Auntie Wang's grandson no longer understands a word of his grandmother's speech. She wonders whether to go on using it with him.
Auntie Wang
我孙子现在一句家乡话都不会说了。
Wǒ sūnzi xiànzài yī jù jiāxiānghuà dōu bù huì shuō le.
My grandson can no longer say a single sentence in our home speech.
Xiaoyu
在学校讲普通话，回家爸妈也讲普通话。
Zài xuéxiào jiǎng pǔtōnghuà, huí jiā bàmā yě jiǎng pǔtōnghuà.
At school they speak Mandarin, and at home his parents speak Mandarin too.
Auntie Wang
我跟他说方言，他瞪着眼看我，像在听外语。
Wǒ gēn tā shuō fāngyán, tā dèng zhe yǎn kàn wǒ, xiàng zài tīng wàiyǔ.
When I speak dialect to him he stares at me wide-eyed, as though he were hearing a foreign language.
Chen Hao
我也差不多。听是能听懂，就是张不开嘴。一开口就串成普通话了。
Wǒ yě chàbuduō. Tīng shì néng tīng dǒng, jiùshì Zhāng bù kāi zuǐ. Yī kāikǒu jiù chuàn chéng pǔtōnghuà le.
It is much the same with me. I can follow when it is spoken, I just cannot open my mouth. The moment I start, it slips into Mandarin.
Zhang laoshi
这是两代人的事。你们这一代还听得懂，下一代连听都不会了。
Zhè shì liǎng dài rén de shì. Nǐmen zhè yī dài hái tīng de dǒng, xià yī dài lián tīng dōu bù huì le.
It plays out over two generations. Yours can still understand; the next will not even be able to follow.
Xiaoyu
可是普通话总得会吧？不然出了省怎么办。
Kěshì pǔtōnghuà zǒng de huì ba ? Bùrán chū le shěng zěnme bàn.
But you have to know Mandarin, surely? Otherwise how do you manage outside your province?
Zhang laoshi
当然要会。问题不是学普通话，是把另一种丢了。
Dāngrán yào huì. Wèntí bùshì xué pǔtōnghuà, shì bǎ lìng yī zhǒng diū le.
Of course you must know it. The question is not learning Mandarin, it is losing the other language along the way.
Chen Hao
现在不是有人在网上教方言吗？还有配字幕的。
Xiànzài bùshì yǒu rén zài wǎngshàng jiāo fāngyán ma ? Hái yǒu pèi zìmù de.
Are there not people teaching dialects online now? Some of them even put subtitles on.
Auntie Wang
教的是几句俏皮话，笑完就完了。真要会说，得天天用。
Jiāo de shì jǐ jù qiàopihuà, xiào wán jiù wán le. Zhēn yào huì shuō, de tiāntiān yòng.
What they teach is three set jokes; you laugh and that is that. To really speak it, you have to use it every day.
Zhang laoshi
阿姨说到根上了。语言靠的不是课，是饭桌。
Āyí shuō dào gēn shàng le. Yǔyán kào de bùshì kè, shì fànzhuō.
Auntie has got to the root of it. A language is not kept alive by lessons, it is kept alive at the dinner table.
Xiaoyu
那从今天起，您跟孙子说话就别换了。
Nà cóng jīntiān qǐ, nín gēn sūnzi shuōhuà jiù bié huàn le.
Then from today on, do not switch languages when you talk to your grandson.
Auntie Wang
我怕他听不懂，着急。小孩子急起来是会哭的。
Wǒ pà tā tīng bù dǒng, zháojí. Xiǎoháizi jí qilai shì huì kū de.
I am afraid he will not understand and will get upset. A child who gets upset ends up crying.
Chen Hao
小孩子比我们想的厉害。听上半年，自然就懂了。
Xiǎoháizi bǐ wǒmen xiǎng de lìhai. Tīng shàng bàn nián, zìrán jiù dǒng le.
Children are better at it than we think. Six months of hearing it and he will understand on his own.
Zhang laoshi
而且会两种话的孩子，脑子转得快，这是有研究的。
Érqiě huì liǎng zhǒng huà de háizi, nǎozi zhuǎn de kuài, zhè shì yǒu yánjiū de.
And children who speak two languages have quicker minds, there is research on it.
Auntie Wang
那我试试。反正我说了一辈子，总不能到老改口。
Nà wǒ shì shì. Fǎnzhèng wǒ shuō le yī bèizi, zǒng bùnéng dào lǎo gǎikǒu.
Then I will try. I have spoken it all my life, after all; I can hardly change my speech in my old age.
Not to manage to open your mouth. The potential complement describes here a block in front of a language you understand without daring to speak it, which is exactly the state of the second generation of internal migrants. The same form serves for a request you cannot bring yourself to make: 这话我张不开嘴.
下一代连听都不会了: the next generation will not even be able to follow. The construction 连 + item + 都 puts the stress on an extreme case, the one you would not have thought affected. It always assumes an implicit gradation: if they cannot even understand, it goes without saying they cannot speak.
To change what you say: either to correct yourself after speaking, or to take up another language, another name, another price. Auntie Wang plays on both senses, since it is a matter of her language and of her age at once. The word is common in negotiations, where 改口 means going back on a figure already named.
