Repeating things: 01

A colleague at the office in Taipei had the habit of repeating what she’d said — immediately after she’d said it.  

    Sometimes, it’d be a joke, so I can understand why she’d want to say it again, because she found it so funny that she wanted to run it through a second time immediately, for another laugh.  

    If it was an instruction, I can understand why too: just to make sure the listener gets it right.  

    Often, however, it’d be nothing particularly interesting.  

    If she were to repeat it a while later (a day/week/month later), I can put it down to memory, but no, she’d say it again straightaway.

    Later, however, I discovered that she wasn’t the only one, and that in fact it’s a fairly Chinese trait. 

    It is irritating to me to have things repeated (unless it’s in the spirit of teaching, especially language), if not insulting, as if I wasn’t able to understand it the first time.

    As an interpreter, however, I find it rather useful.

    During my first couple of interpreting stints, I’d stop the Chinese speakers whenever I couldn’t understand them (not difficult with the range of accents found in such a vast country) and ask them to repeat.

    Soon, I discovered that they’d repeat things.  They’d say something once, then say, “就是说 / jiù shì shuō / That is to say / In other words” and go back over what they’d said — not necessarily for important things that they wanted to ensure that the listener would understand.  

    So, I learned to leave the gaps (in my note-taking), wait for the “就是说”, go back to the gaps and fill them in during the second round of the same thing.  

    I now teach this trick to my students to give them confidence — they often panic/despair when they fail to catch everything in the first reading of their Listening Comprehension exercise.  I tell them that it happens to me too, and they feel much comforted.