“Zooming In” and “Zooming Out”: random thoughts on think patterns in Chinese and in English
I could compare the two ways in which we think in Chinese and in English as “zooming in” and “zooming out” respectively. By these I mean the Chinese, myself as an example, are used to thinking in general terms, choosing a broad context to start our writing; whereas thinking in English resembles more closely a process of “zooming out”. I was made acutely aware of the difference in these two think patterns when many friends from an English writing class told me to “start with an object”, something that is more concrete and tangible to work with as a start. Another parallel example that reflects, or that is the product of the think patterns in these two languages would be how we write our addresses: in Chinese we start with the broadest context: the country, the province/area, the city and district, the street # and then the house/room #; while in English we do the opposite. I wonder if anyone else whose first language is not English has had similar experience.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
My first language is Chinese, just like yours, and I agree with your “zooming in” and “zooming out” analogy of these two languages in writing.
Another example, Chinese name vs English name, Surname comes before First name in Chinese, in English it’s the opposite. However, in French, the family name comes before first name, just like Chinese.