Reading Exercise

[roddy]

Ok, we've been talking here about some kind of reading activity. The Book of the Month club didn't quite take off, despite Wushijiao's sterling work, presumably because an entire book is a bit too much of a commitment.

So I'm going to try posting one newspaper article for people to read. If a fair number of people read it, post questions, discuss it, then with a bit of luck it'll be useful. I'd like to encourage everyone to take part - I think it could be very valuable, and even if you can only skim it and get the gist, or have to stop halfway through it's still valid practice.

Rather than have a long discussion on which article to read, I've just gone ahead and chosen one which looks fairly interesting, but not overly in-depth. If there's a reasonable response perhaps someone can come up with a short story, or blog post, or whatever, for next week. Please do feel free to make suggestions on what we should be reading.

I had a look at the latest edition of the Southern Weekend, and chose the main story, '平时是天使 周末是魔鬼', which is roughly 'Weekday Angel, Weekend Demon'.

The original is here

It's about 5000 characters, which isn't as much as it sounds - about 4 pages if you paste it into Word. Here's an extract.

[pop=serve as/zuòwéi]作为[/pop][pop=long/cháng]长[/pop][pop=woman/nǚ]女[/pop]，[pop=her/tā]她[/pop][pop=in order/wèile]为了[/pop][pop=collect money/chóují]筹集[/pop][pop=younger brother/dìdi]弟弟[/pop][pop=s/men]们[/pop][pop=/de]的[/pop][pop=tuition/xuéfèi]学费[/pop][pop=and/hé]和[/pop][pop=to repay/chánghuán]偿还[/pop][pop=family/jiātíng]家庭[/pop][pop=/de]的[/pop][pop=debt/zhàiwù]债务[/pop][pop=and/ér]而[/pop][pop=conceal from/mán]瞒[/pop][pop=/zhe]着[/pop][pop=family/jiārén]家人[/pop][pop=to go out/chūqù]出去[/pop][pop=sale/mài]卖[/pop][pop=body/shēn]身[/pop]。[pop=after this/cǐhòu]此后[/pop][pop=on Monday/zhōuyī]周一[/pop][pop=goes/dào]到[/pop][pop=Friday/zhōuwǔ]周五[/pop][pop=at/zài]在[/pop][pop=rural/xiāngcūn]乡村[/pop][pop=to teach/jiāoshū]教书[/pop]，[pop=Saturday/zhōuliù]周六[/pop][pop=and/hé]和[/pop][pop=Sunday/zhōurì]周日[/pop][pop=to/dào]到[/pop][pop=city/chéngshì]城市[/pop][pop=sale/mài]卖[/pop][pop=body/shēn]身[/pop]，[pop=directly to/zhízhì]直至[/pop][pop=two/liǎng]两[/pop][pop=year/nián]年[/pop][pop=after/hòu]后[/pop][pop=moral/dàodé]道德[/pop][pop=/de]的[/pop][pop=remorse/zìzé]自责[/pop][pop=with/yǔ]与[/pop][pop=body/shēntǐ]身体[/pop][pop=/de]的[/pop][pop=ailment/bìng]病[/pop][pop=to hurt/téng]疼[/pop][pop=be about to do something/xíngjiāng]行将[/pop][pop=to press/yā]压[/pop][pop=collapse/kuǎ]垮[/pop][pop=her/tā]她[/pop][pop=time/shí]时[/pop][pop=only then/cái]才[/pop][pop=stopped/tíngzhǐle]停止[/pop][pop=selling/mài]卖[/pop][pop=/shēn]身[/pop][pop=career/shēngyá]生涯[/pop]

and my quick translation

As the eldest daughter, she became a prostitute in order to earn school fees for her brothers and pay off the family's debts. From Monday to Friday she taught in the village school, and at the weekend sold her body in the town. She only stopped after two years, when guilt and illness brought her close to collapse.

You can expect a focus on this one family and their circumstances, but also a look at the plight of underpaid teachers and the cost of education. So a bit of something for everyone.

Roddy

[gougou]

Hmm, seems like this didn't really take off either. I might still get around to reading it, so don't give up hopes too soon!

Until then, here is some commentary from someone with more time on his hands

[Hann]

Hey Roddy,

I think this is a great idea. But since I dont read simplified, I suppose I first off need an editor to transfer it to traditional, but that is a tad off topic.

If you continue you this in the future would it be possible to find something both in simplified and traditional? This may be asking way too much though, so in that case I apologize.

[gougou]

I dont read simplified

That shouldn't keep you from joining, try HanConv!

[randall_flagg]

Thank you! Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!

What a great tool. And so simple to use. Never knew it coult be that easy. Thanks a bunch.

[lau]

A good choice of article.

Read through the commentaries that gougou posted. What I find strange is, why is everyone so determined to claim this story is anything but true? Things like that happen.

“曾经拥有过值得这辈子去感念的男人就够了” <--This part I do not quite get. This is her explanation why she left the poor engineer her fathers age, who loved her. Translation please?

And what other job (except teaching and prostituting) can a young girl get in the country side? If she worked for 300 a month, of course that's not enough for 学费. I'm not too familiar with general situation in small souther towns in China, so some additional info would be nice.

Let's hope there's no discussion because it's weekend

[roddy]

Hmm, a good choice of article which nobody read

To be honest I'm at a bit of a loss as to what articles would be read. Was this one too long? With the annotation / conversion tools available I really think anyone with a bit of time to spare could have made an attempt at reading it.

Roddy

[gougou]

More from ESWN.

I haven't read the article yet, and only parts of the commentaries, but the development is quite interesting - I'll join soon.

[lau]

Education related articles are my favourite, anyway.

I guess the article was a bit long, but hey, people are discussing reading a whole BOOK, so the article is short in comparison.

Maybe it's worth trying something short and entertaining? Though that would not get opinions and discussion, but on the other hand....

[roddy]

Well, I had my shot, someone else can try and please you all now

Roddy

[mrtoga]

Well I read it Roddy. The second half got into rather unnecessary detail I thought - the point had been made long before that.

Us foreigners may be surprised to read this kind of story, but surely it is not news to Chinese people. You only have to walk into a hotel in China to see kids making the same sacrifices every day. Seems to me the journalist would be spending her time more productively by finding out exactly why the teachers' salaries were not paid etc. But maybe that is not possible......

Someone asked about the meaning of 曾经拥有过值得这辈子去感念的男人就够了

I would say this roughly translates as "It is enough that in this lifetime I have met a man who deserves my gratitude"

It seems she would not marry him because of the shame it would bring on his family (her being a prostitute).

Anyway I too hope that others have a read of this, although it may be too long for most readers to plough through.......

[gato]

曾经拥有过值得这辈子去感念的男人就够了

"It is enough that in this lifetime I have met a man who deserves my gratitude"

A slight variation:

"这辈子" modifies "感念" (remember with deep emotion) here.

The sentence could be translated as

"It's enough that I once had a man who was worthy of remembering for a lifetime."

[lau]

mrtoga, "us foreigners" should not be surprised at all. stuff like that happens in EU as well - underpaid 30 year-old teachers from small towns earning money for the two children by prostituting themselves in nearby cities, cause what teacher earns is not enough to feed the family, and the daddy's been gone for years... i read it on the news around a year ago, and, funny thing, noone thought it must have been made up by the press.

[mrtoga]

Fair point Lau. What I was trying to get across in the post is that the article is a long narrative on the problems faced by this woman, but with little criticism of the system that caused the problems or suggestions about how to improve the lot of women in similar situations.

I doubt there is much in this article that would stimulate the interest of a Chinese reader.

Thanks to the poster above for the re-translation - I will assume your translation ability is superior to my "guestimate".

[hlk123]

Hi roddy

When I point at the Chinese characters of the extract then a tooltip appears! But only there. What have you done? ;)

It would be helpful if I can make it default....!

[gato]

A follow-up by the reporter of the article Roddy posted.

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060313_1.htm

Here's another possibility for a reading exercise:

http://www.tianya.cn/new/publicforum/content.asp?idwriter=0&key=0&stritem=tianyamyself&idarticle=20366&flag=1

In translation: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060312_1.htm