Lost in Translation...

To summarize this post I could just say that the Chinese idea of speaking about a culture is completely different than the American idea. But you know me, I'm not really good at summarizing. I like going into detail. So if you don't like details you can stop reading now...because this may be a fairly long post. here goes...

Last Thursday evening we got a call from one of our teachers from our University. She asked us if we'd like to attend a class Friday evening to speak on "American life." I asked her a few questions...

Me: "What time?"
Teacher: "About 7 p.m. for about one hour."
Me: "What class?"
Teacher: "A class of students who are studying English and just want to learn about foreign culture."
Me: "Ok. Let us think about it and we'll tell you tomorrow."

We've turned down opportunities like this in the past just because we haven't felt it absolutely necessary in accomplishing our "goals" set out for reaching our city. We also weren't real excited about doing it because we were going to be in language class from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. that afternoon and knew our brains would be pretty fried by the time 7 p.m. rolled around. But, since we'd turned them down so many times we thought it might be nice to agree to "talk about our culture" & to meet some more students at our University.

So the next day we told her we'd do it. She said that at 6 p.m. after we got out of language class we'd eat dinner with all of our chinese teachers and then prepare for the class. So at 6 p.m. we ate some delicious food with all of our teachers and then started to go over some of the questions that the students wanted us to talk about and some of the procedure for the evening. Much to our surprise, this was not going to happen in a small classroom of 20 or so students like how we originally thought. No No. This was going to be in front of about 300 students in an auditorium where we'd be seated on stage with two Korean students as well. We were quite shocked!! But at the same time not at all surprised because it just figures that something like this would somehow be lost in translation!

So we're ushered over to the largest auditorium on campus where they quickly take us back stage, put Britney Spears-type microphones on our heads, & teach us some of the vocabulary we'll need to know for some of the questions they were going to ask us. The big production began with a performance by the Martial Arts students which was really cool. And then we were brought on stage.

We thought we'd be talking about the differences between American University & Chinese University, or hobbies, sports, holidays & family customs. There were a few questions that barely skimmed the surface of those ideas:
"Tell us about April Fool's Day." & "How does an American lose weight?"
First of all...I could not have been more disappointed with the April Fool's Day question because out of every holiday they could have asked us about they chose the one that if deleted from the calendar it would virtually go unnoticed. Christmas? Easter? even Thanksgiving? nope...didn't mention it. Anyhow, we did our best to educate them on this pointless holiday. They didn't really understand the idea anyways and just said, "So basically it's just lying." We just said "yes, pretty much."
And then all we said about Americans losing weight was that we're pretty much the same as any other human on the planet and we lose weight by eating less & exercise. I'm not sure what they were expecting from that question but oh well.

The evening was fun though. They attempted to teach us some Tai Qi and even made us stand up and try some of the difficult positions. As a joke we both posed in the traditional Karate Kid stance...they laughed but we're not sure if it's because we looked stupid or if they've actually seen that American classic. Again...another thing that might have been lost in translation.

One of their favorite things to talk about the entire evening was "tongue twisters." They asked us if we could do one in Chinese...which we've yet to master. The Koreans sure were good at them though. And then they asked us to teach them an English one. So I did the "How much wood could a Woodchuck chuck..." one. They went through it slowly with me and did pretty good! But then they asked me to translate it. When I couldn't translate it they brought a teacher onstage to help me translate it. We seriously spent about 20 minutes just trying to imitate a woodchuck because she had never heard of one and well, we've never had to act out a woodchuck before. So after deciding that it was completely futile trying to translate this tongue twister, they gave up.

The questions were about all kinds of things ranging from food, movie stars, & songs (at which point we sang the first stanza of Amazing Grace...in english of course).
We ended up being there long past the hour limit the teacher said it would last. I think we walked off stage about 9:45 p.m. But it was worth it and it will definitely be something we won't ever forget. Our brains were completely exhausted from thinking, listening, & speaking in Chinese for eight hours straight...with little to no english breaks inbetween (unless you count me looking at Brandon and asking him, "Is it Peter Piper picked a pickled pepper?")

To cap off the "performance" as soon as they dismissed everyone to go home, and the audience lights lit up, some background music came on. And oh yes...it was none other than the Theme Song for Indiana Jones. I mean...what else would you play?! It was great.