From the Readers

Environment vital to learning English

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-12 11:28

Comment on "Beijing to spruce up residents' English skills" (China Daily Website, July 10)

If China wants to succeed in becoming a country that excels in English, they have to embrace it as part of their everyday lives. But at this point, for most people, English is the language in which they speak to foreigners and, more specifically, white people. Meanwhile, in places like India, Pakistan, Singapore, etc., people are incorporating English into their everyday existence, using it not simply as a tool.

When I used to teach, all too often the parents of my students would ask, "Why isn't my child speaking fluent English yet?" to which I'd reply, "They only speak English for 30 minutes every day. Do you speak English with them at home?" The reply to that question was always, "No, of course not. I don't want them to get confused, and my English is very bad. I have a Chinese accent." That's a whole another can of worms, the accent thing. If you want your child to sound British or sound American, move to the UK or the USA. You live in China, so of course you're going to have a Chinese accent. That's part of the fun of a global language like English! Most speakers of English can figure out where everyone is from based on their accent.

But, until real efforts are made to create an English language environment from the bottom up, efforts seem more for show than anything else.

Richard, on China Daily Website