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submitted 8 months ago by nekandro@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works -3 points 8 months ago

I would wager that if you asked that question to Chinese people, they'll answer something like "we use 对, which means correct", as I explained earlier.

Ask them if they like ice cream, but to answer in Chinese.

They are not going to say “对", they'll say ”喜欢“(I like it), "不喜欢",(I don't like it) or some variation.

They won't say 对 because "correct" doesn't answer the question "do you like ice cream?"

You can get an approximate or what you can assimilate as a functional answer to your questions, but you'll never get a "yes".

That's just how "yes" works in all Chinese languages and dialects.

And this is the tip of the iceberg.

Lacking a word for"yes" is one difference among thousands this culture has that determines their reactions to what you think are subtle influences, while you are assuming that culture will react in a way that you understand, even though you can't understand it by virtue of your simple, practical differences and context.

[-] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago
[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works -3 points 8 months ago

Bearing in mind that this is a fraction of a percent of the cultural differences, "是“ means "it is" and "不是“ means "it isn't". Neither of them mean yes or no, and would be an incorrect answer to "do you like ice cream?"

" Do you like ice cream?"

" It is."

You can understand what they're going for, but you are not prompting the response you would expect to because that answer doesn't exist in those languages or in those cultures.

The framing and context of a single word seems small, but when you're asking a child "do you like ice cream" but you're not allowed to ask it in anway that they can say yes or no to you and employ the complexities and implications of those words, the situation is different.

" You like ice cream, correct or incorrect?"

They'll answer you, but you've taken away their independent facility to formulate an answer.

" Ice cream is good, is it or is it not?"

Again, they'll answer you, within the strict confines of your question. There's no gray area in your question, which is how you have to ask it in order to elicit any sort of response.

You give them two possible answers, they choose one.

That in turn shapes how you and they see questions in general. How questions and behavioral prompts like the types you're suggesting are perceived, are asked and responded to.

You can imagine how linguistic formation can determine thought processes pretty quickly, layer upon each other and result in a consciousness you don't quite recognize.

And that's from one word among a couple dozen thousand, and those are all only words and ignoring all other parts of the culture.

[-] whogivesashit@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 8 months ago

Deeply unserious

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this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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