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Posts: 4935

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Q: Why does everyone seem surprised when I can't understand their bad English? Is it just me?

I'll admit my hearing isn't perfect, but...

 

People frequently try to practice their English with me. Outside some of the bigger cities, it's very rare to run into someone who has intelligible English. In my city, most foreign teachers -- including those in universities -- aren't native speakers.

 

Somehow they can understand me, but I can't understand them, and they always comment on that. I generally don't have this problem with other foreigners unless they're really drunk -- and even then, it's much easier to understand a drunk foreigner -- but Chinese? Here's how our conversation goes:

 

Girl: Harr many (sounds like "Harmony") knotlick do you know a school was 'nam is (sounds like 'namsys, as in vietnam sys, but without the "viet") Xidian?

Me: Huh?
Girl: *repeats*

Me: I'm sorry, I don't understand...

Girl: *looks puzzled* I can understanding you, but you no understanding me...

Me: Write it down, my hearing sucks.

 

So she writes it down, and apparently knowledge = knotlick, xidian = West Point (she used the Chinese name for it). "How many knowledge do you know a school whose name is Xidian?" Besides, what a really weird way to ask if I knew anything about that school.

 

It's not an isolated incident. Another guy was asking me what I think about the "ausks rewards," and I had no idea what he was talking about. He seems puzzled that I can't understand his English, but that he has no problem understanding mine, so he writes it down, "ausks rewards."

 

The rest of his written English is almost completely unintelligible with malformed grammar, the wrong words, and horrific spelling, so I have to read it for a few minutes, and then finally have my wife translate for us. Oh, he means the oscars.

 

As of recently, I've been able to understand a moderate amount of spoken Chinese, but very few people understand me when I speak it, so it seems to be a bit of a mutual problem.

 

I know that Happy mentioned that most Chinese people don't fully pronounce words, and that's true... a lot of people do that here. Is the English education system really that bad in China, or is it just me? Does anyone else run into this trouble at all?

11 years 1 week ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
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Posts: 5539

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chinese are taught they are superior to foreigners in every way. that includes teaching english and speaking english (after they think they have learned english)

 

some would go as far as to try to correct your pronunciation or defend their mistakes. 

LAR:

Spot on crimo! Yes, the English education system is that bad. I constantly see questions,etc. on this website with so many errors that it's obvious that a Chinese typed the letters. :( I agree with your comments about the Chinese and I would add the Koreans as well that make their arrogant comments. I have also experienced this;particularly with South Koreans. :( Just ANAL,PATHETIC,INSULTING and ANNOYING. I've never heard a Westerner berating an Asian for the way that said person spoke their native tongue.

11 years 1 week ago
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GuilinRaf:

Lol!

So true!

I had a friend "Ged" in Guilin from the UK. He was exasperated because when he corrected one of his students' pronunciation, they kid would argue saying that is was correct pronunciation and that (Ged) was simply not familiar with "American pronounce".

Thing is, the same kid would do the same thing to me, except tell me in a "tut tut" sort of attitude that I was "not familiar with the proper British pronounce".

11 years 1 week ago
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crimochina:

I once tutored a student at a private training company. she was 3 months in to a 10 month plan to prepare her for taking the toefl. her level was beginner. they asked me to  work with her on her speaking. so i sat down and had a conversation with her for 2 hours. her chinese english teacher insisted on sitting in. i would ask her questions, then correct her mistakes. i would teach her how to think up questions to ask herself when she could not think of anything to say. 

half way through he left to complain to the boss. his way of teaching speaking, having her recite passages. they are stuck in the belief that english must be taught one way and one way only. they do not understand that english can be developed through practical application (using it to communicate, which is it's intended purpose). 

11 years 1 week ago
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11 years 1 week ago
 
Posts: 796

Shifu

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I offer free Chinglish lessons.You should talk to me,after sometime all of these will be a piece of cake for you.

Hulk:

Well, once you've finished marrying my sister, I might take you up on that offer.

11 years 1 week ago
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11 years 1 week ago
 
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I had a conversation with a guy who came up to us, smiling, started talking. after he had said a couple of things to me, and I had said "ting bu dong" a couple of times, he switched to proper mandarin and talked to my wife. It turned out he was an English teacher. I understood zero words he said. Usually I do not have a problem with accents and dialects of the English language, except for a cab driver in Birmingham 5 years ago who spoke complete nonsense. 

Often I find it hard to tell people are actually speaking English, or trying to. 

 

Hulk:

This is exactly what I've experienced here... But I've met some (2) really good English speakers here.

11 years 1 week ago
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DaveP84:

Try the taxi drivers in Newcastle. I would have a better chance of understanding the dribblings of a drunk five year old better than those guys.

11 years 1 week ago
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11 years 1 week ago
 
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There were 2 independent studies done recently (last year??) by 2 rather well known language companies (which I've currently forgotten Tongue), and according to both, Chinese students of English are the worst in the world given the amount of time they've been given to 'study' it. After 12 years of schooling, their English should be much better than it actually is.

 

Granted, I do understand the problem... and the main problem is lack of teachers who have actually been to an English-speaking country. Take my ex- for example. She has been teaching English at a school... after doing a degree in finance! Now, while her and I can talk ok, her grammar and vocab (and spelling) is terrible!!! (it was probably all my fault... I encouraged her to become a teacher... but I meant a Chinese language teacher overseas... not English here!) Likewise, I had occasion to chat a post-grad English student for English Education (at Nanchang Normal University), and her basic grammar sucked!! (by 'basic', I mean correct use of 'he', 'she', and 'be'!!)

GuilinRaf:

That is only part of the problem.

The resistance I have encountered here is really frustrating: sub standard books is one problem. The fact that the native speaker of English is rarely listened to  is also bad. I was recently reprimanded for not playing a cd in class. What I was doint was having the students repeat the words after I read them and then I wouild one by one correct their pronunciation. The director got annoyed and told me that was unacceptable. That what I had to do was play the CD and NOT correct the pronunciation since that would DISCOURAGE the students.

Also, that I should not have them make their own dialogues for homework but have them memorize the ones in the book (dialogues which are completely unrealistic unless you are living in Victorian Era England!). 

We had a teaching candidate who actually had a Masters degree in education from Birmingham university in England. His thesis was in strategies for teaching adult students English as a second language.  Why do I say candidate? because when they saw his black skin, (he was originally from Kenya) they refused to hire him. Instead, they hired this 23 year old Latvian kid who was more interested in drinking with his students and getting girlfriends than in actrually teaching. Why? We all know why.

11 years 1 week ago
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Hulk:

Raf... that makes me feel really sick. The black guy should've been the one hired.

11 years 1 week ago
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GuilinRaf:

I agree. The guy from Kenya had MUCH better preparation them I did for teaching English as a second language.

Edit: The kid from Latvia was really nice, but he was a kid, with no idea how to be a teacher of ANY kind.....

11 years 1 week ago
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LAR:

'"After....................actually is." Yeah, I've read the same about the Japanese.

11 years 4 days ago
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11 years 1 week ago
 
Posts: 263

Governor

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My students are not that bad. But I met some older local teachers here who are not willing to listen. Since English is not my native language I often ask questions.  I work with the teachers form the US & Canada, so I always ask. 

  On the other hand, you don't have to be a native speaker to identify mistakes in grammar.

 

 

Hulk:

Considering your written English is much better than most native speakers in my country, I think you're doing just fine. Furthermore, at least you're willing to learn and keep and open-mind.

11 years 1 week ago
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ElenaDob:

Thanks. I'm flattered.

11 years 1 week ago
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GuilinRaf:

Honestly speaking, those whose English is  not native but second or third language oftentimes have a better understanding of grammar than native speakers. There was this teacher from the Ukraine who explained to me when to use "lie" and when to use "lay".

11 years 1 week ago
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11 years 1 week ago
 
Posts: 520

Shifu

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When I was in high school , I was once in the teacher's office and heard them joking that China's English teachers teach a language that English speakers fail to understand.

 

It may also has something to do with the local dialect and accent. People from each province have an accent when speaking Mandarin more or less, let along English. Along with the poor grammar and vocabulary it's not hard to imagine you can't understand them. I have never been to Hunan but considering Mao was from Hunan and his accent was heavy.

 

English education system here is as horrible as it can be.

GuilinRaf:

Well, one of the main problems that I encounter is that Chinese people often times leave out the last syllable. For example, when I taught a friend of mine years ago that "early to bed early to rise, makes one healthy wealthy and wise" he still quotes it as "early to bed early to rise makes a man health, wealth and wise..."

11 years 1 week ago
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Hulk:

Yeah, that too! I like being told I'm hamsin. A pork sinner? I'm too embarrassed to ask if they mean "handsome," so I just go "What?"

11 years 1 week ago
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Scandinavian:

"hamsin" means "50" in Arabic. They probably think you are so cool you need a nickname to suit you. 

11 years 1 week ago
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11 years 1 week ago
 
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Oh, you should have read "Crazy English"! you green skinned teacher you.....

Hulk:

Was that bad? I think I saw some of those books at the store, but they looked too ridiculous.

11 years 1 week ago
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GuilinRaf:

They are.

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You know what I think it is. It's the pronunciation that they see on the side of the word like in a dictionary. I got some cards that had English to Chinese translation or rather Chinese to English whichever way you wanted to look at it, and they had the pronunciation on the side. How to read it or say it and I believe that's why they are writing things like 'ausks rewards'. Tell them to ignore those pronunciation because I couldn't even understand them. I'm not sure who made those up, but I guess it really is affecting the way people speak english. 

Jnusb416:

That would be IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and it's actually very useful. It's in every standard English dictionary as well.

11 years 1 week ago
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Shining_brow:

I'm not so sure, Jnus.

 

It could be one of those "this English sounds like this word in Chinese, so make it sound like that". One reverse example was... guy points to wall and says "what's this?" - "a wall", points to his eye "what's this?" - "an eye", points to his knee "What's this?" "a knee".... "wall eye knee" = 'wo ai ni" 我爱你... yeah, I bet that works every time!!!

 

I've actually found that most students' phonetics are better than my own... but they've usually had it for longer. However, they still mix up a phontic [i] with an English /i/

11 years 1 week ago
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11 years 1 week ago

There are cookies, bookies and too many rookies for me to sit here trying to be a hooky! Looky Looky don't call me a wooky. Touchy Touchy Feely Feely Spicy Spicy Nicey Nicey & that's what the doctor Ordered!!

 
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Yes, they're taught Chinglish here. They have no method of listening other than TV, movies, music...a bad example to use for learning a language properly.

 

It doesn't help that virtually all of their teachers and professors are non-native speakers. And when you have teachers and professors learning improperly and taking shortcuts in learning, this bad trait is passed on to all of their students...it is a snowball effect. it is indeed an epidemic here.

 

I suppose the best example would be if I went back to the U.S. and opened a school for teaching Chinese. Since I don't have the native tongue, I wouldn't be very good at it. I wouldn't succeed at being a Chinese teacher back home. But, in China, it's all about saving a few bucks, not about quality; and therefore, you get what you pay for. many schools here hire Russians, French, Germans, Malaysians, etc to teach English because they simply want to save money, not provide a quality education for their students. This is indeed a major flaw and a terrible way to approach education. Charlatans, one and all...

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11 years 4 days ago
 
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Have you ever tried talking in English to a Scottish, Irish or Russian person? Even people from Newcastle or Australia have unintelligible English, probably worst than Chinese. And those are native speakers

Scandinavian:

Agreed there are people who are pretty much impossible to understand when they are in their local dialect. But a lot of these people are capable of understanding "The Queens English"

11 years 4 days ago
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LAR:

Hi Justin,

             Oh yeah, trying to understand Aussies is rough. :( I speak from experience.

11 years 3 days ago
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11 years 4 days ago
 
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