I found out recently that my father's side of the family is nearly 100% German immigrants (dating to the 18th and early 19th century, respectively), which makes me 50% German (or so). My mother's side is some mix of Polish and Slavic/Hungarian. Anyways, some distant relative of my father's made an entire genealogical chart of my grandmother's family that traces back to an immigrant born in 1722 in Germany named Johannes Reiter. Then the rest of the chart maps dozens of descendants, the majority of whom never left a 20 mile radius of Reading, PA, USA.
As a historian, this leaves with a larger question: Since when (and why?) did everyone get so excited about genealogy that tracing back the roots of a relative was of the utmost importance? (I'll admit, my senior project in high school also involved tracing back my family on both sides, and I was excited to see civil war service records of my great-great-great (?) grandfather, which my father found at the National Archives and Records Administration.) For me, tracing my family roots actually allows me to feel more "rooted" in a time in which people are highly mobile and many people end up moving away from "where they grew up" or, in my case, never had that place to begin with. For other people, it seems to me that they like to trace their roots for personal identity reasons as well, albeit maybe not for exactly the same reasons as me. In either case -- I'd be interested in looking at the changes in collective history / memory that have occurred over the past 50 years, as related to changes in identity, mobility, and other factors, such that so many people are so fascinated with genealogy.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Does anyone else feel...
Like an inordinate amount of their time is spent on Facebook and Skype? Now, many people will claim that this is has caused the current generation to go into a mode where they communicate with people primarily through their phone or online and rarely actually meet up with people in person. Yes, sure, everyone knows you what you had for breakfast because you tweeted or facebook-ed it.
But what about for those of us who don't actually have the opportunity to see people that often? It's so much easier to comment on a status message than it is to send out a lengthy e-mail to an old friend, who's e-mail I probably lost somewhere along the way. Or maybe I don't have much to say to someone, or anything to them, or maybe they're just always so busy I don't want to disrupt? Facebook is so great. I can read what people are up to, what they've been doing, see pictures, etc. All of this is so fantastic for keeping up with my network of friends.
What makes it even better, however, is something I realized tonight, something that I think I should think about for my own research and projects as a PhD student. (I mean this, like, would really help solve my problem of fb'ing at 3AM, too...) I realized that I rarely read newspapers and I never watch TV (especially the news, I hate it). How do I find out about information on what to read? Well, I just go read the FB homepage. I can see what movies, articles, blogposts, books, restaurants, etc people recommend. They're my friends and I trust their judgments way more than (scamming) Yelp! or the Netflix "we have chosen for you" movie algorithm. FB adds that extra human element that is always missing in ANY machine translation, and I'd venture to say that this is what's missing in a lot of Google stuff, too. FB as an application doesn't actually do the important steps I need... it's my own networking, constant commenting, and assembly of really fantastic group of friends (some of whom are also rootless TCKs, endurance runners, or underpaid PhD students like myself) who have, in the space of a few years, basically have transformed the processes by which I interact with the web and people.
So now the big question? What the hell am I going to do when I get back to China and can't blog, facebook, or use Google? Holy. Crap. This gives the "Great Firewall" (GFW) a whole other meaning for someone like me, who basically lives on facebook instead of e-mailing people or calling people on the phone (I hate my cell phone--you tried to call and got my voicemail? Probably not an accident). I text'ed a lot in Taiwan, so I guess that's what I will have to go back to, but that costs money and it's inconvenient. (The speed at which I text is slow.... and frankly it's way lamer than posting a link to another friend's wall, then adding a comment about it in 2 or 3 different languages!) Also, how did people used to organize tons of people for regular events or form social groups? Was it possible to do as quickly as fb now allows??? Is this just a function of American, Taiwan, W European countries that I've been taking for granted? What does that tell us about the current state of nationalism vs globalism?
Oh, I mentioned Skype mostly because it lets me view L for as many hours as I please, for free, and the quality of the connection (audio and video) is quite good actually. (Usually it's me saying "I can't talk right now! I need to read... but please stay online with me so I can finish it... [guiltily] I love you....")
But what about for those of us who don't actually have the opportunity to see people that often? It's so much easier to comment on a status message than it is to send out a lengthy e-mail to an old friend, who's e-mail I probably lost somewhere along the way. Or maybe I don't have much to say to someone, or anything to them, or maybe they're just always so busy I don't want to disrupt? Facebook is so great. I can read what people are up to, what they've been doing, see pictures, etc. All of this is so fantastic for keeping up with my network of friends.
What makes it even better, however, is something I realized tonight, something that I think I should think about for my own research and projects as a PhD student. (I mean this, like, would really help solve my problem of fb'ing at 3AM, too...) I realized that I rarely read newspapers and I never watch TV (especially the news, I hate it). How do I find out about information on what to read? Well, I just go read the FB homepage. I can see what movies, articles, blogposts, books, restaurants, etc people recommend. They're my friends and I trust their judgments way more than (scamming) Yelp! or the Netflix "we have chosen for you" movie algorithm. FB adds that extra human element that is always missing in ANY machine translation, and I'd venture to say that this is what's missing in a lot of Google stuff, too. FB as an application doesn't actually do the important steps I need... it's my own networking, constant commenting, and assembly of really fantastic group of friends (some of whom are also rootless TCKs, endurance runners, or underpaid PhD students like myself) who have, in the space of a few years, basically have transformed the processes by which I interact with the web and people.
So now the big question? What the hell am I going to do when I get back to China and can't blog, facebook, or use Google? Holy. Crap. This gives the "Great Firewall" (GFW) a whole other meaning for someone like me, who basically lives on facebook instead of e-mailing people or calling people on the phone (I hate my cell phone--you tried to call and got my voicemail? Probably not an accident). I text'ed a lot in Taiwan, so I guess that's what I will have to go back to, but that costs money and it's inconvenient. (The speed at which I text is slow.... and frankly it's way lamer than posting a link to another friend's wall, then adding a comment about it in 2 or 3 different languages!) Also, how did people used to organize tons of people for regular events or form social groups? Was it possible to do as quickly as fb now allows??? Is this just a function of American, Taiwan, W European countries that I've been taking for granted? What does that tell us about the current state of nationalism vs globalism?
Oh, I mentioned Skype mostly because it lets me view L for as many hours as I please, for free, and the quality of the connection (audio and video) is quite good actually. (Usually it's me saying "I can't talk right now! I need to read... but please stay online with me so I can finish it... [guiltily] I love you....")
Friday, January 22, 2010
Par un site que j'adore / Tongue Twisters
mes preferees:
Les chemises de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches ou archi-sèches?
Il était une fois, un homme de foi qui vendait du foie dans la ville de Foix. Il dit ma foi, c'est la dernière fois que je vends du foie dans la ville de Foix.
La triste aventure de Coco le concasseur de cacao:
Coco, le concasseur de cacao, courtisait Kiki la cocotte. Kiki la cocotte convoitait un caraco kaki à col de caracul; mais Coco, le concasseur de cacao, ne pouvait offrir à Kiki la cocotte qu'un caraco kaki sans col de caracul. Le jour où Coco, le concasseur de cacao, vit que Kiki la cocotte arborait un caraco kaki à col de caracul il comprit qu'il était cocu.
http://houzekat.blogspot.com/2007/10/cours-de-franais-episode-21.html
et
http://houzekat.blogspot.com/2007/11/cours-de-francais-episode-22.html
Les chemises de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches ou archi-sèches?
Il était une fois, un homme de foi qui vendait du foie dans la ville de Foix. Il dit ma foi, c'est la dernière fois que je vends du foie dans la ville de Foix.
La triste aventure de Coco le concasseur de cacao:
Coco, le concasseur de cacao, courtisait Kiki la cocotte. Kiki la cocotte convoitait un caraco kaki à col de caracul; mais Coco, le concasseur de cacao, ne pouvait offrir à Kiki la cocotte qu'un caraco kaki sans col de caracul. Le jour où Coco, le concasseur de cacao, vit que Kiki la cocotte arborait un caraco kaki à col de caracul il comprit qu'il était cocu.
http://houzekat.blogspot.com/2007/10/cours-de-franais-episode-21.html
et
http://houzekat.blogspot.com/2007/11/cours-de-francais-episode-22.html
German and Spanish!
Looks like I'll be learning two more languages this year, ha! I'm so excited... and I just can't hide it... woo whee :D
P.S. I added the Taipei image on the right because that's where Yen Ching (E) and I first met... via couchsurfing.org, the best website ever!
P.S. I added the Taipei image on the right because that's where Yen Ching (E) and I first met... via couchsurfing.org, the best website ever!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Language acquisition and having an accent
I was talking to another one of my Taiwan-American friends today. Another one who came here when she was about 11-12 years old. So, that makes four people I know, including the other author on this blog (Yen Ching) who moved to the U.S. around 12-13 years old from Taiwan, who continue to live outside Taiwan (U.S. and Canada). I thought it would be kind of interesting to compare and contrast what each of these people is doing now, and some other minor facts about their lives I find interesting.
Three are female, one is male.
Female #1: moved to Rockville, Maryland (DC area) from Gaoxiong, Taiwan to live with Aunt and Uncle when she was 12 years old, placed directly in an American middle school with an ESL program geared towards native Spanish speakers. (They set her up with a Korean American girl to help her adjust in school? I couldn't believe that when she told me! Well, yes, I could -- the U.S. can be stupid like that.) Anyways, I met her when she was my roommate on the Virginia Tech study abroad to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. She got a business degree and works in HR in the DC area, her partner is an American guy who does computer video game stuff, she became an American citizen at least 5 years ago and renounced her Taiwan citizenship. When she talks to me, she often calls the DC area "home" and Gaoxiong, Taiwan "home." She is entirely fluent in English, but she still has a slight accent, and most notably she, like me in French, has some slight grammar mistakes she always makes (even though she is otherwise flawless).
Female #2: my colleague in the UCSC Chinese history program. She moved to the U.S. right before middle school (?) but I think she also lived with her family. She also had a rough adjustment in a school without other native Chinese speakers and where she received very little help. She went on to Berkeley and then U of Chicago, and she married an American guy who does computer stuff (weird coincidence with #1? ;-) ). I think she's also a citizen, but I've never officially asked. She just spent 6 months in Japan learning Japanese. I think that, like me, she's never lived anywhere for more than a few years at a time. She admitted today she knows she still has a bit of an accent, even though her English is also flawless.
Female #3: my part-time language instructor on campus who is also from Taiwan and helps me with my translations. I know the least about her, but she has several things in common with #1 and 2: moved to the U.S. right before high school (age 13?), still has a slight accent even though her English is otherwise flawless and she understands all idioms/expressions, lived with family (although probably more native Chinese speakers around her), etc. (Also, all of these people have at one point or another tutored people's kids or other students in Chinese.)
Anyways... so you may have noticed one trend I'm getting at here: they all still have accents. I'm sure there is a linguist out there who could offer some theories about this, but I'm then curious as to why the last person, the one who writes on this blog (Yen Ching, who I shall call "E" :-) ), has virtually no accent? They all speak English flawlessly (no surprise given higher levels of education) but E has no accent. What I mean is that, with the other three people, you could quite easily conclude they moved here before adulthood or as teenagers, but with E you might mistake him for being a second generation Taiwanese or Chinese-American rather than someone who happened to move to the U.S. and learn English nearly from scratch (like the others did). So what were the differences? Was it that he didn't live with family but instead other American students? Was it the location in a fairly remote area of the U.S. that did it? Was it necessary in his case to speak more clearly than others because this more remote area was unfamiliar with non-native English speakers and therefore would not have otherwise understood him?
And finally, does age really have an impact on accent? I've been told that my accent in French almost makes me sound like a native speaker, and I've been mistake for one, until I screw up something grammatically. (Then I'm usually mistaken for a Swiss or Canadian.)
Three are female, one is male.
Female #1: moved to Rockville, Maryland (DC area) from Gaoxiong, Taiwan to live with Aunt and Uncle when she was 12 years old, placed directly in an American middle school with an ESL program geared towards native Spanish speakers. (They set her up with a Korean American girl to help her adjust in school? I couldn't believe that when she told me! Well, yes, I could -- the U.S. can be stupid like that.) Anyways, I met her when she was my roommate on the Virginia Tech study abroad to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. She got a business degree and works in HR in the DC area, her partner is an American guy who does computer video game stuff, she became an American citizen at least 5 years ago and renounced her Taiwan citizenship. When she talks to me, she often calls the DC area "home" and Gaoxiong, Taiwan "home." She is entirely fluent in English, but she still has a slight accent, and most notably she, like me in French, has some slight grammar mistakes she always makes (even though she is otherwise flawless).
Female #2: my colleague in the UCSC Chinese history program. She moved to the U.S. right before middle school (?) but I think she also lived with her family. She also had a rough adjustment in a school without other native Chinese speakers and where she received very little help. She went on to Berkeley and then U of Chicago, and she married an American guy who does computer stuff (weird coincidence with #1? ;-) ). I think she's also a citizen, but I've never officially asked. She just spent 6 months in Japan learning Japanese. I think that, like me, she's never lived anywhere for more than a few years at a time. She admitted today she knows she still has a bit of an accent, even though her English is also flawless.
Female #3: my part-time language instructor on campus who is also from Taiwan and helps me with my translations. I know the least about her, but she has several things in common with #1 and 2: moved to the U.S. right before high school (age 13?), still has a slight accent even though her English is otherwise flawless and she understands all idioms/expressions, lived with family (although probably more native Chinese speakers around her), etc. (Also, all of these people have at one point or another tutored people's kids or other students in Chinese.)
Anyways... so you may have noticed one trend I'm getting at here: they all still have accents. I'm sure there is a linguist out there who could offer some theories about this, but I'm then curious as to why the last person, the one who writes on this blog (Yen Ching, who I shall call "E" :-) ), has virtually no accent? They all speak English flawlessly (no surprise given higher levels of education) but E has no accent. What I mean is that, with the other three people, you could quite easily conclude they moved here before adulthood or as teenagers, but with E you might mistake him for being a second generation Taiwanese or Chinese-American rather than someone who happened to move to the U.S. and learn English nearly from scratch (like the others did). So what were the differences? Was it that he didn't live with family but instead other American students? Was it the location in a fairly remote area of the U.S. that did it? Was it necessary in his case to speak more clearly than others because this more remote area was unfamiliar with non-native English speakers and therefore would not have otherwise understood him?
And finally, does age really have an impact on accent? I've been told that my accent in French almost makes me sound like a native speaker, and I've been mistake for one, until I screw up something grammatically. (Then I'm usually mistaken for a Swiss or Canadian.)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Stressful months ahead, but a glimmer of hope!
I got back last night after three glorious weeks with my partner and my family, and I already miss both. I did not enjoy being in the east coast weather for so long and I was constantly cold, but it was nice to be "at home" with the people I love. Now I am back "at home" and getting ready for the next few months ahead of me which, if I'm lucky (really really lucky) means I can pass my PhD exams and move again! Ha ha. The life as a rootless person never ends, does it? But anyways, this time it will be for my partner, and I'm OK with that. The ironic part is that he had a job interview for a place near where I live now and the funniest part is we might actually have to decide where we want to live: central coast California or Berlin? It's a tough decision. The weather here is great, lots of outdoor activities and some friends, but we both want to be in Europe eventually... so maybe staying in Berlin is the right thing to do? Since we can't make a decision (well, I know I can't!) we hope this doesn't pose a lot of stress and anxiety while I'm trying to pass my exams.
The further ironic part is that I would "move" but I'd still be required to go off and do some research in East Asia at some point (likely in China again, bleh) or back to Lausanne, Switzerland for a while (no complaing there!) so the "move" would really mean I move my stuff and then have to bounce around the world some more on research trips. I'm currently contemplating how I'm going to get out of living anywhere longer than several weeks at a time without seeing him, because frankly I'm sick of this moving around rootlessness and I just want to stay in one place and be HOME for once (home = him).
And on a note for which not many can fully understand, yesterday I ran outside in 3 layers of clothing in 28F with windchill of like 3F, and today I went running in 18C (68F?) in shorts and a t-shirt. The first run was with my partner and the second alone, but warm and beautiful through the redwoods. Can't wait til the day I combine both of these together...
The further ironic part is that I would "move" but I'd still be required to go off and do some research in East Asia at some point (likely in China again, bleh) or back to Lausanne, Switzerland for a while (no complaing there!) so the "move" would really mean I move my stuff and then have to bounce around the world some more on research trips. I'm currently contemplating how I'm going to get out of living anywhere longer than several weeks at a time without seeing him, because frankly I'm sick of this moving around rootlessness and I just want to stay in one place and be HOME for once (home = him).
And on a note for which not many can fully understand, yesterday I ran outside in 3 layers of clothing in 28F with windchill of like 3F, and today I went running in 18C (68F?) in shorts and a t-shirt. The first run was with my partner and the second alone, but warm and beautiful through the redwoods. Can't wait til the day I combine both of these together...
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