCI and MGH, are native English speakers, or are from the US, much less New England. Language barriers and culture barriers are common. I'm fortunate that I became a little used to being surrounded by non-native speakers and non-locals while living in Thatcher. I also spent a little time being a non-native speaker while in Japan. Language is a difficult barrier, and culture barriers are even moreso -- it's easy to forgive a language mistake, but culture differences are more sly and hidden. Just because someone is fluent in the language doesn't mean they understand the implications of their words.
Today I stayed a few minutes extra for some people who needed their samples run -- they were incredibly nice and polite, and I wanted to help them out.
On the second to last sample, the girl (from Spain) said, "Here is the last sample you have to run."
Her counterpart from China immediately responded -- "No, you don't have to run it! It's not a requirement." (I was pulling a favor and saying I'd run what I could until we ran out of time.)
This began an odd discussion/argument. I'm no linguist, so I don't remember what the forms are, but... She meant it as a "presence of something to be analyzed," instead of "you must do this." 'I have a sample' vs. 'I have to run a sample.' He was upset because it could easily be misunderstood as a command form. I didn't mind, because I thought she had meant the presence, and knew they both understood I was pulling a favor and didn't need to do anything. ^_^
Another memory -- when I first moved into Thatcher, i went for dinner with the Japanese girls. We discussed the bane of all language-studying people -- SLANG. Of course they'd flown into Logan and had spent some time in Boston, and had to ask the question...
"What does wicked mean? Like 'Wicked cool.'"
"Well, it means very -- like totemo (Japanese adverb for very)."
"OH, you mean CHOU (pronounced cho with a long O)."
I of course had never heard this word because they DON'T teach those (highly important!) words in class.
Someone from Canada was thrilled because I ended a sentence in "ne?" which sounds a lot like "eh?"
Took me a long time to understand why a researcher, FLUENT in English, didn't like chatting -- I read somewhere that Germans (unlike americans or japanese), don't like small-talk. I ended up confirming it from someone else from a German family background.
Language and culture are deeply interlaced. So to fluently communicate you need to learn both. I guess I'm just fortunate that I try as best as I can to be aware of this. Maybe that's part of why researchers say they like coming back here? Could also be because I smile, am polite, and my sorts tend to come out well. ^_
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| | Posted 12/14/2006 5:04 PM - 0 comments
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