Thinking in English – from Chinglish to English

(by  Enfu Zang, senior lawyer and founding partner of Liaoning Yipin Law Firm)

Why the majority Chinese students can not speak English well even after years of English learning while an uncultured one who lives in the English speaking country from birth can speak English well? What is wrong during English teaching in China as a second language? How to improve the speaking ability of Chinese student? When is the best age to teach child learning English as a foreign language? Why? These questions may be the concerns for a foreigner who speaking English as mother tongue and teaching English in Chinese school now. The true answers to these quetions may lead to the break through to transform mute Chinglish into perfect English.

Part One: The reasons caused mute Chinglish

The teaching methods that are used currently in Chinese school when teaching English do not conform to the principal of language learning if you reserch the process to master a language as mother tounge.

 1.  distorted language learning order

 It is well known that if a disabled man is deaf, he will be dumb too. A baby accepts all kinds of souds before she/or he can speak. So listening, speaking, reading and writing shall be the basic order in learning a mother tounge. This is why a uneducated one can speak his(or her) mother tounge even he(or she) is not capble of reading or writing it.

In contrast, the majority Chinese schools teaching English as a second language by text book from reading first, the students listen to the pronunciation of the English words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs of an essay, but in a way of reading not naturally speaking in a conversation. So the order of English learning in majority Chinese schools is reading, writing, listening and speaking which distorts the principal order of mastering a languange and deprives the ability to speak English naturally and instinctively.

 2.   exam-oriented English learning but not communication-oriented English learning

On the one hand, the exam-oriented education leads to the focus on reading and writing more than on listening and speaking for Chinese student as there is no exam on listening and speaking in primary schools and junior middle schools.

On the other hand, the enviorment of the Chinese classroom is not a round table talking style, all the students sit facing the teacher, they learn from teacher but not talk to the Engilsh teacher, talking to classmates is not allowed too during the teaching process. The process of English learning is to study it and then examed by the teacher.

 3.  No or not enough native English speaking teacher available

Most Chinese students learn English from their English teachers who speak English as a second language too, especially in the rural areas, there is no or not enough native English speaking teacher available for the students to listen to and to learn from.

 4.  outdated textbook instead of updated popular English learning resources

The text book is comparatively outdated, the widely used additional English book is called New Concept English which was first published in 1965. it provides enough test quetions for student in exam, though there are some revised versions of  New Concept English, it is not able to keep up with the colorful, inspiring, awesome updating current diversities of English learning resources.

As the students do not know the updated English, they can not talk their intersted topics with popular English too.

Part Two: How to transform Chinglish into perfect English?

Let me introduce my English learning experiences first. I started learning English since junior middle school at age of 13 as a second language and test language. I still remember the first English conversition I studied was “ How are you?”( “I am fine.” )“And you?” (“I am fine too.”) I repeated the conversation again and again, then speaked it out as memorized. This is the way English learned at that time.

English is my superior subject in the competitive national exams to apply for the access to China University of Political Science and Law, I started the studying in the international economic law Dept for my good English exam result in 1988.

I passed the six band national English test before graduated from the University. And studied foreign commercial English in University of International Business and Economics such as “English correspondence” and the commercial English (the book called “The man from vancouver”).

I worked in a export and export corporation for six years since 1992 exporting porcelain to Europe, English is my working language to draft the contracts, telexes or faxes, examine the letter of credit and the relative shipping documents.

I turned to be a professional lawyer since 1999 and providing Chinese and English billingual legal services to clients. I keep on reading English websites (such as BBC, CNN) nearly everyday now and watch the original English news, talks, interviews, films, videos as much as possible, Form an English learning student to a salesman in international trade and then to a billigual professional lawyer, from common English to professional English, from anxious and awkward mute Chinglish to fluent oral English and the capability to follow the speaking rhythm of English news, it is a long way passed, and new challenge still exit, I would like to share my experience during the process from Chinglish to English.

Moreover, I recently read the book named “ My Lifelong Challenge—Singapore’s bilingual journey” written by Lee Guan Yew, founding prime minister of Singapore, His experience and comments on the biliingual education of English and Mandrian confirms some of my conclusions drawn from my exeprience and give some answers to my concerns, and I would like to share my reading benefits from the book too.

 1.  Recognize the differerent between mother tounge and second language

We learn mother language by instinct especially the speaking of mother tounge. We think in first language. To learn second language well, we need to follow the rules or regular pattern of first language learning too. But according to Lee Guan Yew’s view, the relationship between first language and second language is zero-sum game, the more you use first language, the more your second language fade, this is a conclusion drawn from the experiment of bilingual education in Singapore. Moreover, the ablitiy to master second language is different among same aged children.

 2.  speaking language is like water flowing, not like building

It is unrealistic and not workable just to remember words, phrase and sentence to result in fluent speaking English, the The English speaking ability is never built up like this which is proved to lead to mute Chinglish.

To speaking English well, the learner need to have enough opportunies to listen to native English speaking and practice the oral English by talking with native English speaking ones as much as possible. Huge reading of original English medium is useful too. Speaking English shall like water flowing: naturally, instinctively, speak out simultaneously with thinking, not by rehearsal or by memorized or by translating from mother tounge.

 3.  to learn oral English well, the earlier, the better

Mother tounge is called first language, A Chinese child speak English as his first language if he being adopted by a native English speaking couples after being given birth. but even in a Chinese English billingual family, the child will choose which language to be first language.

 Chinese is three times more difficult than English according to the conclusion of famous international linguistic experts. There is no way that an ordinary normal Chinese can not learn English well, there must be the teaching method going wrong if so.

  According to singapore’s experience, to learn oral English well, the earlier, the better, for a Chinese and English bilingual family, it is better to treat Chinese as first language first and then increase the proportion of English learning. The majority time shall be focused on English after about 13 years old if the student want to study in an English medium of instruction University.

4. learn from native English speaking teachers

English is the most widely used official language now, but there are a lot of accent in different areas around the world, it is better to learn perfect English from teachers coming from British or America to avoid communication barriers.  

5.communicate wtih peers

The feelings, intersts and concerns are more common amoung peers than with teachers. So it is a benefit way to impove speaking English with peers, In this way, we can learn to express our ideas, values, opinions,etc. It is an advanced ability to express abstract ideas in English.

 6.  learn updated English

English is a language evolving with time too. There are different cool words or phrases during different generations or eras. Internet and social medium provide unprecedented colorful English learning resources. It is possible for a Chinese student to learn popular English expressions at the same time with Americans, such as selfie, indoorsy, geek, etc.

 7.  learn useful English

English is like an ocean if you want to master not only its common ones but also its professional ones, so try to learn useful current English, the more you use it, the more fluent it may be, with the ages increase, the unused English will be forgotten gradually, especially in this era of knowledge explosion.

 8.  thinking in English- a more higher goal

The different language capabilities of English as a second language can be classified into listening, speaking, reading, writing, interpreting and thinking in English. The peak goal of learning a second language shall be thinking in English. You are doomed to fail if you think in your mother tounge and then translate it into English when speaking it. which likes a baby crawling, if one can not think in English, he(or she) will never run in English speaking, that is to speak English natually, instinctively, fluently and elegantly.

 9.  laughing in English ---enjoy English culture

It takes singaproe 21 years to transit a country (75% of its citizens speaking Chinese. Others speaking Malay and Tamil)from using three languages to using English as its first language which can be understood by all singaproeans in 1986.

If one can burst into laughing when watch an English comedy, which means he can understand the joke of English, enjoy the beauty, elegance, spirit and funny in English. To enjoy English culture, maybe, it is the ultimate goal for a second language learner.

The reviving of China and global economy create a huge market in English teaching and learning in China, which are full of opportunities and challenges, who will be the terminator of mute Chinglish?