Deeper Than Words: Communication in “A Thousand Years of Good Prayer,” by Yiyun Li There are those who have a difficult time expressing themselves with words. It is as though there is a communication barrier between people even if they are speaking the same language. The struggle for successful communication can be even harder if different languages are spoken. Even if there are no words spoken, communication between two people still occurs. Yiyun Li’s short story “A Thousand Years of Good Prayer” offers an excellent study in communication. This study includes examples of communication barriers and the successful aspects of communication revealing the ultimate theme: communication does not need to be verbalized to have a relationship …show more content…
In the same way the language barrier hinders conversation. Mr. Shi knows little English and mostly speaks in Chinese. This hinders true communication between him and Madam, a woman he meets in the park He feels that “sometimes they run out of English” (406). When there are no more English words to be said, both revert to their native language. Neither Mr. Shi nor Madame truly understands what is being said. Mr. Shi wishes at times to communicate to Madam in English: “But he is sure, even before he starts that his English would fail him” (406). This struggle for words indicates the lack of communication between him and Madam, but it also indicates the language barrier between him and his daughter. He speaks primarily in Chinese, and while his daughter knows Chinese, she prefers to speak English: “It’s different Baba. We talk in English, and it’s easier. I don’t talk well in Chinese” (413). His daughter does not like speaking in Chinese, and Mr. Shi struggles to converse in English. This problem undermines their relationship. Even though verbal communication is lacking, nonverbal communication is evident. Mr. Shi notices, “her eyes behind her glasses, wide open and unrelenting, remind him of her younger years” (408). He notices his daughter’s curiosity and need for an answer even though few words are said. He is aware of her need, but he refuses to tell her the truth. Mr. Shi’s daughter’s eyes remind
Contrary to unification, language can divide people. Finally, In “The Power of Words in Wartime”, Robin Lakoff shows how specific language makes it easier to kill the enemy while at war. Language is a beautiful gift that can bring people together just because they speak the same language. In, “Mute in an English Only World”, Chang-Rae Lee writes about his mother who is a Korean-American immigrant and, how she was not capable of doing everyday tasks because of her lack of knowledge of English.
There are a lot of barriers that existence within human nature. The most profound barrier that exists is the language barrier. As human, we are met to communicate with one another. Without communication, there is simply no connection. A language barrier draws imagery line between people to make them feel distant on a deeper level. The frustration rushes through one’s brain when he or she realizes that they have a mouth but cannot utilize it to get their point across. There is a great deal of frustration to be misunderstood due to the restraint and limitation the knowing words and of trying to piece these words together to properly express oneself. In this paper, I will explain the effect and frustration of boundaries between people and how there are ways to try to get rid of that profound barrier.
Communication has often been defined by scholar as the process by which people send messages and generate meanings across various contexts, cultures, and media. The process of communicating does not stop; it occurs cycle after cycle. Whether through verbal or non-verbal messages, the transaction takes place and is inevitable, named by scholars as The Principle of Communication Inevitability. Recognizing that communication will exist, whether intentional or not, it is important to understand the various areas of our life where communication may be vital to the success of the structure. One important area is focused on human
To show this point the author’s write about Cao’s experiences with a language struggle between family members. This narration gives the reader a close up look at how language works in a family. Besides using narration she always uses a little cause and effect by sharing the results of having language separation. She gave three examples of conversational situations in her household. The languages Vietnamese, Hainanese, Mandarin, and English are used interchangeably. Looking at the dialogues in the article made the conversation seem broken because there were four languages being used. The first conversation is between Cao’s mom and one of her siblings, Tung. It has to do with Tung not wanting to eat the large amount of noodles Mom prepared for him. Then she asks about Tung’s homework and he is unable to explain it to her because they do not share a fluent language between them. In the article this selection was described as a “routinized interactive exchange” (Thomas & Cao 64). This means that the two of them were able to have small talk based on things like food. But they
Language is a communication method that makes everything easy to communicate with others. The language barrier is the biggest challenge and hurdle of most people whom their English is a second language. Growing up in a family with parents that only speak another language could be viewed very similarly to a double-edged sword. This challenge with society forces people to learn the English language. Although there a lot of difficulties with the second language, eventually the transition between both languages would become easier by time and more practice. Starting to be able to comprehend the English language is the best way overcomes this barrier. Although these challenges were not easy to overcome, persistence, dedication and hard work would facilitate everything. Despite the fact that language is considered the biggest barrier, culture comes as a second harder barrier in means of communication. Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Culture on the other hand, provides people with ways of thinking, seeing and hearing and, then understands the things around. Thus, the same word can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the same language. Stella Ting-Toomey describes how culture involves with cultural understanding where ach culture has its own rules about proper behavior which affect verbal and nonverbal communication. How close the people stand to each
Language is the skill created in order to communicate with others. In the essay “Translating Translation: Finding the Beginning” by Alberto Alvaro Rios, the author demonstrates his interpretation of language and translation. In “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass he explain his own hardships in trying to learn to communicate. Rios focuses more on translations of language, while Douglass expands on the struggle to learn the language. In both essays, the authors give their own experience with communication.
In the story, Amy’s mother struggles in America due to the fact that english is not her first language. Since her first language is chinese and her english is not that proficient, she has trouble getting by when it comes to communicating and Amy usually translates for her day by day. But, overtime Amy’s mother learns the basics of english and develops a form of “broken english” and Amy communicates with her through a “watered down english”. Although cultural diffusion lacks on the other side of perspective where proficiently speaking Americans who have tried to communicate with Amy’s mother have ignored the effort to learn her language; the way she’s learned theirs. This shows signs of cultural diffusion through language integration, because Amy’s mother struggled to come to a new country and adjust to both the customs and language yet she found a way to do both despite her language
All languages communicate in different ways. Our western culture rely heavily upon are technology to communicate between each other, in among the ?Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten?. These people were very proud of there language and they felt that it was a very highly important art which
In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan an American writer, shares her experience growing up with the family where no one speaks perfect English, and how it affected her education and her life. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mother, who speaks limited English needs Tan to be her “Translator” to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan states, “I was ashamed of her English” (2). Her mother is like a burden to her, at least in Tan’s early years. But the cultural conflict she becomes the theme of her writing and it is under this situation she wrote many novels and essays including “Mother Tongue.”
On the other hand, the film has also revealed how the director thinks about the barriers of communication. It is obvious that language is a barrier of communication since we cannot easily talk with people when we don’t speak their languages. However, is language the only barrier of communication? This movie has illustrated that other than languages, there are still many different kinds of communication barriers. For example, Richard and Susan spoke the same language, but they did not communicate very well with each other. The key obstacle of their communication is their emotion. Susan still could not forgive Richard‘s unconcern of their son’s death. She was angry. She was frustrated. Therefore, she cannot talk with Richard for this topic calmly. Other then emotion, politics is also one of the communication barriers. In the movie, when Amelia’s cousin cross the border from Mexico to America, the American police was very rude to him. The police treated him just like a criminal and did not respect him. The underlying cause for this is all about political. Since American always think that they are superior to the Mexican, and they think that many Mexican are drug trafficker, so
The author states, “I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language- the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.” In paragraphs 1 and 2, the authors begins by tellings the readers that she has always loved language and how it is used by people in everyday life and she uses daily language as a part of her work. In paragraph 3 the explains how during one her talks to a large group of people she realizes how she also uses different Englishes. Amy realized this because when she was talking to the group her mom had come to listen to her and she thought about how she talked to her mom compared to how she talks to other people, in particular, the large group of people. This opened her eyes to a whole other realm on how she uses her English while talking to her mom with “broken” English the one she grew up with, and then speaking to others with standard English that she was taught in school and in books. Amy quoted what her mother said about a political gangster that showed up at her mother’s wedding. To me it was very hard to understand and had to reread it twice to try to make out what she was trying to say. I am not the only one who thinks that. “You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understand.” Amy explains that her mom can read “ the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease,” but Amy can’t understand them. Amy’s mom can understand a lot of English but when she speaks English, some of Amy’s friends can barely understand any of it. Amy states that some only understand 80 to 90 percent while others understand none of what she is saying when she talks. The upside to this is that this formed Amy to see things differently in the world. When Amy was younger she was ashamed of her mother’s “broken” or
Communication is an ongoing process in which individuals exchange messages whose meanings are influenced by the history of the relationship and the experiences of the participants. (Adler, p.384) Communication depends on relationships between the people who are communicating, and on common basics between them. Problems in communications between people may arise due to differences in cultures, perceptions, values, and expectations from life.
Interpersonal communication is described as two or more people exchanging information through verbal and non-verbal messages. “God gave us the gift of communication so we could get close to others” (Griffin, 1987, p. 10). There are various theories on interpersonal communication two of which will be discussed in this paper, Symbolic Interactionism and Social Penetration. One theory is based on verbal and non-verbal communication and the other is based on how communication can help each of us develop deeper relationships. We practice both theories on a daily basis, whether we realize it or not. This paper will look how each theory is used in our daily lives, how each theory helps us to gain better understanding of our relationships, and how each theory ties into our biblical worldview.
Although this misunderstanding might be rooted from the systematic differences in thinking patterns and generation gap, we will focus specifically on the linguistic aspect of the issue. Throughout the movie, there are many unsuccessful attempts of both the mothers and daughters to communicate their ideas to the other, leading to frustration and a mutual lack of sympathy. To better understand the reasons for this conflict in verbal communication, we have to look closely into the differences in fundamental construct of language in China and America. This difference does not necessarily be the difference in language, since both communicating parties are using English. However, it is
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze