Author Archives: hannal

Blog Post #3

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I think what interested me the most was the politeness topic. I did my research report on politeness in varying levels of Chinese speakers and it was very surprising to see the results. I have been learning Chinese for three years and even I did not know about certain aspects of Chinese politeness such as the difference between ancient China, communist China, and current times. One other thing that was interesting to me was the idea of changing masculinity. While I do not agree with the idea that men are becoming more “feminine” in Asia, it was very interesting to see how things that are traditionally marketed to women are being marketed to men in China and the idea of herbivore men in Japan.

As a Linguistics major, this class was very interesting to me because I got to focus on East Asian Linguistics, whereas I would usually focus on Indo-European languages. I thought that it was the most interesting topic that we talked about because it involved syntax and how words have changed in meaning. I think that this class has made me want to dig deeper into the idea of East Asian Linguistics

Blog #2

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This past weekend, my friend and I went to the East Asian Market on 11th street. The store is right next to our dorm so it is very convenient for us to go here to get some snacks or food to make for dinner. The sign outside of the store looks like this:

The sign reads 亞洲龍 (亚洲龙). The first two characters are Yàzhōu, meaning Asia, and is specifically written in Traditional Chinese characters. The final character, Lóng, means dragon and is also written in Traditional Chinese. Firstly, this is a great example of how Chinese characters are monosyllabic and disyllabic in nature. The first two characters are disyllabic, there are two characters to pronounce but there is only one meaning to the “word”. The final character is monosyllabic and has one pronunciation as well as only one meaning.

Some meaning of this could be derived from the pictures on both sides of the word and can symbolize the cultural icon of the Chinese dragon. In China, the dragon is a huge part of the culture, so this sign may appeal to the sense of home and culture for any people from China living in the Eugene area. The traditional Characters will also be able to draw in more people because although simplified Chinese is more common, many people who live in the south of China or Taiwan will be able to read these characters and enjoy the experience. (an interesting and funny fact about the Chinese characters is that there is a Toyota model of car that is also called 亚洲龙 in China. )

So far, class has been very interesting. I think that it is easiest for me to read before the class and take notes that way I can reference them while we are talking in class. I like to be able to check that I wrote everything down and make sure that I am getting the key points. Right now, I am very interested in the metaphors that we are looking at from both the Chinese and North Korean media. Now that I can understand some Chinese and Korean, it was very shocking about how they were speaking about other people. I think that this class has been pretty cool so far and I hope that it will only hope to get better.

– Hanna LaPointe

Hello Class- I’m Hanna!

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Hi everybody! My name is Hanna LaPointe (冷涵娜 in Chinese). I am from Kettering, Ohio, which is just outside of the city of Dayton. I lived there my whole life until this year when I moved to Eugene to go to the U of O. Fun Fact: My family mostly of French ancestry, originally from Périgord, France. Because of this, I find that it is very interesting to learn about my family and how we have been connected to many parts of the world through immigration and influence.

I am majoring in Linguistics with a focus on Chinese and Korean languages. I took Chinese for three years in Highschool up to the IB level. I have always had an interest in Korean culture specifically because my city, and areas around it, have a large Korean population and every year they hold a festival to celebrate Korean culture. From the time I went to those festivals to now, my love for the culture has only grown more and I have since expanded my desire to learn more about the Chinese language and culture.

Even though I love languages, my favorite things are my cat, Betty, and my dog, Peaches.  My cat is insane and my dog is just plain old. My favorite people are David Bowie and Tim Curry (and my mom). I have three tattoos; a lizard (weird I know), a space helmet with David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane lightning bolt, and this:

This is from David Bowie’s last album Blackstar.

Betty the crazy cat.

Peaches the old dog

About this course:

I hope that this class will give me the base I need to start focusing more on Chinese and Korean linguistics, even though it will be very difficult as neither of them is my first language. I hope in the future that I will be able to go to China or Korea to further study the dialects and learn more about how and why they developed.

So far, I have known all of the material that has been covered as I have learned about them in other classes and through my own study. However, it is always good to review. I love the way that this class is taught too because it allows me to visualize the concepts rather than being expected to remember them without instruction.

I look forward to learning more and I hope that we can be friends!

-Hanna