NationStates Jolt Archive

To 'shuo dui'

It means to 'speak correctly', and it's a concept I picked up from a Perry Link book. It means a lot to me.

There are 3 distinct aspects to 'shuo dui'.

To speak in the correct way - that is, to use the correct words to express a concept accurately, in a way it means you can be understood with no vagaries of description. At its most basic, it simply means using the right words. You can think correctly but express it incorrectly and the message is lost

To speak a correct idea - in that the concept you describe is correct, it's a truthful statement is a basic meaning of this. Sometimes we can express a concept beautifully but it's a concept that's fundamentally wrong.

To speak at the correct time - in that the context of time in which you speak is correct, it's timely, it has optimal impact. Some of the most persuasive people I know have the knack of putting their point of view across at exactly the right time, and even though it's wrong it becomes accepted because of that context in time. In another sense, it means being politically acute or sensitive to the moment. Flatterers can be said to speak at the right time.

I'm lazy so I rarely manage all three, often I don't even manage one but, at the back of my mind, trying to achieve all three is something I strive for.

For some reason, I find something very deep in the thought behind 'shuo dui'.

Which of the 3 would you feel the most important because if you say something truthful but it's misunderstood or if you say it at the wrong time it's lost. Is it an equal balance or does one have priority - do we try to speak the truth, something that might be unnattainable, do we try to speak well despite our lack of correct thought, or do we speak at the right time?

How much do you try to 'shuo dui'?

I'm thinking that speaking so that the message that you're trying to convey is most important. I mean, what's the point in even speaking if no one understands what you're trying to say? Then there's speaking at the right time. I find this very important. I practice it all the time, mostly when I'm asking for favors from authority figures. These two concepts put together would create a good speaker. Not so much on what is being said is correct, be cause hell, look at politicians. They don't have to be right, they just have to to have people believe them. That's true for everyone.

I find it ironic in a highly peculiar way that someone who advocates the concept of "speaking right" as in using "correct words to express a concept accurately, in a way it means you can be understood with no vagaries of description" feels the need to resort to a neologism borrowed from another language* like "shuo dui" in order to describe his idea.


*I assume this based on his being a Sinologist with English as both his and his target audience's mother tongue; I furthermore suspect it to be a neologism rather than a real Chinese word because googling it does not yield any results in the direction of this use.

I find it ironic in a highly peculiar way that someone who advocates the concept of "speaking right" as in using "correct words to express a concept accurately, in a way it means you can be understood with no vagaries of description" feels the need to resort to a neologism borrowed from another language* like "shuo dui" in order to describe his idea.


*I assume this based on his being a Sinologist with English as both his and his target audience's mother tongue; I furthermore suspect it to be a neologism rather than a real Chinese word because googling it does not yield any results in the direction of this use.

Fair enough - I used the Chinese pinyin because I first read about it in a Perry Link book - Evening Chats in Beijing - and so it's how I think about it.

I suppose you could just use - speak correctly.

I've never really heard used in this way in English, it's probably not on Google as it's a particular philosophical way of describing it. It may not even be a set concept but it was used by Chinese professors to explain to Perry Link the different ways of 'speaking correctly'. This was especially important in a totalitarian system where speaking incorrectly could cost you your life.

We are what we speak as much as how we act, I find it important as a concept and not one I've heard elsewhere, as I lean towards returning to writing, something with which I recognise I have greats faults in practice, I think more and more about it.