The conflicts in the short story ‘Everyone Talked Loudly in Chinatown’ has to do with Lin’s immersion from the culture of her birth into the dominant culture of where she lives right now. The conflicts are created when Lin becomes more like the other kids in Vancouver and starts to distance herself from traditional Chinese culture. There are several reasons that caused Lin to separate from her culture. Firstly, her parents didn’t do much to keep Lin within the culture. The fact that Lin is living in a western society also contributes, and so does her physical and mental growing process. A generation gap is being created between Lin as an adolescent who seeks to become an adult and her parents. There is more than one distinct conflict in this short story. They are different in their characteristics but both of them are caused by Lin’s progression into western culture.
The first conflict that appears is about Lin having a white boyfriend. She doesn’t want her parents to find out, because she knows that they will react badly to this news. Therefore she tries to keep Todd out of sight of her parents, as the following quotes states by not letting him walk her all the way home.
“Today Todd walks me to the beginning of my block as usual and then crosses the street to go on. My mother would start to ask questions if she saw us together.”
This conflict is caused by Lin’s progression away from Chinese culture, because according to tradition, Chinese people have Chinese boy- or girlfriends. This conflict is classified as a generation gap between three generations, as Lin’s actions are in conflict of her parents’ and furthermore her grandmother’s beliefs, but this conflict can also be classified as a conflict between Lin as an individual and the society, because Lin is confronting the traditional Chinese culture by placing her individuality over Chinese family bonds. The generation gap as the story’s main theme is caused by the cultural gaps between Chinese and Canadian identity. She wants to be together with Todd instead of her family in her spare time and she doesn’t like being in Chinatown. She chooses friends over family. But even though she spends time with Todd, she doesn’t dare to tell her parents about him because she doesn’t want to deal with the confrontation it might bring. So she has to accept these Chinese hierarchical family structures, but really she doesn’t when she slaps her father right back. Lin respects herself higher than her father because she reacts when he slaps her. But she is aware the fact that she has crossed a boundary and therefore considers running away. Also she doesn’t comment after the physical slap. A verbal reaction isn’t there. After slapping him back, she runs to her room – almost waiting for him to come. But the fact that she stands up for herself makes her wonder why her mother didn’t do to the grandmother. She asks her mother “why didn’t you just stand up for yourself?” when the grandmother treated Lin’s mother horrible in her childhood.
But maybe she isn’t afraid of her parents’ reaction on Todd, but instead Todd’s reaction to her parents. For example when Lin feds her grandmother she think of what Todd wouldn’t think of her. Therefore she is not necessarily hiding Todd from her parents but just because it’s easier than having an argument about it. After having slapped her father, Lin goes to her grandmother and she seems to realize that she needs her grandmother. The grandmother is there for her after the fight with the parents. She takes her grandmothers hand and stays there all night.
Therefore is another conflict in the story that Lin feels guilty for not being close to her grandmother who is dying of sickness. Lin remembers when she girl, how her grandmother would take her to Chinatown for treats, but eventually Lin got tired of all the loud talk and stopped going. Lin realizes that she isn’t like the people in Chinatown. They are uncivilized and they annoy her. Therefore she doesn’t want to be a part of it. Instead she “started to play with friends who weren’t loud and who weren’t Chinese.” Again it’s Lin progression away from her own birth culture that causes the distance between her and the grandmother. When Lin feels disgusted by feeding her grandmother it’s because Lin can’t really accept the fact that herself and her grandmother’s roles had turn. Her grandmother has always taking care of Lin but now she has to take care of her grandmother, feeding her like a baby. Therefore Lin both feels guilty for not wanting to take care of her and for not spending time with her or not wanting to spend time with her. She feels this way because she wants to “pay her grandmother back” for all the care she gave Lin through her life. This conflict is more an internal conflict with Lin herself, even though it is caused in part by her separation from Chinese culture. But when the grandmother dies Lin somehow feels free. The grandmother represents old China, so when she dies old China is gone and Lin can be nor westernized. But her death can also be a symbol of the death of Chinese traditions. When Lin falls asleep by her dead grandmothers’ bed it symbolizes that she finally finds peace in her Chinese heritage. She is now ready to break up with the Chinese traditions and bounds but at the same time Lin holds her grandmothers’ hand all night, which symbolizes that Lin, still do care about her family and can’t throw away her heritage. Maybe Lin is scared of what will come next.
Delprøve 1
Opgave A
Ret fejlene + forklaring m. grammatisk terminologi
- Peter just doesn’t seem to be getting along with all his classmates.
Rettelse:
hjælpeudsagnsordet 'to do' efterfølges altid af et infinitiv og skal derfor ikke bøjes efter subjektet 'Peter' i 3. pers. men altså hedde 'seem'.
- Derek begins to think more about the fact that he has to sort things out with Karen.
Rettelse:
En præposition kan ikke efterfølges af en that-sætning eller en infinitive.
Derfor kan man istedet for indføre udtrykket ‘the fact’ mellem præpostionen og that-sætningen.
- Sometimes tragedy strikes without warning, and death suddenly shows its ugly head.
Rettelse:
Death er et utælleligt substantiv, da det er et generelt begreb, ligesom life, science og nature.
- She seems to have a larger knowledge of events that are historically important than her fellow students
Rettelse:
Adverbier er beskrivende ord der lægger sig til bl.a. adjektiver, som i sætningen her er important. ’Historical’ er et adjektiv, og af adjektiver der ender på –ical dannes adverbier på –ically.
Der er derfor tale om et adverbium der beskriver adjektivet.
- The reviewers of the famous author’s novel don’t want to spoil the story by revealing too much of it.
Rettelse:
Kongruensfejl - Subjektet ‘reviewers’ indikerer flere personer, og hjælpeverbet don’t skal derfor
flertalsbøjes.
- The daughter actually seems to take after her mother, who we are told had a tough time in her marriage.
Rettelse:
Både which og who er relative pronominer, der viser tilbage til et substantiv eller pronomen der har været nævnt lige før.
Who bruges i relativsætninger om personer, og da der i sætningen vises der tilbage til moderen som subjektet, skal der bruges who i stedet for which.
Endvidere er relativsætningen parentetisk – og giver derfor en ekstra oplysning som ikke er absolut nødvendig for forståelsen af hele indholdet; (we are told)
- Reporters sometimes have difficulties relying on the information they get from their foreign sources.
Rettelse:
Information er altid ental, da det er et masseord.
Opgave B
Tidsbøjning af de understregede verballed
celebrate = nutid
will reach = fremtid
found = datid
will soar = fremtid
are giving = udvidet nutid
have been = før nutid
said = datid
were taking = udvidet datid
had climbed = før datid
had run = før datid
play = nutid
smoke = nutid
Opgave C
Sammenligninger af 2 versioner af ”Fadervor” (grammatik, tegnsætning og ordvalg)
Tekst 1 er den ældre og mest kendte udgave af Fadervor fra 1611 og tekst 2 er en nyere udgave fra 2002. Tekst 1 bruger billedsprog til at udtrykke sig, fx i linje 8 hvor ’det onde’ symboliserer helvede og djævlen, hvilket tekst 2 i stedet udpensler, så det er mere forståeligt. Meget billedlige og poetiske ord som ’earth’ og ’heaven’, bliver gjort hverdagsagtige og konkrete i tekst 2 som ’above’ og ’below’.
Ordvalget i begge tekster er også meget forskelligt. Tekst 1 bærer præg af et gammelt og formelt sprog, hvor ord som ’art’, ’thy’ og ’thine’ bruges i stedet for de ord vi kender som ’er’ og ’dit’. Tekst 2 har formået at gøre Fadervor mere jordnær og måske mindre indviklet at forstå end den originale version. I linje 6 i tekst 2 er ’debts and debtors’ blevet til ’us and others’, for atter at konkretiserer det, så vi bedre kan forholde os til det vi egentlig siger når vi beder. Derudover afspejler tekst 2 også et mere moderne sprog ved at bruge sammentrækninger, såsom ’what’s’ og ’You’re’. Selvom tekst 1 godt kan virke stærkere i troen vha. det ældre og mere formelle sprogbrug, bruger tekst 2 udråbstegn for at forstærke ordene og meningen af dem. Til gengæld er tekst 2’s brug af slang og uformelt sprog en kende upassende til det højtidelige i et fadervor.
Endvidere bruges Amen som afslutning på ens bøn, altså Fadervor. En understregning af noget der er sandt, at det står fast og er troværdigt, og den enkeltes svar på bønnen – Ja. Derfor bruges ’yes’ i stedet for ’amen’ i tekst 2.
Opgave D
English translation:
A thirteen-year-old French girl who was in a coma, voke up and spoke fluent German. It is rather strange because her skills in German was not very good. She was just starting to have the subject in the school and had only seen a little bit of German TV.
Since she woke up two weeks ago, however has it only suceeded the parents to communicate with her in German.
“In the past did people look at this as a miracle, but personally I think there is a completely logical explanation”, says an expert in the field.
