Sichuan 6

Listen to Sichuan 6, a 19-year-old man from Zigong, Sichuan Province, China. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 19

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/07/1997

PLACE OF BIRTH: Zigong, Sichuan Province

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: B.A. in progress

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The speaker has lived in the United states for almost three years: 10 months in Houston and two years in East Lansing, Michigan.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He speaks French fluently and has a basic proficiency in Spanish.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Jeffrey Litten (under supervision of Deric McNish)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/04/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Mm, well, yeah, I had a first impression of snow, real snow. Yeah, ’cause that’s, that’s one of the reasons I choose this school: yeah, ’cause it snows. Yeah. I was building a snowman last year and playing snowballs with my friends. You mean with — well, I have [cough] my Chinese circle and American circle are balanced. No, it’s, it’s, it is balanced, kind of, so, well, I do have lasting relationship in, uh, like for my some of my American friends. And I also have a host family in Texas. So, um, like I have a — I have two host brothers and one host sisters, so, like we take care of each other  when I was there, when I was doing foreign-exchange program, and for Chinese side in college, I, uh, yes, I made a few — you know since we had similar culture and speak in same languages, so it’s easier to find a good like, like lasting friends. Yeah, it does in the first couple of months; I would say two months. Though, so first month was OK. I was a little bit like, you know, curious about everything. After a month, I start, like, OK, everything’s not going well, and my language — like English — wasn’t that good at that time, so I like start to practice and practice, and my host family help me a lot on that part, speaking English. And I’m — was not allowed to use anything or speak anything in Chinese during that time. So it’s super strict. Well, haha, you know in China, we, uh, people is not allowed to hold guns, so — well, even though my dad has one but just kind of hope I never touch it, but he- when I get here, the first thing, well, my, the first thing my host family like took me to do is go hunting.

[The subject speaks Chinese]: 所以在新年呢，我们新年。。新年中国新年是一个很隆重的节日。Em。。。中国新年，每家都会，就是所有亲戚都会集中在一家里面，大年三十的时候会集中在一个人的家里面，然后一起享用午餐或者晚餐，就一起享受跨新的一年。因为中国跟美国是不同的年。Eh。。。那个。。日历，所以中国用的是lunar，well。。。中国用的是农历，美国用的是正常的，正常的日历。所以，中国的农历呢，我们要在一般都是，一月或者二月，才过年。所以这个时候我们就一起享受一起，就是在一起过年，过年公司都会放假，员工都会放假，所以所有人都会回家，团年。

[English translation: So, on New Year’s Day, our Chinese New Year — Chinese New Year is a very grand festival. Em, in China New Year, every family, all relatives will be concentrated in one family. And then enjoy lunch or dinner together to enjoy straddle old and new year. Since Chinese use eh, that different calendar, so Chinese uses lunar; well, China uses the lunar calendar, and the United States uses a normal, normal one. So, on Chinese lunar calendar, we are going to celebrate the lunar new year in January, January or February. On this time, we enjoy gathering together, enjoy straddle old and new year. In Chinese New Year, businesses close and employees have a day off work, so everyone will go home: family reunion.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jeffrey Litten (under supervision of Deric McNish); Chinese transcription by speaker and edited by Hongwen Lu; English translation of Chinese speech by Hongwen Lu

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/04/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Word mispronunciations might be a result of English-language skills, rather than dialect.

COMMENTARY BY: Deric McNish

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/06/2017

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