Monday, October 20, 2008

More Primary Data

Which do you use the most?
Chinese- 71%
Taiwanese- 29%

If you heard someone speaking Chinese what would you assume about them?
"nothing" -Dad, Mom, Geoffrey, Wei Wei and Hau Hau
"They would probably not be anyone of my generation" -Grandparents

If you heard someone speaking Taiwanese what would you assume about them?
"They were probably natives" -Dad
"From Taiwan" -Mom
"May that they were from a southern or coast area of Taiwan" -Geoffrey
"That they had grandparents or older relatives" -Hau Hau
"nothing" -Wei Wei
"Definitely someone of my generation or atleast really close to someone of my generation"
-Grandparents

Have you ever felt judged when you speak either language?
"A lot of people are surprised when I speak either b/c I look like a foreigner" -Dad
"No" -Mom
"Sometimes because usually younger people don't bother with Taiwanese" -Geoffrey
"No"-both Hau Hau and Wei Wei
"Sometimes (older) people seem more at ease when I address them in Taiwanese"
-Grandparents

1-10 (10 being almost identical) how would you rate the similarity of the two languages?
3- one person
4- one person
5- 5 people

Interpretation:
In conclusion, I think that I learned a lot from this interview. Firstly, I noticed that the older generation learned Taiwanese earlier, saw it as easier to learn, and felt most comfortable with it. But, in terms of the language that was used the most only the oldest generation actually used it more that Chinese probably because they didn't go out of the neighborhood very often. Also, I found that the Taiwanese language was much more unique than Chinese because almost everyone had certain stereotype for a Taiwanese speaker including locations as specific as coastal and southern Taiwan. So as a result of my survey I found that the older generation and less up-to-date people are expected to speak Taiwanese while the younger crowd speak Chinese to communicate in their activities and generally aren't expected to know Taiwanese.

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