Why Chinglish is Wonderful
2014-04-07
There is something that often annoys me with teaching English. And that is the demand for perfection from some teachers I have come across. One of the things I always let my students do is talk... talk talk talk talk talk... and nothing frustrates me more when some other teacher butts into the conversation, for no other purpose than to stop them mid flow to correct the verb tense, or for someone using an adjective instead of an adverb. It really drives me crazy.
English is such a mongrel language mixed with, and stealing from all other languages of the world. And it is still evolving now. I studied theatre and English literature and had our language not moved on from Shakespeare I cant imagine it being as powerful and popular a language as it is now.
I enjoy listening to the students tell me their stories. Yes, I even enjoy listening to their chinglish. Because language is a tool, that's all it is. A tool of communication. Not a sacred text to be left untouched and admired from afar and copied over and over again.
I completely understand that my job in its very nature is to help students perfect this language. But how is this to be done? I am from London England. So should I tell the students perhaps, American, Australian, South African, Canadian, Irish or Scottish variants of English are wrong?
I doubt it...
English is to be adapted, toyed with, played with. That's what makes it so very wonderful.
I'm not saying Chinglish should be the end of study, but its a great first step. The easier you find it to communicate in any language the easier you are going to adapt to its natural flexibility.
I found a short video about English I hope you can spare some time to watch. It is from one of the great word smiths himself, Mr Stephen Fry
I focus on standardized examination preparation since 1989, having started with university mathematics, thus do increasingly emphasize correctness with my students although aim to do so with utmost support for their progress, preferably done in their own ways. However, I really am meant to be business consulting for optimization of some business processes, and designing correct technology, thus have been teaching since 1989 to distribute enough vocabulary so my students' friends in business see what my skills are and what I can contribute to enterprises in a consulting role, IE teaching the CEO, senior managers and planners.
At preschool and all informal levels, I agree with the feelings you express, since the initial goal is communication so, of course, enunciation may vary. At home, my flatmates and I are practicing our lessons from Introductory Business Chinese and English daily, and sometimes burst into giggles while attempting to pronounce new sounds. The changing expectations respond to social situations since a standardized examination is a different social situation from an informal chat, and both are different again from a presentation to a board or a government entity.
Hahaha great blog, being Scottish I have had my English corrected by the Chinese before mid conversation, I have been accused of being russian and I always end up explaining that English, like Chinese, is a varied language.
And you are right, more important is that students get talking, not that they are 100% correct. Perfection comes later, stringing together sentences comes first. As long as the other person understands you are on the right track
yeah,i agree with you.In my school,my oral english teacher does urge us students to speak in class.But it doesn't work actually.And my college is not the one established specially for learning language.There is no "english-only environment",even when some people set up english corner,stiill,it makes no differences.
1.Language is a tool of communication. Importantly, you's concept can be understand accoding to your words.
2.Chinglish is very popular in this times.But i very like to study formal English.
3.In chinese, many words no way to identify verbs,nouns or adjectives,so speak chinese very easy.
No one would not like to own a fluent standard language when learning it. So the criteria is there, the unspoken rule is in learner's mind and the communicator's heart.
Just like the body language which is difficult for ordinary people to depict, but folks can distinguish it is beautiful or ugly, kind or unfriendly. Communication is the first priority, like pupil, they can make a difference in the long run even they are so naive in the beginning process of native language learning, parents know the potentiality.
No one would not like to own a fluent standard language when learning it. So the criteria is there, the unspoken rule is in learner's mind and the communicator's heart.
Just like the body language which iis difficult for ordinary people to depict, but folks can distinguish it is beautiful or ugly, kind or unfriendly. Communication is the first priority, like pupil, they can make a difference in the long run even they are so naive in the beginning process of native language learning, parents know the potencial.
definately agree with you,tomif you creat a chatting room for us to improve english,it will be a popular one,i think
I am always jerky when people toy with English... you hear the pidgin of Papua New Guinea and Seira Leone... it makes one sad....why not just go with the standard? SAme goes for the English of Africans in the US...its hard to swallow...
Absolutely right! I wish my high-school French teachers had encouraged "imperfect communication". We were all so scared of making mistakes that we were too anxious to really use French!
you are absolutely right. A language is just a tool. English/ any language can be really enjoyable if one is not too picky and strict. The ideas and thoughts of a person are the most important and should be the focus. There is a time and place for being very particular about language, but not when starting to learn it or in common use.
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