Welcome back everyone from all reaches of the galaxy, we’re back again with another exciting edition of Galactic Getaways feature articles on Earth’s very own China! Today's topic is language, now thanks to our sophisticated technology everyone reading this should be seeing it in their native tongue, but for less developed planets communication can be much more varied and interesting. Earth has hundreds of languages spoken all over, with the official language of China is Mandarin, a language wholly developed in China, unlike many others whose bases are rooted in other languages such as Latin. Today’s deep dive into this language will get you familiar with some phrases as well as teach you a thing or two about how this shapes their worldview!
To begin let's talk about the global usage of language, specifically “Lingua Franca”. The phrase “Lingua Franca” is a term used to denote a language that is used as a common language for certain things over a large area while only being native to a few who use it. English is the biggest example of this as it is used pretty much globally and is the language of a lot of different systems around the world even if the language is not commonplace there. Mandarin is an example of a Lingua Franca as well but to a lesser extent. It’s more prevalent in East Asia where it's only the main language in China proper but has its usage in systems in the surrounding countries as well. Knowing English is by far the most helpful on Earth purely because it is a Lingua Franca, and many people from all over have at least a basic understanding, so if you come from an English background you should be able to have basic communication wherever you are! But what good is knowing this if you can’t understand it? Well we have you covered.
If you’ve found yourself stranded in China and can only access our blog, never fear! Galactic Getaways has your back, below are a few simple phrases you can use to help navigate around and ask for the basics! The structure of this list is as follows:
English, Mandarin, Official Pronunciation, Simplified Pronunciation
Hello! = 你好！ (Nǐ hǎo!) (Nee-How)
Yes = 是的 (Shì de) (Sheei-da)
No = 不 (Bù) (Bu)
Please = 请 (Qǐng) (Tsing)
Thank you = 谢谢你， (Xièxiè nǐ) (Seai-Seai nee)
Can you help me? = 你能帮助我吗？(Nǐ néng bāngzhù wǒ ma?) (Nee nung bang-ju woa ma?)
I don’t understand = 我不明白 (Wǒ bù míngbái) (Wo bu min-bai)
I don’t speak Mandarin = 我不会说普通话 (wǒ bù huì shuō pǔtōnghuà) (Wo bu huee shu po-tun-hwah)
My name is __ = 我的名字是 (wǒ de míngzì shì __) (Wo da mingzu she __)
Using these you can hopefully be able to do some basic communication with those who are more familiar with the language. Now from our perspective a lot of these words were very difficult to pronounce, for us it was because of our unique anatomy, but for those on Earth who might share anatomy but not the language it would probably be because of the difference in the utilization of different sounds. English has a lot of hard sounds in everyday speech while Mandarin takes advantage of more soft sounds. For an example look at the pronunciation above and compare how the differences sound to you. Regardless of their difficulty, it's important to learn at least the basics of the most spoken language of wherever you plan on traveling to. But let's take a step back and really analyze why this is all important.
Our technology has had all the bugs worked out but Earth technology is still working on it as it seems, while they have systems in place to translate the various languages, it still has some trouble getting everything right. As an example we too the webpage 翻墙者 (Wall Breaker) and attempted to use the more primitive technology to translate it to English. This process resulted in an understandable yet broken paragraph, we were able to discern the major meaning of it but it looked broken and choppy. While Humans have come far they still have a ways to go to perfectly capture the different types of nuances in speech and writing into a translatable state.
The saying “Language influences our view of reality” is an apt way of noting how what we understand linguistically shapes our worldview and how we interact with our surroundings. For example if you were to ask someone which direction someone ran, you might expect to hear “They ran Left!” when in fact the person you're talking to exclaims “They ran North!”. While this might be initially confusing to you there needs to be an understanding that languages are fundamentally different from each other in certain aspects. For this example the language in question has an Earth founded sense of direction while English has a self founded one.
Well that's all the "space" we have today, thank you again so much for tuning in, and until next time, this has been the Galactic Getaways team, always providing the best tourist spots in the galaxy. Have a great day!
- The Galactic Getaways Team
Works Cited:
新闻网站推荐：最著名的国外新闻网站. 翻墙者. (n.d.). https://www.fanqiangzhe.com/post/best-news-websites/
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