The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/99426
FEATURES She threw herself into a hectic live TV studio, where she was dependent on her language skills INSPIRED BY CHINA Recent photo shoots (above and left), and the cover artwork for debut album Shine It is clear that one of the things Mary-Jess ���absolutely loves��� is learning itself. At university, she did a lot of research for her performance modules and it���s been a good habit to adopt. ���I looked at o babbino mio caro and you look up all the meanings of the words and look at all these different performances of it.��� Naturally inquisitive, she is soon asking me about the structure of Spanish ��� a language she is still determined to learn ��� gender and verb endings (two things she is ���grateful��� Chinese doesn���t have), cultural differences and misunderstandings. She is less keen to discuss her own experiences of cultural differences in China, if only because she is refreshingly aware of the limits of her cultural understanding of a nation that covers 9.6 million sq km and has a population of more than 1.3 billion. As a joint honours student she missed out on ���cultural lessons���, she points out, and although she has been on several trips to China, she has spent less than a year there in total. ���I���ve got a lot of learning to do where that���s concerned. Even growing up here and being English, I don���t know everything about our culture, and Chinese culture and Chinese history is so much bigger.��� When I ask if learning another language has changed her perception of her own culture, Mary-Jess does venture an answer: ���The way they think about things is different to the way we think about things. Just a small example of that is the way they write an address: they put the bigger things first. Because they���re part of a community, that is how they see things. Whereas we are ���this is Vol/51 No/6 2012 me��� and then everything else is over there, because I���m more important.��� Mary-Jess isn���t making any judgements. She revels in the best of Chinese, British and any other cultures she encounters. She laughed when an Italian friend told her, sternly, that under no circumstances should she snap spaghetti into the pan ��� but she hasn���t done it since. There���s nothing like Chinese food, she says, yet her face lights up when she talks about ���good old shepherd���s pie��� and ���quintessentially English��� cups of tea. She admits to feeling homesick while away, but ���always told myself to make the most of every opportunity, so in times of feeling culture shocked, I concentrated on that.��� She certainly took her chances, and ran with them. In applying for Min Xing Chang Fan Tian, she threw herself into a situation that was completely alien: a hectic live TV studio where she was dependent on her developing language skills. ���It was probably the most scary thing I���ve ever done,��� she says. Ironically, the one person she couldn���t understand was the stage director. ���I never had a clue what he was saying. He was the one person that I really should have understood,��� she laughs. ���Being in the studio every day was a great learning curve for my Chinese.��� Her listening skills ���shot up���, although her writing skills suffered. Between morning lessons, rehearsals at the studio, the live evening show and a few hours��� sleep, there was little time for homework, so she took shortcuts to pass end-ofmodule exams. She also had to find time to learn the songs; those in Chinese were harder. ���In English, the vowel sounds compared to Chinese are very open, so it���s quite similar to Italian in that way, whereas in Chinese all the pronunciation is at the front of the mouth. So it���s very different singing in Chinese, but I do love the challenge,��� she says. ���I���m quite often asked ���how do they use the tones when they���re singing���, and they don���t.��� That is one advantage of singing, but she still worries about getting the tones right when she speaks. ���The sounds are so alien ��� they are really different ��� it takes quite a while to get used to pronouncing them. But you���ve got to try, haven���t you? You���ve got to speak it as much as you can and just laugh when you make a mistake.��� ���I think it���s always the same, if you go to a new place and you speak some of the language, you get more involved and you see so much more,��� she adds. ���I���m really hoping that one day I���ll be able to do a massive tour of China, see everything and meet all the people. It���d be so interesting to go round in a big circle ��� or maybe a spiral ��� and see all the different dialects and all the different ways of pronunciation and the way the language changed. It���s the most incredible language, honestly, you have to learn it.��� Such is Mary-Jess���s enthusiasm that, by the time the hour���s up, I am seriously considering it. DECEMBER/JANUARY The Linguist 19