我学习中文的故事A “厚脸皮chutzpah”的早期学习

Even though I grew up in Asia, my first language was actually English, which is quite confusing to many. And Mandarin is my fifth language, after Swatow (Shantou, or Chaozhou), Cantonese, and Hakka (Kejia), in rough order of acquisition, which adds to my language story complexity. Instead of the usual student from Asia coming to America and learning or improving his English, I came to, (or “returned to”) America and learned Mandarin, in a Midwest town that had few ethnic Chinese people.

虽然我在亚洲长大，但可能会让很多人疑惑的是：我的第一语言实际上是英语。普通话是我的第五种语言，仅次于汕头话、广东话和客家语，这让我学习语言的故事听起来复杂了很多。和那些从亚洲来的学生大不一样的是，当我来到(或“回到”)美国时，是在一个只有很少华人的中西部小镇学习中文普通话，而不是学习英文。

My mother was American born, from Seattle. Although ethnic Chinese, she never learned Chinese. At home in Asia, my parents spoke in English to each other. I spoke to mother in English, or in Swatow (Shantou, a southeast China coastal) language, since she knew some “pidgin” Swatow. Growing up, my Chinese education was therefore limited, more like American born children trying to learn Chinese in America.

我母亲出生在美国，来自西雅图。虽然是华人，但她从未学过中文。在亚洲的家里，我父母彼此用英语交谈。我用英语和母亲交谈，或者用汕头话，因为她会一些“洋泾浜”的汕头话。在我的成长过程中，我接受的中文教育是有限的，和现在很多在美国出生的、才开始学习中文的孩子们差不多。

In 1945, when I was nearly 5 years old, World War II ended, and my parents brought me out from the ancestral village, where we had been hiding for a few years from the Imperial Japanese Army. They sent me immediately to the excellent English language Diocesan Girls (!) School. The Boys School would not fully open until 1947, and in any case, did not accept boys before 5th grade. I think I was rather proud of the fact that, at one time, I was one of only 3 boys in the school, especially since I don’t remember being “bullied” at any time by the girls. In contrast, as I was small in size, I was certainly bullied by big boys later in the Boys School.

1945年，当我快5岁的时候，第二次世界大战结束了，我的父母把我从祖先居住的村庄带了出来（我们在那里呆了几年以躲避日本帝国军队）。他们立即把我送到一间优秀的英语教区女孩(!)学校（因为当时的男校直到1947年才完全开放，而且无论如何，五年级之前都不招收新生）。在女校的一段时间，我是学校里仅有的三个男生之一，我觉得我很自豪，尤其是我不记得自己曾经被女生欺负过。相反，由于我个子小，在男校的时候肯定会被大男孩欺负。

There were no bad memories to make me biased against girls at all, and maybe I even learned to treat girls with extra respect from the experience. Everything at school was basically taught in British English, which strengthened my native English language foundation, and I don’t even remember being taught Chinese at all.

女校学习的经历中，没有任何不好的回忆让我对女孩产生偏见，甚至可能让我从这段经历中学会了更尊重女孩。学校的教学基本上 全部都是英式英语，这进一步夯实了我的母语英语基础，我甚至不记得当时曾经学过中文。

When it was time to leave the Girls School, at the 5th grade entry level, for the Boys School, I was considered too young to enter. I was thus diverted to a “Chinese school” for one year, which, in retrospect, saved my Chinese language from total disaster. Since my Chinese at the time was still practically non-existent, my parents wisely dropped me 2 grades to be safe. But that year gave me at least an inkling into basic local Cantonese language and culture, taught by very fine teachers.

当我要离开女子学校（在我五年级
的时候）去男校时，被认为太小了不能进入。就这样，我被转到一所“中文学校”学习了一年，现在回想起来，正是这一年，才使我的中文免于“灭顶之灾”。当时我的中文水平几乎等于零，为了安全起见，我父母明智地给我降了两级。但那一年，在很优秀的老师的引领下，我至少对当地的粤语和文化有了一些初步的了解。

The next stop was the excellent, Anglican Diocesan Boys School, modelled after the private British so called “public school” (Harry Potter fans, note). It was also essentially a forerunner of modern-day international schools, a term not invented then. English was strictly enforced, so basically, I was well “immersed” in written and spoken English for all subjects, except second language classes. So, during this phase, English became affirmed as my “mother tongue,” my dominant language, both at home and school.

我的下一所学校是一所优秀的圣公会教区男校，这所学校是仿照英国所谓的“公立学校”(哈利波特迷们所熟知的名称虽然是公校，实际是私立的精英学校)开办的。它也是现代国际学校的前身，“国际学校”这个名词当时还没有发明。在那里英语是被严格要求的，所以基本上，除了第二语言课，我所有科目都是用英文教授。因此，在这个阶段，英语被确认为我的“母语”.

At school, I took Chinese as second language, instead of French, the other option. However, in my memory, the teaching was abysmal, taught in traditional boring rote memory style, and not respected by the schoolchildren. Plus, although the class was claimed to be guo yu 国语 (national Chinese language), the Chinese words were taught in local Cantonese language, quite different from Mandarin, the official language of China. It was like village students in China I met later in life, who tried to learn English as second language, reading words written on the blackboard, taught by a teacher who didn’t really speak English. To me, Chinese was hard enough as a language, without having a non-Mandarin speaking teacher who made it harder.

在学校里，选择了中文作为第二语言，而不是法语。然而，在我的记忆中，教学是非常糟糕的，用的是传统的枯燥的死记硬背的方式，而且老师也不受小学生的尊重。另外,尽管课程的名称是国语,但实际是用中国在当地粤语的话教语言,完全不同于普通话。就像我后来遇到的很多中国农村的学生一样，他们试着把英语作为第二语言来学习，读写在黑板上的单词，但教授他们的老师自己其实都不会说英语。对我来说，中文作为一门语言已经够难的了，没有一个会说普通话的老师让它就更难了。

I remember making a valiant effort (I thought) to improve my Chinese in class, but no one informed me that the secret of language mastery is through casual childhood storybook reading, and not really through formal class time. I suspect that since I essentially read no Chinese novels, classical or modern, or Chinese newspapers, or even Chinese comics in my spare time, I was set up for failure! And of course, I never spoke Mandarin.

我记得我曾勇敢地(我认为)想各种办法在课堂上提高我的中文水平，但没有人告诉我，掌握语言的秘诀是通过童年时随意阅读故事书，而不是通过正式的课堂时间。我怀疑，因为在我的业余时间里，我基本上不看中国小说（无论古典或现代）或中国报纸，甚至中国漫画，就注定了我这种学习的失败!当然，那时我也从来不说普通话。

My only remaining brother, who is an American university librarian, somehow recently convinced my former boys’ school, to release my school records to him, without asking my “official consent (!)” He slyly forwarded them to me afterwards: that’s what a good brother is for, no need for protocol! Thanks to him, I found out something I had totally forgotten, or wiped out of my memory. One year (only once, thankfully) my place in the second language Chinese class was number 66, out of 67 students. As they like to say in Chinese, I was number 2, counting backwards, Dàoshǔ dì 2 倒数第2 (See photo).

我唯一健在的弟弟是美国一所大学的图书管理员，最近不知怎么地说服了我以前的男校，让他们把我的学校记录提供给他（在没有征得我“正式同意”的情况下）。他后来狡猾地把这些记录转发给了我:这就是一个好弟弟的作用，不需要循规蹈矩!多亏了他，我发现了一些我已经完全忘记，或者从记忆中抹去的东西。有一年(只有一次! )，我在第二语言中文班的67名学生中我排名第66。有人喜欢说是“第2名”，但是是倒着数的(见图)。

Photos 1 & 2: Proof of my poor Cantonese Chinese grades, dug up from old school records by my investigative librarian brother. That is what good brothers do, uncover truths dormant for decades. Also, a reminder that school grades bear no simple relationship to later life?
图 1, 2证明我粤语中文成绩很差的证据，这是我当图书管理员的弟弟从学校的旧记录中挖出来的。这就是好兄弟所做的，揭开沉睡了几十年的真相。还有，学校的成绩和以后的生活有没有什么关联吗?

However, there was fortunately another circumstance that prevented me from total language disaster. Most of the extended family attended a Swatow (Shantou) church, and I went along on Sundays. I learned to speak and (sort of) read the bible in the regional Chaozhou language. The senior pastor was passionate about the language, and he insisted that all communication in the church be done in Chaozhou, an “immersion experience” for me, which I accepted without a whimper.

然而，好在，还有一件事让我避免了语言灾难。我们这个大家庭的大多数人都去汕头的教堂做礼拜，我星期天也去。我学会了用潮州方言说话，甚至能读点《圣经》。主任牧师对潮州话很热衷，他坚持教会所有的交流都要用潮州话，这对我来说是一种“浸入式的体验”，我不知不觉就接受了。

Photos 3, 4, & 5: Listening to side by side translations is an excellent way to learn languages. However, it requires chutzpah to actually be a translator (middle photo), since everyone in the audience is potentially a critic. For me, this was one tough but effective way to learn Chinese!
图 3, 4, 5:边听边译是学习语言的好方法。然而，真正成为一名翻译需要脸皮要厚chutzpah (中间的照片)，因为观众中每个人都可能是评论家。对我来说，这是一种艰难但却很有效的学习中文的方法!

As a personal bonus to me, the sermons in the adult services, which we had to attend as children, were not only given in Chaozhou, but sometimes in Mandarin, translated “side by side,” phrase by phrase, into Chaozhou. Even though I might not have totally understood, I’m sure the language tracks, especially in Chaozhou, and maybe even a bit of Mandarin, were being, step by step, subconsciously, etched in my brain.

作为对我个人的一种福利，我们小时候必须参加的成人布道不仅是用潮州话举行的，而且有时也用普通话，然后再同步逐字逐句地翻译成潮州话。虽然我可能不能完全理解，但我确信语言的轨迹，特别是潮州的语言，甚至可能是一点普通话，已经一步一步地，潜意识地，铭刻在我的脑海里。

Thus, my dominant language theme was English for most of my life. But in the one-year Chinese School, and in the streets of Hong Kong, I was exposed to Cantonese. In the Swatow church I was exposed to Chaozhou with a touch of Mandarin. All these inputs were just wonderful for my developing language brain, for which I am eternally grateful. To clarify, for westerners, Mandarin is like official Latin of Europe in days past, while Chaozhou and Cantonese are like Portuguese and Spanish spoken in homes and community, related but not the same language.

因此，在我生命的大部分时间里，我的主要语言无疑是英语。但在为期一年的中文学校和在香港的街头，我接触到了广东话。在汕头教堂，我接触到了潮州话和一些普通话。所有这些输入对我正在发育的语言大脑来说都是美妙的，我对此永远心存感激。澄清一下，对西方人来说，普通话就像过去欧洲的官方拉丁语，而潮州话和广东话就像葡萄牙语和西班牙语，在家庭和社区里说，即它们是有联系但又很不相同的语言。

However, it turned out that much later, surprisingly, the greatest inspiration for my Mandarin language journey occurred after our arrival in Cincinnati, USA, and helping to start a “Chinese language” church. Cincinnati is a Midwestern town with few Chinese speakers, especially during the 60s-70s era. The people in church were mostly from Taiwan, speaking Mandarin Chinese derived predominantly at the time from mainland China, where their own families originated.

然而，令人惊讶的是，很久以后，我的普通话之旅最大的进步来自于我们到达美国辛辛那提，并帮助建立了一个当地的“汉语”教会。辛辛那提是美国中西部的一个小镇，说中文的人很少，特别是在六七十年代。教堂里的人大多来自台湾，他们的父辈大部分是1949来左右离开中国大陆到了台湾的，在家里基本是说普通话。

Because of ministry opportunities and responsibilities, and because I am pretty brash about learning languages (I have no fear!), I began to talk, talk, talk in Mandarin Chinese, to survive and communicate. In the Jewish Yiddish language, that brashness is known colorfully as chutzpah, and I had plenty of that.

因为事奉的机会和责任，也因为我对学习语言的热忱(我不害怕!)，我开始用普通话不停地说、说、说，为了生存的考虑，也为了和人们更好的交流。在犹太Yiddish语中，这种勇往直前、不管对错地一直说的行为被生动地称为chutzpah，实际上我有很多这样的习惯。

I learned chutzpah, or “brash confidence,” very well in my pediatric residency at a large Jewish hospital in Chicago, in the first few years in the USA. I confirmed quickly also my own version of the American “can do” attitude, close to Jewish chutzpah, “be bold and just do it.”

在美国的头几年，我在芝加哥一家大型犹太医院做儿科住院医生时，很好地学会了“chutzpah勇往直前”或“高度自信”。我也很快证实了我自己版本的美国人“我可以”的态度，类似于犹太人的勇往直前，“大胆地去做吧。”

In American mythology, the Wild West was conquered with that kind of confidence, when wilderness, severe weather, and hostile local tribes were not considered obstacles. And it aptly described my attitude to language. You cannot be shy if you want to learn languages! In retrospect also, I suspect my childhood exposure to many languages gave me the starting points, and extra courage, in my language journey.

在美国传统故事中，当荒野、恶劣的天气和敌对的当地部落不再被视为障碍的时候，西部荒原就被那种自信征服了。这恰如其分地描述了我对语言的态度。如果你想学习语言，你就不能害羞!回想起来，我怀疑是我童年接触的多种语言给了我语言旅程的起点和额外的勇气。

I never cared if people laughed at my Mandarin. I took the attitude that, hey I’m trying, and if you can’t understand, you may need to listen harder! A very effective way to learn, I think, though I’m sorry for the hearer, ha (no, I’m not really sorry)! Very soon I was able to communicate reasonably well, even though, because of my poor Chinese language foundation, my actual grasp of literary and written Chinese was still quite weak.

我从不在意别人笑话我的普通话。我采取的态度是，嘿，我在努力，如果你没听明白我说的话，你可能需要更认真一点儿听!我认为这是一种非常有效的学习方式，虽然我为听者感到遗憾（哈，不，我也不是真的抱歉)!很快，我就能很好地与人交流了，尽管由于我的中文基础很差，我对文学和书面中文的实际掌握程度还很低。

In addition, I actively learned a lot from weekly sermons, mostly given in Mandarin. I just physically “mouthed” the Mandarin Chinese words, as the Mandarin preacher spoke, or, when there was an English speaker, as the translator translated the sermon to Mandarin. Either way, I began to learn more literary Chinese words, and especially Mandarin biblical terms. And, singing hymns in Mandarin also helped, bit by bit.

此外，我从每周的讲道中积极地学到了很多，大部分是用普通话讲的。当讲普通话的牧师说话时，我就重复他们说的普通话单词，当讲英语的人说话时，听翻译把它们翻译成普通话。不管怎样，我开始学习更多的中文书面表达方式，尤其是一些圣经的用语。唱中文的赞美诗，也是一个很有效的学习方式。

Very brashly, chutzpah indeed, I even later volunteered to translate from Mandarin to English, partly because others were often shy, and I wasn’t at all! It was the best training ever, since I had to listen very carefully to each word, and translate instantaneously into my mother language, English. This was really great brain training, and I could literally feel those Mandarin words being sculpted deeper and deeper into my brain language tracks. I learned to catch nuances of language, and Mandarin biblical concepts, so that my translations really became “acceptable,” at least in my own estimate! Brashness and confidence can do wonders!

我一直勇往直前 chutzpah、无所顾忌地学习方式，让我后来甚至主动承担一些要求把中文翻译成英文的工作，很多人学习语言比较困难的部分原因是很害羞，而我一点也不害羞!这是最好的训练，因为我必须非常仔细地听每一个词，并立即翻译成我的母语，英语。这真的是很棒的大脑训练，我能真切地感觉到那些普通话单词正在我的大脑语言轨道中雕刻得越来越深。我学会了捕捉语言的细微差别，以及普通话中的圣经概念，所以我的翻译真的变得“可以接受”了，至少在我自己的估计中是这样的!无畏和自信可以创造奇迹!

Bravo chutzpah!
加油！厚脸皮！