2/20/2011 - by Chuck Monan, Preaching Minister

Deborah Fallows traced the same path every day to and from her language school in Shanghai.  Hundreds of times she passed the same group of young men who were selling knock-off goods on the sidewalk. “Lady! Lady! You buy my bag!  Come look my warehouse!  I have Gucci!  I have Prada!”  Each time, she declined the offers with a string of “Bú yào.  Bú yào.  Bú yào” (Don’t want x 3).

No matter.  They never seemed to recognize her, or remember her repeated answers of not being interested in buying what they were hawking.  One day she snapped: “Zuótiān, bú yào!  Jintiān  bú yào!  Mingtiān bú yào!” (Yesterday, don’t want!  Today, don’t want!  Tomorrow, don’t want!).

They stopped cold, stunned.  Then one irrepressible entrepreneur recovered, and with a hopeful look whispered earnestly “Hòutiān?”  meaning “Day after tomorrow?”

How would you not smile at such optimism?

Since the Lord dealt with man’s arrogance by confusing their language and scattering them over all the earth, the barrier of language has continued to divide and humble us.  For English speakers, few languages are more daunting to learn than Mandarin Chinese.  This was the challenge facing Fallows as she lived for three years in China.  Her recent book Dreaming In Chinese offers profound insights into Chinese culture through the window of language, such as:

• The subtleties of tone - with only about 400 syllables (a tenth of English), tones are a way to    get more mileage out of each syllable.  Many, many words are homonyms that can only be distinguished by high, low, rising and falling tones.  Native speakers learn these tones naturally; foreigners struggle mightily to hear them.
   
• The solidarity of common people - the word connoting the average Chinese Joe is Lăobăixìng (literally old + hundred + names).  Since most of the Chinese population share the same family names, the word has become a shortcut to convey the sense of “everybody.”  With the exception of high Communist party officials, most Chinese are considered lăobăixìng.  The word brings to mind the very average and ordinary people to whom Jesus ministered.
   
• The sociality of rudeness - among close friends in China, communication takes on a bluntness that startles Westerners used to peppering conversations with lots of pleases and thank-yous.  The Chinese say “Give me salt.”  To say “Please pass the salt” actually has the opposite effect of politeness by insinuating that our relationship is distant enough to need some formality between us.  A Chinese man explains, “Good friends are so close, they are like part of you.  Why would you say please or thank you to yourself?  It doesn’t make sense.”

When we refuse to learn about other cultures and languages, we have very little opportunity to reach out to other peoples.  We also miss out on numerous nuanced lessons that enrich and help us grow.  As Stephen Covey says, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”