Sense
During my interview with Haitong, there were multiple instances where one topic would later be brought back because of a connection with another topic. This reminded me of the concept of rhizomes and how ideas are conceived as multiplicities. For instance, when I asked Haitong about her name, she brought up how her dad named her using the Chinese symbols for “sea” and “sunshine.” Later on in the interview, we revisited a fearful memory regarding her dad and a brighter/happier memory she had about the birth of her little brother.
Nonsense
Even though I understood perfectly when Haitong spoke in Mandarin, I would not have been able to articulate my questions in Mandarin compared to Haitong. The language barrier proved to be a struggle we faced as fluent and nonfluent speakers of both languages. For instance, when Haitong had to answer the questions in English, it was harder for her to translate what she thought in Chinese. As a result, her responses were shorter compared to her responses in Mandarin. When I translated her responses from Mandarin to English, I had difficulty some of the Chinese vocabulary she used.
