Can you have a conversation in Chinese without ever using a question word?

[Rajesh Koothrappali]

Learning Chinese as well as about the culture can be challenging. I am working through HSK4 and I feel that Chinese native speakers (in regards to communication) don't need to use questions to make a conversation. Many times there will be rhetorical questions but not other types. Sometimes there will be 1 question asked and then everything else will be a series of statements. I don't have any scientific data to prove this nor am I a ligusitic expert. This is just my humble opinion based on observations and talking to native speakers.

Hopefully some more advanced successful Chinese language learners or native speakers of Chinese or other languages can give their input.

 

For example in the HSK4 Unit 17, Dialogue 1, the dialogue has 2 speakers, ZERO question marks and the entire dialogue appears as a series of statements. There a no (什么）shenme's or（怎么）zenme's [Question words]. 

 

Finally, I do see that there are uses of particles. 吧（ba) and 呢（ne). Oftentimes in this example the speaker is giving some information and then saying sort of "let's go". At the second to the final line 小夏 （Xiao3 Xia4) says he or she can't go as it is his/her's fathers birthday. Finally, 安娜（An1 Na4）says "Oh we will have to arrange another date then". What I think is interesting also is that they don't even make a question here! There are at least 3 or 4 times I would naturally ask a question but I am not a Native Chinese speaker. Perhaps it is a form of 明知故问（ming2zhi1-gu4wen4)[Ask while knowing the answer] so thus the speaker doesn't ask a question even at the end.

 

When I speak English, I always ask the other person a question, then they answer, I then ask another question and so on. Can anyone shed any light on this? I don't know very much about lingustics. But it seems a conversation can easily be had in Chinese without any use of questions.I am sure I can find more examples in this text where the conversation is not Question/Answer/Question/Answer. On the contrary, I have heard conversations in Chinese where speaker A gives information, speaker B gives information and not once is a question asked for clarification etc. I am not trying to be judgemental, I accept that languages are complex and our cultural values shape our usage of the language. So do you have any experience in this type of conversation ie...statement/statement/statement (repeat without a single question made by either party)? Why does this "phenonmenon" exist? Thanks for your time and consideration, hope as not to offend anyone.

 

[cncorrect]

This is an interesting question. In the HSK4 Unit 17, Dialogue 1 quotation above, I would use question marks in '咱们今天也去看看吧？', '咱们改天去长城吧？' and '那我们明天去吧？' 

 

On 1/10/2024 at 4:39 PM, Rajesh Koothrappali said:

So do you have any experience in this type of conversation ie...statement/statement/statement (repeat without a single question made by either party)?

Yes, I have experienced this. Speakers seem to be talking about their opinions. In this situation, I usually have nothing to say. You have observed an interesting  phenonmenon. It even deserves a reseach paper.

[Rajesh Koothrappali]

Well now that I feel aware of it, I notice it more. A couple of ladies were having a conversation today about a certain type of soup they will make while shopping at the local market. This is how their conversation went:

 

Lady 1: "The fish is so big and also so cheap here but my husband only likes to eat the fish head."

Lady 2: "In my hometown the fish is only 2kuai each kg and it is not too popular in my hometown and we prefer to eat another type of fish but people here, it turns out, the local people here eat fish head and it is also quite expensive".

 

/////

So both formed statements that were related but they never asked a question. Lady 2 could have asked Lady 1 about her hometown etc. They never asked which ingredients the other will use.

 

Here is another example from Unit 17. It also has two speakers but it might as well just have 1. Both speakers have information that connects with the other but there are never any questions asked. Some will say this is just textbook Chinese and people don't speak like this in real life but I think they do. Thanks for your input, I am sure others have noticed or perhaps studied this. Speaking Chinese is more complex than it seems. And we haven't even talked about non-verbal communication. In this third passage there are two speakers, their statements are related but again no questions are asked. (HSK4 Unit 17 Dialogue 3, Official Textbook Hanban)
 

[FennySH]

I am a Chinese teacher, so I am very familiar with your question.

In fact, I think there's nothing to do with the language, but it's the editors' issue.

1. They have the vocabulary first, and then make up the conversation, which is usually unnatural.

2. The editors seem to be some people who just work by themselves. They are more like some academic scholars, who don't teach Chinese to foreigners personally very often.

3. Therefore, I am sure they're all good at the grammars or something like giving the professional academic speech to the Chinese students,but still they're more used to telling instructions or giving the statements, instead of having the interactive communication.

4. I can see how much they want to teach something, the book has the definite purpose, to give the students more HSK knowledge in the limited content. It's focusing on talking skills or communication culture, no one would use such sentences in daily conversation.

 

Here is the shortage of learning languages only by the book, you could always have problems when you try to have the real conversation with the real people even if you could recite the book you used. 

So it's up to your purpose, the book you mentioned is good for HSK,  especiallly for the HSK reading ( the expression and the formula of the texts is very Chinese way). 

However if you're looking for something to help with your speaking, it's not a good choice

[Rajesh Koothrappali]

@FennySH

 

Thanks for your input. I can see that these passages are made for a reading test and perhaps Chinese natives actually don't speak that way. Since you are a native and a teacher I have to take your word for it. I still want to use these HSK books as I want to take the tests. However, do you have any recommendations for textbooks for speaking and socializing? Perhaps there is something new?

 

I live in China and would like to be able to read and understand well. I don't often need to speak Chinese much but of course I would like to be able to when necessary. Currently whatever I can say is just transactional language.

 

So if there are any textbooks or methods you could recommend that would be nice. 

[abcdefg]

On 1/11/2024 at 9:11 PM, FennySH said:

Here is the shortage of learning languages only by the book, you could always have problems when you try to have the real conversation with the real people even if you could recite the book you used. 

 

That makes excellent sense to me. Another reason it's essential to have real conversations with people to learn to use the language well. 

 

On 1/11/2024 at 10:48 PM, Rajesh Koothrappali said:

I don't often need to speak Chinese much but of course I would like to be able to when necessary.

 

I would respectfully suggest investing some time in live conversation, especially since you live in China. It will open doors and give you access to experiences that you would otherwise miss. 

 

For what it's worth, I think the textbook dialog example in your most recent post, the one starting with "上个月。。。“ strikes me as un-naturally stiff. But, like you, I'm not a native speaker.

 

I bet @FennySHhas hit the nail on the head. Sometimes textbook authors just want to incorporate all that week's new words 生词 into a short passage of text and then move on; sometimes they do it rather mechanically. 

[suMMit]

On 1/12/2024 at 12:48 PM, Rajesh Koothrappali said:

So if there are any textbooks or methods you could recommend that would be nice.

I think Short Term Spoken Chinese may have the most natural dialogs I’ve seen. I only did half of the Elementary book, because I went down a rabbit hole of other rescources. But I fully intend to go back to it or the intermediate/upper int version when I have time.

 

I found the dialogs,grammar, vocabulary very colloquial and realistic. There is also a YouTube channel with a young woman doing all the dialogs in a very natural and speedy Beijing accent(this not recorded by the publisher itself). She does it for all levels. I just love her voice, she almost sounds a bit flippant.  

 

As you’re in country, this book is like 50rmb or less on taobao. Would be good to do with a teacher on italki. I will also say that the level runs harder than expected, maybe because it’s based on the old,old hsk?

[Rajesh Koothrappali]

@abcdefg I have taken live classes 1-1 before. However, I wasn't in an good position to really focus on those classes at the time. I‘m not opposed to speaking Chinese it is just not a priority based on my personality, opportunites and passions currently. Maybe one day though, perhaps in Beijing at a Chinese training center. 

 

@suMMit I know that textbook. I had it once before, a few levels but ended up feeling quite intimdated by the wall of text. It also was like 30 years old and I replaced it with other resources too. I also couldn't find any supplementary resources to make those textbooks more manageable to access. I've used Italki for other languages, not for Chinese yet.

[FennySH]

I agree with @abcdefg very much.

When we talk about the study of languages, we actually need two processes: input and output. If you want to improve your spoken Chinese, firstly you need to hear how the Chinese people express their thoughts, by the way you could understand( there is a famous theory called  Comprehensible Input if you want to know more).

When I teach the spoken Chinese, I really don't use textbooks, I use the way of IELTS Speaking training, but I need to know the exact level of my student to make sure  we can have the meaningful input firstly.

As for self-study, you need to talk to people, real people in real life. Since you live in China, it's very convenient to do that. The only problem would be like:

the people in your life may be more used to speak to the people whose Chinese level is as same as theirs, which means usually they don't follow the sequential order of HSK in grammars and vocabularies, you could be dumb when they try to explain their meanings by some more complicated sentences or in some more local way.

Here's some benefit about it,  you will learn the real Chinese, and also will learn how to relax, it's not necessary to understand every word or sentence in life when you hear it for the first time, just ask them.

To begin with that, you need some basic speaking skill. I can see you are using HSK4 textbooks, so it won't be a problem.

Also you could watch some videos on Youtube, there are some recommendations in the forum, my personnel favorite youtubers are 阿星探店Chinese Food Tour and Little Chinese Everywhere and 食贫道@shipindao. And I really like the Chines TV shows and some self-media in Bilibili, such as 非正式会谈Informal Talks（if it's challenging to watch the entire show at the beginning, you could begin with the clips, around 5 mins each).

[abcdefg]

On 1/18/2024 at 8:36 PM, FennySH said:

阿星探店Chinese Food Tour

 

I like his channel a lot. The only problem is that I must be very careful about when to watch it, because it always makes me hungry!

[Ledu]

@FennySH, @abcdefg (I am the original poster Rajesh. That was my old account and now use my original account Ledu only).

 

Do talking frogs count? I plan to read a Mo Yan book. It will be my first native content book and I know it will be challenging. KATO LOMB inspired me, specifically "How I learned languages".   I may take live classes one day, perhaps for a short course. However I already know what the results for me will be-- I will ONLY speak better transactional language. The kind of language needed to order food at KFC in China. And ordering KFC in China isn't exactly easy.  Eventually the entire staff just learns that you are the foreigner who can't speak well and the staff learns exactly what you order each time. The real Chinese world doesn't lower or grade the way they speak. They just don't speak to you.  And the highest educated usually also speak English well. So I also get into a situation where everyone desires to speak English with me instead of my weak Chinese level. That is acceptable, that is normal. In a multilingual relationship the language that is strongest by both will always be prefered. 

 

Reading....Reading you don't lose and never harm or bother the listener. You can find any interesting content you desire.  You can also learn idioms and about the culture, values. 

 

Since I am introverted it would probably be best to communicate by texting with Chinese people on wechat, on forums where Chinese is written 100%. How is it possible that an extrovert who is drunk and never studies can communicate in Chinese? Yet it happens. Maybe because they are always talking at bars with Chinese people.  Back to my flashcards/studying. Literature, Literature, Kato Lomb, Literature. 

 

Ledu