今天早上怎麼樣的起不來，睡到十一點。可能是昨天用腦過度。最近真的看了不少書，很久沒這麼用功了。我覺得自己很誇張。這學期修三門課，但是呢旁聽四門語言學系的課。翻譯的老師，尤其是中國籍的都不怎麼樣，很混的也有，連中國學生自己都這麼說。可是語言學部門的老師多半是飽讀經書，沒有經書啦，是學問佳，講課讚，又和藹可親。今天上了義大利老師的一小時課，發現他全部在講上堂課上過的東西，可以再混一點，翻譯所的老師。但是呢，去聽了兩個小時的語音學與兩個小時的語言分析。哇！聽君一言勝讀十年書，是不是有這個說法啊？專業級的老師講課讓我是心服口服，讚嘆不已。
最近呢老睡不著，晚上怎麼樣都睡不著，不到四五點無法入睡，又不想吃安眠藥。早上當然起不來。明明十一點的課，遲到半小時，連下午一點的課都可以遲到四十分鐘。我可以再誇張一點。
寫了一封信抗議老師把台灣人歸納為中國人，在國外的民族意識就自然而然的湧出。上星期氣的很呢，還與德國同學大大抱怨，分析中台的不同。這是事實，不管大家承認不承認。這種無力感讓我有時候很生氣。其實大部分中國同學都不在乎，也有很堅持的，但通常大家各自表態，誰也不礙著誰。在課堂上，當然避免談政治。然而老師們的態度有時真令人生氣。
寫了半天的信，結果學校網路上不去，原本想刊載布告欄上。先放在這兒好了。
In the tutorial last week, after a Taiwanese student talked about the stereo type people have for Taiwanese students, the tutor said, yes, people think Chinese people are like that. I objected and told that the tutor that Taiwanese people do not equal Chinese people and we are not a sub group of Chinese people. Therefore we shouldn’t be generalized as a part of Chinese people. However, the tutor ignored my complaint and said that he didn’t wish to talk about politics in class.
In Macquarie University, comparing to Chinese students, Taiwanese students are minority and in Australia people from Mainland China are the majority and this kind of things happened all the time so I am not unfamiliar with it. When I was studying translation class with Chinese tutor last year, I translated Sydney to Xuli, which is how we say it in Taiwan. Even though she knew that’s the way we use in Taiwan, still she marked it as a mistake and said that Sydney should be translated into Xini, the way people from Mainland China use and argued it was the official standard version.
What is the official version? I don’t know when Chinese has become an official language in Australia. I think what she meant was that some brochures and websites of government are translated in simplified Chinese and the words people say from Mainland China.
It is really frustrating when things like this happen and as minority our voice is often ignored. However, I am especially surprised that it happened in a course called language and culture. From what I read and what I understand so far, culture is about values, beliefs and how people act. Let’s not talk about politics about China and Taiwan as two different countries but see the reality of these two different areas. Comparing to the communism China, Taiwan applies democracy, and we have our own government, army, and currency. The education system, economy system, and medical system are all very different from China. We have our own passports. The websites we view are not censored and we have freedom of speech. The Chinese written form we use in Taiwan is traditional Chinese comparing to simplified Chinese used in China and different usages(words, I mean) we have is just like the difference between British English and American English.
In this class, aren’t we expected to learn to become critically aware of regional and social variation within a language? Taiwanese culture is definitely different from Chinese culture and the language we use is slightly different from Chinese people use. The difference is like Australian English and British English. To me the history background between Taiwan and China is similar to Australia and Britain. Even though a lot of Australians’ ancestors are originally from Britain, will they be happy to be called British? Even in Britain, Scottish won’t accept people call them English simply because they are not.
Taiwanese people are not Chinese people; Taiwanese culture does not equal Chinese culture; the Chinese language we use in Taiwan is slightly different from the one used in China. These are facts. Even though we are minority and the status of us as an independent country or whatever you want to call it is not recognized in most countries in the world, these facts won’t change. I don’t want to talk about anything political in this class but can these facts be ignored in a class called language and culture? Should the right of us not to be called Chinese people be ignored?
I am not good at writing and I hope I
explain my ideas well without offending anyone. Above is my personal opinions
and other Taiwanese students might have different ideas.
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