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Q: Why do Chinese seem so obsessed with American English?
Some Chinese friends have been asking me to help them or their kids with some basic conversational English. Most of them don't mind English is not my mother language but their biggest concern seems to be around the question 'Do you speak American or British English?' They get disappointed when I tell them in my country what we learn in school is 'British' English. Nobody has ever explicitly voiced out their disappointment over that but I can tell from their facial expressions they aren't happy at all & given a chance they would withdraw their request that I help them. An explanation that the so called differences between the two 'Englishes' are not that important for a beginner achieves nothing.Some even ask for a list of differences between British & American English, at which point I am tempted to tell them to look for an American to teach them. Anyone who has experienced this kind of thing before? Just what do you do to help such people trust 'non- American' English?
11 years 48 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Simple British English or Old English as we like to call it...or American English which is new English. So if your not from either country then it would probably be hard for you to know the differences between the two.
crimochina:
you really don't know shit. brits don't currently speak old english dumbass. the more you run your mouth the more you bring shame to the wu mao program. when i get back and show everyone the legions of imposters and chinese who are too ashamed to call themselves chinese on the internet, they will forever look down on china. which is sad, this country is better than that but pathetic tools are bringing this country down in every way. paying chinese people to pose as americans on internet forums. pathetic pathetic pathetic pathetic. but funny for me
I don't think everyone wants American English. l'm Canadian, neutral accent. I had a Chinese professional interpreter tell me that I don't speak proper English because I'm not British. She also couldn't understand me because I talk too fast. I imitate a gay English accent and talk slow to her, but she doesn't get that I'm making fun of it.
GuilinRaf:
I had one of those the other day, REALLY pedantic. I just ignored her the rest of the evening whenever she asked me a question or made a comment, which really pissed her off. I just stopped acknowledging her existence.
TedDBayer:
aah, yes the chinese way of answering questions,, i get that done to me
Bona:
I also think if Chinese teachers of English exposed their students to other versions of the language through listening activities learners would grow up appreciating the fact that what they hear from their teacher is not the ONLY 'proper English'...I'm assuming the Chinese teachers speak proper English.
TedDBayer:
you assume too much, my interpreter friend and any Chinese En-lish teacher l've met don't speak good , speak with you-a know-a what-a l mean-a, how can you not pass that on?
bill8899:
"I imitate a gay English accent and talk slow to her, but she doesn't get that I'm making fun of it."
Damn that's funny!
TedDBayer:
I do east Indian really well with improper english, everyone around was laughing, but she could not undersatnd a word i said.
MissA:
Never make that assumption, Bona! My co teachers have been known to purposely mis-teach the language when they decide it's too difficult. I blew a gasket a few months ago when I heard one of them teaching "Apples green" instead of "apples are green".
Actually, I have found quite a few who are not interested in American English, and would rather learn British especially in the Sichuan area.
emilychen:
i do agree!
it is very hard for me to understand and speak American English. i always prefer British English! also love BBC !!!
Our company has a few clients who actually request British English. But English learners and training schools without a doubt prefer American English. Just look at any job post, first on the list is always USA, then maybe Canada and UK. Oz is down at the bottom which must piss ozzies of a a bit 
MissA:
I've never found that, at all. In fact, in company I work for, Americans have such a bad reputation that Chinese staff visibly wince when the suggestion of a new American teacher is made. That has to do with attitude, not pronunciation, though, it must be said; and they've had REALLY bad luck with the Americans they've hired. One surprise: my manager has spent the last six months thinking I'm American and was most suprised when, after saying "you're American and you're okay" last week, she realised where I'm actually from!
As an American, I too have had the experience where Chinese people were more interested or impressed with British English versus American English. I propose this may be a phenomenon where they will more impressed by whichever version of English you do NOT represent. Sort of like when they will comment that a dish is too salty or too sweet or too ****, same thing here....your version of English is not the best one.
Bona:
Then this must indeed be a rather complicated phenomenon. So it could just be based on attempts to make a person look 'incompetent'....somehow silly!
My experience locally has been also that many seek British English, and downplay any other nationalities of native English speakers. And their rant is mostly against American slang and rate of speed of speech.
I always reply that depending on why you want to learn English would be the deciding factor for selecting a teacher. You want to study ( or do business) in England, then hire a British teacher, if is USA get an American, or if it is Canada get a Canadian. But so far no luck with anyone following my advise
English English is English, any other English is not English!! In fact the Welsh speak the best English.
TedDBayer:
anyone l know thats British looks down on the Welsh, l'm not big on Brits because of some of their attitudes.
I meet very few who prefer British English, but I don't know the reason for their preference.
GuilinRaf:
I guess it would be like German. One of my friends in college was majoring in German, and she would tell everyone within earshot that she only wanted to learn "high" German and not "Bavarian".
I dont know if those are real terns or accents or not, but that is what she would always say.
I have been told that the American accent is easier to understand than the British.
Ok, I'm Chinese, personally I think American English sounds nice.
British English sounds elegant.
Well, a standard accent in both British and American accent is easily understood. But, having worked with a couple of fresh off the boaters from England, I can understand why. Some of them walk in with this extreme London accent that they would consider posh and elegant, but in fact, not only could the Chinese co-workers not understand their English, neither could my British friends, my British co-workers would literally stand up and say, really, we don't speak with such a deep accent, what they hell did you just say.
bto:
If there is anything like a London accent it would be Cockney, and that's the opposite of posh.
mattsm84:
At my school we've had similar problems with teachers from Northern England.
Well first I would say that there is no single American accent in the same way that there isn't a single British accent. I'd say that the difference is that the standard British accent received pronunciation, is still in existence, while the standard American accent, the trans-atlantic accent--how FDR or William F. Buckley talked--has been dead for about 50 years. That said I've met very few British teachers that spoke with received pronunciation. I can believe that a Chinese person might prefer an "American" accent because of the way that the specific teachers in a particular school might speak but honestly I haven't really seen a preference for one over the other.
The exception here is for the instruction of grammar. Where if the books they seem to use most often in school, Oxford all through public school and probably a class or two with New Concepts in private lessons, would seem to indicate that they as a group prefer British spellings and grammar rules.
981977405:
Actually, the Trans-Atlantic American upper class accent is not quite dead although it is not as prevalent as before.
One can definitely find it in certain families in the right parts of Long Island, or in the right parts of Westchester County, or in many places on the Upper East Side of the City. Jackie Kennedy spoke with a beautiful Trans-Atlantic accent, as does her daughter Caroline. The late Mrs. Astor managed to developed one after she married into the family. Take any of the New York Vanderbildts for example and you will hear it as well as with the remaining scions of the former 500 families.
I am chinese, and as a chinese, i got some points about this topic.
first, because chinese watch american movies and dramas a lot. so chinese are familiar with American English, they would like to learn American english in order to understand what is the movie talks about, like hollywood movie. and for english songs too.
second, there are more American in China. and Chinese talk a lot with American.
third, actually for chinese, they rarely understand what is exactly british or American english, or Austrlia english, Canadian english. they have no idea about that, as i am working in an foreign english training school.
kchur:
1) A lot of Chinese people brag that they speak "perfect American English" but really speak broken British English. Most textbooks in China teach British English, and I would often have Chinese tell me my American English was wrong.
2) Canadian English? Most Canadians speak American English, or something very close. It is only in very isolated areas of Canada that you'll hear some small pronunciation differences. Even then, those Canadians who speak with an accent will often switch to an American accent when speaking to Chinese.
3) English is not like Chinese. Most English dialects are pretty similar. I would always feel embarrassed for Chinese when they pretended they knew about such things when they obviously didn't.
Indeed the Chinese seem to have a fixation with American English but this has evolved over time. I would venture to say that 40 years, it was British English that had the upper hand here but with the opening of China, that all changed. Many Chinese still have a very romanticized vision of America, one that existed perhaps 50 years ago; additionally, all of my Chinese colleagues do tell me that American English is easier for them to understand but that is such a broad statement considering even Americans sometimes wince at Texas English, or Deep South English, or smile at a Boston accent. I would say that standard radio American English is probably what is spoken in California where the accent is relatively neutral.
