Re: Teaching by Translation: to take

phippsmartin_at_hotmail.com
Date: 03/29/05 

Date: 29 Mar 2005 06:45:39 -0800

Jim Walsh wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 04:52:48 -0800, phippsmartin thought carefully
and
> wrote:

> > It isn't always like that though. I had a friend in Canada who
asked me
> > "What is the difference between 'look' and 'see'?" I told her
"'look'
> > means 'kan51' and 'see' means 'jian51'." As far as I can see this
is a
> > perfectly good explanation.
>
> Are you aware that MOST of the time English speakers use the word
"see",
> they mean "understand"?
>
> A: Mark is very sick. He won't come to school today. B: Yes, I see.
We
> will have to arrange a substitute.

But she wanted to know the difference between "see" and "look". Look,
I do realize that we have colloquial uses for these words. :)

> > Of course, I realize that "kan51 shu55" also means "read a book"
but
> > that's only because people in China assume that if you are reading
a
> > book you must be reading it. Similarly, "kan51 dian51 ying214"
means
> > "watch a movie". Sometimes you can't separate the difference in the
> > language with a difference in the way people think. That's where
> > further explanation comes into play.
>
> I can and do teach my students to understand "look" "see" "read" and
> "watch" (all of which have several meanings) without once referring
to a
> Chinese word.

How do you explain the difference between "look" and "see"? Do you
account for the fact that "I see" could mean "I understand" and "Look"
can mean "Listen to what I am saying"? I suppose I could put my hands
over my eyes to demonstrate "look" but "see" is a bit more abstract.

> Pointing at the handout, I asked, "Maybe then you can explain why
"see"
> and "look" are translated by the same character.

Obviously he didn't know the difference.

Okay, here's an experience I had once. The book I was using had "How
are you?" translated as "Ni214 hao214" and "What's up?" translated as,
yes, "Ni214 hao214". I tried to explain the difference but my students
didn't understand words like "formal" or "polite". How would you have
made this distinction?

By the way, I apologize for the fact that a troll from sci.lang has
insisted on butting in on this thread. If we both ignore him then he
might just go away.

Martin

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