毛丹青：用日语著书 教学生汉语

吴洋 杨冠穹

银座，是东京最具代表性的繁华商区，汇集了日本全国各大高级百货商店、米其林星级餐厅和顶级夜总会，代表着日本高速发展时期最繁荣的现代文化。筑地，在2018年10月正式关闭前曾被称为“日本的厨房”，有着全球最大型的鱼市场——筑地市场，鱼贩、厨师、主妇、食客、游人混杂其中、人声鼎沸，展现了东京丰富的市井文化。

而在银座和筑地之间，有一个叫“东银座”的街区，这便是毛丹青开启旅日生活的起点，也是他此后踏上用日语著书之路的灵感原点。在这里，他把自己完完全全置身于普通日本人的生活语境之中，每天和形形色色的日本人打交道，在强调效率至上的现代文化与饱含人情冷暖的传统文化的交融中深切地感受着异国文化带来的冲击和惊喜。

与毛丹青对话，一开始他便提到了自己“另类”而非典型的创作生涯轨迹。他把自己在日本的30多年划分成了三个阶段：最先的10年是中途退学、弃学从商，做过远洋渔业的生意;中间的10年，弃商从文，走遍了日本47个都道府县，用日语直接写出了自己的第一本书，或许应了那句“无心插柳柳成荫”的古话，日语著作获得了日本第28届篮海文学奖，被多次用于日本大学高考试题;后来的10年应邀到日本的大学当教授，给日本大学生讲中文，教中文写作，讲一门叫《日本文化论》的课。

这3个10年，看似独立成篇，却可以看到，正是这些不同阶段的人生经历积累、沉淀并串聯起了一条脉络清晰的属于毛丹青所独有的思想主线，其中包含了对异国文化的理解、通过理解异国文化对本国文化的深度再理解、对不同语言表达差异的思考，以及在异文化交流上具体到个人可以作出的努力。这条主线中还包含了3个关键词：情怀、融合、共通。

热爱一门外语

用情怀去触摸她的文化

在毛丹青教过的日本学生中，有人成了知名的汉学家，有人在日本外务省担任要职，他们都与中国有着紧密的联系。时隔多年后，他们记住的或许并不是课堂上的某个单词、某个发音，而是某种感染力，这种感染带力带给他们的是对汉语学习的持之以恒的激情，以及如何去热爱语言的一种能力。

如今世界格局正在发生深刻变革，过去是中国看世界，现在是世界看中国，而看待中国的方式多种多样，其中当然也包括汉语带给人们的认知。“通过语言去了解对方的国家和文化，丰富自己的智慧。通过学习汉语，去增强自己的想象力，把中国当作一面镜子，就像过去中国把日本当成一面镜子一样。”这既是毛丹青告诉日本学生们的，也与他本人用日语写日本风土人情、以中国人的身份给日本人讲日本文化一脉相承。“了解别人应该大于表达我们自己。”毛丹青说。

针对日本大学三四年级学生的汉语学习，他有自己的一套“另类”教法。比如，在讲解汉语发音要领时他重点提到了汉语和日语构造的不同：日语发音的基础是元音，用胸腔和喉咙发音;汉语有辅音，更多依靠的是运用鼻腔。口腔内的肌肉和气流变化是否能被百分百把握是外语发音能否标准的关键因素，汉语学习者应该让自己成为一名运动员，通过对体能和技能的训练，让口腔内的肌肉和气流变化在汉语表达的世界中达到严丝合缝的程度。

毛丹青有时会在他的公众号上分享日本学生们写的汉语作文，他的写作课从不要求学生们必须写有关中国的题材，很多时候只是写他们看过的最好的风景，并给他们讲了这样一个金句：“当你们去中国时，希望依然能按照你们看到最美风景时的心情去感受当地的风景。”

他个人30多年的旅日生涯正是把这种教学思维贯彻到底的最好案例，它给学生们展示了一种学习外语现实可行的路径：用对方国家的语言去触摸对方国家的文化，去慢慢体会和理解对方国家人们的心情。后来，有些学生选择在中国定居，至今仍记得他当初说过的这句话。“开展对外教育、文化交流，具体到从事汉语教育，其实教育和传递的是一种情怀，而不是一种逻辑。人与人之间更多的是情怀相知。” 毛丹青谈道。

从“语言互撕”

到你中有我我中有你的融合

不同的语言有着不同的框架体系，每种语言也都有其独特的表达习惯和思维方式，学习语言是了解对方文化习性、思维表达的最直接途径，需要经历一个漫长的过程。语言是情感是时间是信念，同时也是学语言的那个你自己。

日本学生们的作文用的是汉语，表达思维却仍然比较日式，这让毛丹青觉得颇有意思。回想起过去语言学习过程中曾经历的振奋、彷徨、失落和豁然开朗，毛丹青把掌握不同的语言比喻成一场拳击比赛，双方参加的是一场消磨战，你进我退。一般来说，学外语学到第二年，会有一种飞跃的感觉，可能发现单词与句式入脑很快、样样得心应手;可到了第三年，外语的进步经常会出现急骤的停滞，甚至到了寸步难行的地步，同时面对外语沉浸式的进入，自身对母语的表达能力也一定程度上被弱化了。他认为，这个节点便是“语言互撕”的开始。

对此，毛丹青给出的建议是，“暂且搁置外语，全力用母语表达。以汉语为例，尤其是强化对诗歌的熟稔度，增大阅读量以及用习题练手，寻找语言革命的脉络;经过上述多重洗礼后，再回过头切入外语，会顿时感觉身轻如燕”。

语言之间的“互撕”，就像一篇好小说在很多场合下不同角色产生矛盾的过程，有爱有恨，所有情感的出现都是以对方的存在显现出来的。然而，“互撕”只是学习的途中状态，深知困难所在并坚持不懈地努力克服困难之后便可以发现，不同语言是可以达到“融合”这一你中有我、我中有你的精进状态的。

异文化交流和理解

多看彼此共通的地方

从语言融合延伸谈到不同文化之间的相互影响，“手绘”是个既古老又年轻、既中式又日式的词汇。以手绘这一共通的表达方式描述对美好事物的共同向往，有助于增进异文化交流中的相互理解。

在毛丹青的课件和著作中，经常可以看到各式各样的手绘图。谈到开始创作手绘图的契机，毛丹青说：“刚进入教育行业时，在大学有几节大课，被安排在那种阶梯教室里，一堂课上有两三百名学生。后来发现这样听讲的效果好像有问题，于是就想到了把课件一个个画出来，复印成册，让助教人手一份发给听课的学生。学生们都很感动，课后他们在听课反馈卡上画满了画。受到这件事的激励，我发现手绘其实是有温度的，能让时间停留，能传达情怀，不知不觉中也成了我的一种风格。”

如今，全世界范圍内新冠肺炎疫情的影响仍在持续，对外文化交流人员的跨国流动、对外文化交流活动的跨国举办都处于减少或停滞状态。在这种大背景下如何推进中日文化交流是一个值得探讨的话题。

对此，毛丹青提到可以从“文本的交流”方面去做一些具体的努力。比如，除了教学、著书外，他还忙碌于策划译书。这次与上海译文出版社合作的纪实类日本女性职场励志译书系列一套共三本，分别是稻垣惠美子的《五十岁，我辞职了》、国谷裕子的《我是主播》和小川理子的《音的记忆》，描述了不同领域中的三位女性职场人对现代社会的选择，展现人的情怀，其文化的着眼点是跨越国界、穿越海洋的。同时，他还策划与三位作者做网上对谈直播，这样中国读者也可以参与其中。稻垣惠美子表示，她虽然没有去过中国，但很期待与中国读者交流。

另一方面，通过日语著书、译文策划等工作，毛丹青与日本文坛的一些知名作家如诺贝尔文学奖得主大江健三郎、芥川龙之介奖得主又吉直树都建立了良好的关系，并致力于成为他们与中国文化交流的桥梁与纽带，从而在更广的范围内推动中日之间的文化交流和相互理解。

2017年，日本漫才（类似于中国相声的诙谐表演）艺人、作家又吉直树携小说处女作《火花》第一次来到中国并在上海举办演讲会，日本NHK电视台全程进行了拍摄，这本书的中文版译者就是毛丹青。那次和又吉直树一起的上海之行令他印象深刻，至今他还记得又吉直树回到日本后说的那句话，“人与人之间应该多看共通的地方，共通之处是希望的光芒”。

Mao Danqing： Writing Books in Japanese and

Teaching Students Chinese

By  Wu Yang   Yang Guanqionbg

Between Ginza， the most prosperous district of Tokyo， and Tsukiji， the location of the biggest fish market in the world， there is a block called "East Ginza"， which is the starting point for Mao Danqing’s life in Japan and also the source of inspiration for him later to write in Japanese. There， he immerses himself in the daily life of ordinary Japanese and deal with all kinds of people， which has made him feel deeply the shock and surprise brought by the cultural differences.

At the very beginning of our dialogue， Mao Danqing mentioned that his writing career was not typical as other writers’. He divided his 30 years of experience in Japan into three stages. For the first 10 years， he dropped out of school and went into business. In the next 10 years， he abandoned his business and turned to literature; during this period of time， he traveled throughout 47 prefectures in Japan and finished his first book in Japanese， which won 28th Bleu Mer Literary Prize in Japan and had appeared for many times in Japan’s college entrance examinations. Then， for the third 10 years， he became a college professor， teaching Chinese in Japan. It is these special experiences that have formed his own way of thinking.

Among the Japanese students Mao Danqing taught， some became well-known Sinologists and some held important positions in the Japanese Foreign Ministry， invariably having close ties with China. Even all those years later， what they remembered was not a word or a pronunciation in the class but the inspiration that had come from Mao to learn Chinese and the ability to love the language.

With profound changes that have been ongoing in international relations， attention on China has been growing by the day from the rest of world. There are various ways to know China， one of which of course is through learning Chinese. As Mao Danqing once told his students： “By learning a language， you can understand the country and its culture， which can help enrich your own wisdom at the same time.” For him， “Understanding others should always be more important than expressing ourselves.”

Sometimes Mao shares Chinese compositions written by Japanese students on his Wechat account. In Mao’s writing classes， instead of asking his students to focus on subjects only about China， he prefers asking them to write about various topics， such as the best scenery they have ever seen. One of the most frequently given advice by Mao to his students is “when you go to China， I hope you can still feel the local scenery in the same way as when you see a piece of beautiful scenery anywhere else."

Indeed， his stay in Japan for over three decades is the best proof， as it has shown a feasible way to learn a foreign language： Language education is more on understanding the culture and touch the feelings of the people， not simply the logic and mechanics of language itself.

Each language has its own system， its unique expression habits and way of thinking. Learning language is the most effective way to understand the habits and the thinking of another culture， which usually takes a long time.

Mao Danqing has noticed an interesting point in the compositions that the Japanese students have written. Although finished in Chinese， the underlying thinking is still in Japanese. Looking back on the excitement， the doubt， the feeling of loss and the sudden enlightenment he has experienced in the process of studying Japanese， Mao compares learning a second language to a boxing match， an attrition game no less. Generally， in the second year， one will feel very excited that new words， expressions and sentences enter into one’s mind so quickly and easily. However， in the third year， the progress often stagnates suddenly. What’s worse is that as one becomes more and more immersed into the foreign language， he or she will see that their ability to speak mother tongue would be weakened. To Mao， this is when the two languages start to be engaged in a seesaw battle.

To smoothly get past this stage， Mao’s suggestion is “to put the foreign language aside temporarily and strengthen the mother tongue. Taking Chinese as an example， learners should strengthen familiarity with poetry， increase the amount of reading and practice with exercises to find the root， so to speak， of the language. After all of these efforts， they can turn back to the foreign language study again， and then they could use it freely.” To Mao， after going through this process， one will find that different languages could actually blended into each other.

Both a “young” and an “old” phrase， shouhui or “freehand sketching" exists both in Chinese and Japanese. Using this common expression in two cultures could help enhance mutual understanding in cross-cultural exchanges. Popular with his students， freehand sketching can be commonly seen in Mao Danqing’s teaching materials and works. As time goes on， his students also begin to use freehand sketching on the class feedback cards to express their feelings.

Nowadays， with COVID-19 still going on， international cultural exchanges declined as a result， and it is no exception when it comes to China and Japan. Mao believed that more efforts should be made on "text-based communication" to promote cultural exchange.

For instance， apart from his teaching the Chinese language and writing books， he has translated a series of nonfiction books on Japanese women in the workplace for the Shanghai Translation Publishing House and established good relations with some well-known Japanese writers， such as Kensaburo Oe， winner of the Nobel Literature Prize， and Naoki Matayoshi， winner of the Akutagawa Ryunosuke Award. What Mao seeks to achieve is to become a bridge between the two cultures and foster mutual understanding.

As Naoki Matayoshi said after his visit in China in 2017： “We should focus on what we have in common， where there is a light of hope.”