Storytelling Saturday #6: “i before e except every time.”
Welcome back to Storytelling Saturday, where I share stories about my experiences as an international student and immigrant. So YOU’RE trying to tell me how language works?
This story may be revealing a lot of my nerdy art side.
I have been formally studying art, design and illustration (as in art school settings) for about 15 years – Arts High School, Undergrad, Postgrad and a PhD. Some may see this as dedication. Others may see me as not clever enough to get it from attending one institution! I remember telling one of my friends that I was attending my graduation (to receive my doctorate), and she reacted with “another one?!”
What I’ve always found strange was when a person would say something along the lines of, “Well, Chinese is a pictographic language, so Asian speakers have an easier time learning to make art.” I heard this comment in every level of education I’ve been on. I’ve even read it in an academic book. Besides the usual prejudice about me being Chinese, or deducing Chinese to any Asian, I’ve always found it puzzling. Have they seen modern Chinese?
There is some truth in this remark in that Chinese – ancient Chinese to be precise – have iconic depictions in their roots. The letter for the word ‘stream’, 川, comes from a picture of running water, like so: SSS. And the word for the ‘day’ comes from a picture of the sun: 日. Here, be honest with me: would you look at 日 and think, ‘ah yes, that looks just like the sun’?
The modern English alphabet is said to have originated from the Proto-Sinaitic script, which was developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The letter A, for example, is thought to be derived from a picture of an ox’s head. Turn A upside down – do you see an ox with two horns? Looks very… graphic to me!
I understand that the alphabet and Chinese have very different uses of writing – the alphabet is phonemic, meaning that each letter represents a sound, whereas each Chinese letter is logogramic, meaning that each letter represents a meaning. What I’m confused about is the deduction that Chinese Asian people ought to be better at art making because their language is logogramic.
This may sound like a compliment, but it’s only another depiction of underinformed prejudice. To toot my own horn loudly and proudly, I am good at drawing. But hearing these sorts of comments seems to undermine the many hours I’ve invested in honing my craft to an innate advantage I was born into. Worse yet, it’s an unseen advantage based on an idea of a language, one without any evidence to support.
I have never heard another East Asian person say that they’re better (than who? Non-East Asians?) at making art because their language is logogramic. It has always been friends and educators who don’t know the language. When retraced far back enough, many written languages that survive and are prevalent today have a pictorial beginning. A series of scribbles, often depicting entities within their surrounding, that enough people agreed to interpret in a certain way.
Writing any language requires fine motor skills. Artmaking takes much effort regardless of your cultural and linguistic origin. Stereotyping an advantage is still stereotyping.
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