Hover a line for its pinyin and translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 0 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
Sign in to generate dialogues. It needs a pass — the first ten lessons of every course are free either way.
Interviewing the old
Oral historians and documentary makers who work with elderly people tend to share some practical advice. Don't open with the big question; start with something concrete and physical — a room, a smell, a meal — because memory works through details. Let silences run. Ask what happened, not what it meant. Come back more than once, because the second and third interviews are usually better than the first. The camera itself changes people. Many interviewers cover the red light, set the camera aside and talk off-camera first, so the interview feels like a conversation. Even so, people tell different stories to different listeners, and a film has to live with that. 顾阿婆's first answers are about the room she lives in. That is not a detour; it is how most oral histories begin.