Resource:http://en.shisu.edu.cn/resources/news/sisu-scholar-talks-chinese-dialect-another-bite-of-china
Z |
hu lei, a very popular scholar in Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), gave a lecture on Chinese dialects last Wednesday in SISU’s library.
Zhu started his lecture by explaining the importance of studying dialects. “A commonly wrong perception about dialects is that they are just mispronounced mandarin and are mispronounced by different people in various ways. Actually dialects are rooted in ancient Chinese, and have both linguistic and cultural values,” he said.
He stressed that it’s very important to know the language before one studies it. Before he went to Middle China’s Jiangxi Province to study dialects, he has already finished reading large amount of relevant books and articles.
According to Zhu, dialect studies, or dialectology, is a very thought-provoking process where he found much more things should be done in linguistics.
“Dialects are fading away somehow. Kids often don’t understand their grandparents when they speak dialects and think that is a bad language. Linguists of older generation in China and foreign scholars have actually done a better job in dialect studies,” he added.
Zhu can speak English, French, German, Russian, Arabic and some other languages. He once went to University of Cambridge to study Tibetan as a member of theCambridge Group for Endangered Languages and Cultures (CELC) and it’s also said that he can teach lessons in eight languages.
“Be a linguist who loves languages,” Zhu said in the end. He also added that a dialect institute is needed to help students study dialects, which was wildly echoed by the students.
The lecture is the fourth session of “Hamburger Horizon”, which originates from lunchtime lectures in many American universities. Persons who attend the lecture will be offered a hamburger or pizza.
The “Hamburger Horizon” lectures in SISU is funded by the Staff Union Office of SISU and run by their own students. The lectures have attracted lots of students.
“We’ve been working on gathering the best teachers from different fields and different disciplines to share their wisdom on topics that everyone is interested in,” said Li Wei, the team leader of “Hamburger Horizon”.
