While traveling with my husband in Asia, I used a program designed for journalists covering the Olympic Games in
beijing called “Say it Right in
chinese,” which came with a book and a CD. The program made
chinese sound so simple to learn, promising that if you knew
english phonetics, you would be able to speak
chinese. The course actually was quite helpful as an overview, but it was daunting to learn the correct pronunciation of the most basic Mandarin greetings. I wondered how a
chinese speaker would go about learning
english! As I continued to travel with my husband, he sought out qualified
chinese employees for his US-based company and I heard many candidates explain that they simply memorized how our
english words sounded.
I have decided to write this essay on common problems encountered by
chinese people learning
english. There are many significant differences between spoken
chinese and spoken
english. Thus, I felt that if I were able to understand the difficulties that
chinese people encounter when they try to learn
english, I would more effectively be able to teach
chinese students.
There are many dialects of the
chinese language including Wu, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and Mandarin. Mandarin is considered the mother tongue of
china and about 70% of
chinese speakers accept Mandarin as the standard written language of all
chinese. It must be kept in mind that
chinese does not have an alphabet, but instead uses a logographic system of symbols for its written language. These symbols represent words rather than pieces of words. This fundamental difference may make it very difficult for
chinese students to read
english text and spell
english words correctly. Indefinite nouns such as “a” and “an” are not used in
chinese and are very confusing for
chinese students to use correctly.
chinese is also considered a tonal language, whereas in
english tones do not give entirely different meanings to words.
chinese does not use certain sounds that are very common in
english speed, such as “L” and “R.” To the
chinese ear, “rake” may easily become “lake” and “low” may sound like “row.” There are many common tongue twisters that can assist with learning these sounds. Practicing saying “lalalalalalala” without moving anything but the tongue may also help
chinese students become accustomed to creating and hearing the unfamiliar sound.
The
chinese language does not distinguish between singular and plural verb forms, posing another hurdle in speaker proper
english. In
chinese the plural is indicated by the use of numbers. Translating literally, a
chinese person might say “I have one child,” “I have two child,” or “I have many child.” The word “No” also does not exist in
chinese. One would instead say “I drink not” instead of “I do not drink”. Learning to use the direct form of the word “No” can be quite confusing to
chinese students.
chinese does not use prefixes and suffixes to indicate tense, making it difficult for students to differentiate between words such as “hesitated” and “hesitating.” Phrasal verbs do not exist in
chinese, so
chinese students may experience serious difficulty understanding and using such common phrasal verbs as “made up” and “ran into.”
As I continue to travel extensively in Asia, I remain determined to complete this
tesol course so as to better instruct those who are eager to learn
english. I am glad to know about these differences and difficulties so that I may be a more effective and understanding
teacher. I am also grateful that I am now equipped with wonderful tools that will assist me in teaching those in
china who want to learn to speak
english more fluently.
Sources used for this article:
http://www.ehow.com/about_5432609_problems-
chinese-people-learning-
english.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_5432609_problems-
chinese-people-learning-
english.html#ixzz1yAWRdYhP
http://
esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/index.htm
http://
esl.fis.edu/info/infofiles/master.htm
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