Comments on: So you wanna be a rock-’n'-roll star… http://www.jasonpatent.com/2009/08/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-rock-n-roll-star%e2%80%a6/ Success in China Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:04:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jason Patent http://www.jasonpatent.com/2009/08/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-rock-n-roll-star%e2%80%a6/comment-page-1/#comment-33 Jason Patent Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:55:55 +0000 http://www.jasonpatent.com/?p=392#comment-33 I have no doubt the water is muddy. You raise an excellent point — one that goes to the methodological heart of this kind of research. I wrestled with it every step of the way. All the issues I've discussed in the blog about translation were front and center when I created the interview questions. You've picked out one salient example. Another one was the "car" question, discussed in this blog's first post: is it "the same thing" to ask a Chinese family about a car purchase as it is to ask an American family? The issues don't vanish, either, for the questions with less obviously problematic terms and situations. The water is always muddy. At the end of the day it's a highly subjective call when the waters have been muddied to much. I made the calls I made after much consideration, consultation, and consternation. To me, the fact that the issues are what they are makes the overall case even stronger: that we need to pay the closest of attention to linguistic details when working across languages and cultures. Thanks as ever, ZH, for holding my feet to the fire! I have no doubt the water is muddy. You raise an excellent point — one that goes to the methodological heart of this kind of research. I wrestled with it every step of the way. All the issues I’ve discussed in the blog about translation were front and center when I created the interview questions. You’ve picked out one salient example. Another one was the “car” question, discussed in this blog’s first post: is it “the same thing” to ask a Chinese family about a car purchase as it is to ask an American family?

The issues don’t vanish, either, for the questions with less obviously problematic terms and situations. The water is always muddy.

At the end of the day it’s a highly subjective call when the waters have been muddied to much. I made the calls I made after much consideration, consultation, and consternation. To me, the fact that the issues are what they are makes the overall case even stronger: that we need to pay the closest of attention to linguistic details when working across languages and cultures.

Thanks as ever, ZH, for holding my feet to the fire!

]]> By: ZH http://www.jasonpatent.com/2009/08/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-rock-n-roll-star%e2%80%a6/comment-page-1/#comment-32 ZH Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:31:18 +0000 http://www.jasonpatent.com/?p=392#comment-32 I wonder if the responses you got are possible by shaped by factors other than the cognitive models you are looking into. What associations to people have with being a rock musician in mainland China? I would guess that they are quite different from the cultural associations in the US. For example, I would imagine that being a rock musician in China might be viewed as more subversive or even politically dangerous. Is rock music as generally accepted as good music among people of all ages in China as it is in the US? It seems that this question was crafted with American culture in mind. What would be the prototypical low-paying follow-your-dreams job in China? What if someone wanted to pursue being an erhu player, or practicing traditional Chinese medicine? How would American respondents answer these question with these vocations inserted? Or if "rap star" were substituted for "rock star"? I don't mean to cast doubt on the main point of your post, I'm just not that other issues aren't muddying the waters for this particular question and its responses. I wonder if the responses you got are possible by shaped by factors other than the cognitive models you are looking into. What associations to people have with being a rock musician in mainland China? I would guess that they are quite different from the cultural associations in the US. For example, I would imagine that being a rock musician in China might be viewed as more subversive or even politically dangerous. Is rock music as generally accepted as good music among people of all ages in China as it is in the US?

It seems that this question was crafted with American culture in mind. What would be the prototypical low-paying follow-your-dreams job in China? What if someone wanted to pursue being an erhu player, or practicing traditional Chinese medicine? How would American respondents answer these question with these vocations inserted? Or if “rap star” were substituted for “rock star”?

I don’t mean to cast doubt on the main point of your post, I’m just not that other issues aren’t muddying the waters for this particular question and its responses.

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