Page 186 - Beyond Methods

174 Fostering language awareness
prolonged negotiation between the two countries, the matter was re- solved. Here’s how the on-line edition of the Washington Post reported the story (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6425-2001Apr11 .html). Only one-third of the story is reproduced below, unedited.
Resolving Crisis Was a Matter of Interpretation By John Pomfret
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 12, 2001; Page A01
BEIJING, April 11—In the end, it was a matter of what the United States chose to say and what China chose to hear.
The letter that U.S. Ambassador Joseph W. Prueher handed to Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan today asked Tang to “con- vey to the Chinese people and to the family of pilot Wang Wei that we are very sorry for their loss.” And it said, “We are very sorry the entering of China’s airspace and the landing did not have verbal clearance.”
The word “apology” did not appear in the English-language doc- ument handed to Tang. But in announcing the U.S. move and de- scribing the letter to the Chinese people, China chose to translate the double “very sorry” as “shenbiao qianyi,” which means “a deep expression of apology or regret.”
And the deal was done, with both sides proclaiming they got what they wanted.
“In Chinese, you don’t use that phrase unless you’re admitting you’re wrong and accepting responsibility,” said Mei Renyi, direc- tor of the American Studies Center at Beijing Foreign Studies Uni- versity. “If they’re translating it that way, especially in the context of a formal letter, it means the U.S. is admitting it was wrong.”
But a translation into Chinese released by the U.S. Embassy used other language. For “very sorry,” it used the Chinese words “feichang wanxi,” which linguists described as an expression of great sympathy but not an apology. It also used “feichang baoqian,” or extremely sorry.
7.2.7 Write a detailed lesson plan using this or a similar news story of your choice. Think about how you can use a topical text like this to foster general as well as critical language awareness.
7.2.8 Plan how you will conduct your classroom activity in terms of group work, whole class discussion, etc.
7.2.9 Plan how you would highlight the use of translation between English and Chinese languages in this delicate diplomatic negotiation. If there are students in your class who know the Chinese language, plan