Laughing
- 2015-11-26
No doubt my narrative of the situation, and my poor Mandarin skills, colors my perception.
No, I remember reading similar things on websites intending to prepare the expat for living in China.
But then I also read on the same sites that Chinese students don't like to volunteer answers when they know them. It would embarrass the ones who didn't! But this too, in my experience, has turned out to be false.
Not sure what to make of all this. Perhaps things are changing fast in China. Perhaps the internet advice was misguided or based in some conception of China that may have existed a century ago. Perhaps some other explanation.
Bu zhi dao.
hehe
martin hainan
- 2015-11-25
Thank you for the response. No doubt my narrative of the situation, and my poor Mandarin skills, colors my perception.
I tend to view student communication using spoken English, especially in a classroom, as non-standard behavior, but no doubt that too is judgmental.
Laughing
- 2015-11-25
My students tell me they consider it 'impolite' to merely say "I don't know", even in English.
I read this this morning, and it wasn't the first time I've read such things about China either.
But strange to say, in my experience (been here five years now), the Chinese have no problem whatsoever admitting they don't know when they don't know. I spoke to some students about it today myself. They didn't think it was a part of Chinese culture at all.
Could it be regional? Could it be wrong? Could things be changing? Could China be such an amorphous, fluxing mass that few generalisations validly apply to it at the moment?
martin hainan
- 2015-11-25
As I'm sure you know, there is also the cultural aversion, almost a linguistic anomaly, to saying "I don't know" ζδΈη₯ι in China.
My knowledge of Chinese history and language is not adequate to fully understand this, but I recognize the practice and have developed coping mechanisms. When asking for directions or information in Chinese, if I notice a hesitation on the part of person, I will ask someone else (a face-giving distance away).
My students tell me they consider it 'impolite' to merely say "I don't know", even in English. They prefer to give random, albeit erroneous, information. A 'best guess', if you will. Or they will stay silent and study the floor. Saying I don't know is perhaps akin to leaving a blank space on an examination answer sheet, a lost opportunity and an admission of ignorance.