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English seen as the path to worldly success, power
By Wan Lixin |
April 16, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WHILE the English boys were exercising in sunshine, our poor children were hunched over their desks, exercising their English.
For people my age, this intensive study of an alien tongue used to last five years.
For today's children, intensive language learning usually lasts 14 years.
English-language proficiency is widely perceived to be one of the most important factors determining if one can enter a prestigious middle school, a good university, and later sought after by a well-paying company.
I am not concerned about English as a foreign language. I am more concerned about its influence on our native tongue.
Without realizing it, whenever he exclaims over something, my 8-year-old son lets out a cry of "Yeah!"
As a matter of fact, he knows how to spell many English words even before he knows how to write them in Chinese characters.
For instance, he spells "monkey" with relative ease, while he has to resort to pinyin to write its Chinese counterpart. And since his kindergarten years, he has forgotten how to pronounce the word in Shanghai dialect.
From graybeards to toddlers, from rustics to white collars, using "bai-bai" as a farewell is becoming the norm.
My wife works at a medium-level hospital serving mainly migrant workers, but recently her superior decided on a whim to have all doctors report their cases in English.
Whether you are a lawyer, doctor, teachers, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, civil servant, musician, or receptionist, generally, in spite of your professional qualifications, you are regularly required to demonstrate your proficiency in that alien tongue, if you hope for promotion.
This is an obsession practiced on a national scale, affecting every individual and costing no one knows how much time, effort and money.
The original assumption was that once we know the English language, we can be let into the secrets of Western dominance in virtually all spheres of modern life.
The reality is that while we are racking our brains in learning their tongue, they have ample time to fortify, and copyright, their dominance.
If you study China's achievements in the cultural, scientific, and technological spheres over the past century, it is not difficult to find that the nation increasingly takes pride in its imitative power, in trying to look like others.
The street right next to my office could well be a section of Fifth Avenue, with its pomposity, and its English-only signs.
Yesterday I cast a cursory look at a local daily broadsheet known for its political correctness, and found several English terms in its original, among them "iPad," "groupon," even the term "culture" in the opinion page.
Language has a profound impact on thought, for many of the concepts are actually culture-specific. According to modern linguists, the thought process is mediated through the language. Thus the control of language is the control of thought.
But more often a foreign language is promoted for what are said to be altruistic purposes, for the spread of advanced culture.
One useful notion is the idea of poverty.
When you do not have enough to eat, that is a sign of poverty.
When you have enough to eat, you are more an object of pity, because you do not have access to a gym.
When you still rely on you feet for mobility, you are perceived as wretched. When you drive a car, you are guilty of not being low-carbon.
English learning is an billion-dollar industry.
At the beginning, English was seen as an inferior language.
For instance, the Saxons spoke of "pigs," "sheep," and "cows" when they were alive and needed tending. When they were served as dishes on the tables of Norman nobles, they used the French words instead.
As a consequence of rising English military prowess, the English language became a superior language, and was diligently promoted in colonies.
In his report for the year 1983 to 1984, chairman of the British Council called the English language even more significant than North Sea oil, for being inexhaustible.
Since World War II, the US government has provided huge financial support to Readers' Digest, Time and Life magazines, in a bid to help Europeans become more receptive of the American way of life.
And its success with developing countries cannot be overstated.
For people my age, this intensive study of an alien tongue used to last five years.
For today's children, intensive language learning usually lasts 14 years.
English-language proficiency is widely perceived to be one of the most important factors determining if one can enter a prestigious middle school, a good university, and later sought after by a well-paying company.
I am not concerned about English as a foreign language. I am more concerned about its influence on our native tongue.
Without realizing it, whenever he exclaims over something, my 8-year-old son lets out a cry of "Yeah!"
As a matter of fact, he knows how to spell many English words even before he knows how to write them in Chinese characters.
For instance, he spells "monkey" with relative ease, while he has to resort to pinyin to write its Chinese counterpart. And since his kindergarten years, he has forgotten how to pronounce the word in Shanghai dialect.
From graybeards to toddlers, from rustics to white collars, using "bai-bai" as a farewell is becoming the norm.
My wife works at a medium-level hospital serving mainly migrant workers, but recently her superior decided on a whim to have all doctors report their cases in English.
Whether you are a lawyer, doctor, teachers, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, civil servant, musician, or receptionist, generally, in spite of your professional qualifications, you are regularly required to demonstrate your proficiency in that alien tongue, if you hope for promotion.
This is an obsession practiced on a national scale, affecting every individual and costing no one knows how much time, effort and money.
The original assumption was that once we know the English language, we can be let into the secrets of Western dominance in virtually all spheres of modern life.
The reality is that while we are racking our brains in learning their tongue, they have ample time to fortify, and copyright, their dominance.
If you study China's achievements in the cultural, scientific, and technological spheres over the past century, it is not difficult to find that the nation increasingly takes pride in its imitative power, in trying to look like others.
The street right next to my office could well be a section of Fifth Avenue, with its pomposity, and its English-only signs.
Yesterday I cast a cursory look at a local daily broadsheet known for its political correctness, and found several English terms in its original, among them "iPad," "groupon," even the term "culture" in the opinion page.
Language has a profound impact on thought, for many of the concepts are actually culture-specific. According to modern linguists, the thought process is mediated through the language. Thus the control of language is the control of thought.
But more often a foreign language is promoted for what are said to be altruistic purposes, for the spread of advanced culture.
One useful notion is the idea of poverty.
When you do not have enough to eat, that is a sign of poverty.
When you have enough to eat, you are more an object of pity, because you do not have access to a gym.
When you still rely on you feet for mobility, you are perceived as wretched. When you drive a car, you are guilty of not being low-carbon.
English learning is an billion-dollar industry.
At the beginning, English was seen as an inferior language.
For instance, the Saxons spoke of "pigs," "sheep," and "cows" when they were alive and needed tending. When they were served as dishes on the tables of Norman nobles, they used the French words instead.
As a consequence of rising English military prowess, the English language became a superior language, and was diligently promoted in colonies.
In his report for the year 1983 to 1984, chairman of the British Council called the English language even more significant than North Sea oil, for being inexhaustible.
Since World War II, the US government has provided huge financial support to Readers' Digest, Time and Life magazines, in a bid to help Europeans become more receptive of the American way of life.
And its success with developing countries cannot be overstated.
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