Should English be cancelled at GaoKao?

1105852048

Chinese children spend way too much time indoors... studying. To learn and know another language besides one's own language is a good skill to have in today's ever expanding globalization. Chinese children learn Englsih for a very long time - albeit it is not taught very well - and an English language test should be in the gaokao. However, it should not weigh so heavily in the student's evaluation or test results.

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GhostBuster Post time: 2017-3-9 18:25
Generally in China, majority of Chinese do not need to speak English because it is not common for  ...

Japanese, S. Korean and Taiwanese students don't learn English and yet they all became the most technologically advanced economies in the world. The most technologically-advanced EU nations such as Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and almost all the EU member-states are non-English speaking countries. Meanwhile, Spanish-speaking Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the USA. So learning English is simply unnecessary unless one has to deal with foreigners on a daily basis in tourism, trade, diplomacy, etc. Instead, China should train highly-proficient English AND other foreign language speakers in those industries while translating all other technical literature into Chinese. In the 21st Century, China will be the leading nation in Science and Technology in the world and foreigners will need to learn Chinese to keep up with China, not the other way around.

TmallExpert

Who would vote for such a thing!?

Caged

As a French Canadian who has lived in different parts of Canada and China and visited others, I can attest to a universal myth. While everyone studies English, few learn it well beyond the ability to negotiate a price at a local tourist shop in broken English, and that's if they reach even that low level of proficiency.

In Canada (one of the world's most English-speaking countries, the vast majority if the population if Québec and around a quarter of Canada's total population could not maintain even a basic conversation in English and statistically almost half if Canadians between the ages of 16 and 65 is functionally literate in neither English nor French (Canada's two official languages). French Canadians popularly believe that they are the only ones in the world who fail to learn English well en masse. A Frech-Canadian friend if mine who does know English reasonably well even if it is somewhat broken at times was surprised to discover how few Chinese know English. He always believed Québec was the exception in the world.

Ironically, I found that a similar myth prevailed in China, that the Chinese were the only ones in the world who don't know English. I've net Chinese in Quebec who were shocked at the inability of the locals to communicate in English outside if the southern part of the province.

By focusing exclusively on English, China deprived itself if the much larger non-English markets worldwide.

I think Hungary could serve as a model for China. Schools there could choose from among 20 different languages to teach including Esperanto. A strategic plan might be as follows:

1. English for those who have the aptitude to learn a difficult language.

2. A sign language for those who might want to work in social services or the medical field or underwater diving and other such professions.

3. The local indigenous language as a heritage language and to trade with neighbouring states that probably don't speak English any better than the Chinese do but whose language the locals might have more opportunities to learn. To visit Seoul from Qingdao to practice your Korean or Vladivostok from Harbin to practice your Russian during your summer break is probably more affordable than heading to the UK to learn English. The poor just cannot compete with the rich on that front. Qualified local indigenous teachers or qualified teachers from neighbouring countries would be more affordable too than teachers from the other end if the world. I myself conversed with Koreans in China in Chinese because we both usually spoke Chinese than they did English. I've conversed with Russians and Mongolians in China in Chinese too for the same reason.

4. Esperanto for severe dyslexics, those who lack the aptitude to learn a more difficult language well, and any other student who shows interest in it.

In practical terms, this would make more sense than English for everyone when the rest of the world doesn't know English any better than the Chinese do (unless you believe the Chinese brain is somehow inferior?).