Story Telling and Public Speaking Competition 2009Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Story Telling and Public Speaking Competition 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Chinese and English language, a love and hate relationship
"I grew up during the Cultural Revolution. At that time, it was not possible to study that much. However, my classmates and I were lucky to have a teacher of English coming from Shanghai. Through her lessons and through the stories she told in class, she disclosed a whole new world to us."
Even though English is the centre (and the title) of Wang Gang's best seller and an important part of his childhood, the author from Urumqi spoke Chinese in front of foreign listeners at the Bookworm Festival in Beijing on March 17.
When asked by the audience why, he joked: "Learning English is a life-long experience. I will continue to study it, unless there is another Cultural Revolution. I do not speak it that much, but there is a sentence I learnt very well at school: ‘Long live Chairman Mao'."
In his book, Wang Gang explains how to study a foreign language is a means to understand another culture. "Studying English I did not just learn a language. I learnt about a whole civilization."
His comments came almost two weeks after Wang Xinlu, president of the Shandong University of Chinese medicine and member of the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, tried for the third time to give English language a less important status in education in China.
On March 4, during 两会, the annual session of the National Political Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, Wang Xinlu proposed to erase English from the batch of subjects to be tested with高考, the college entrance examination. Other 30 members of the committee signed the draft.
"Let's completely unleash the exam – Wang Xinlu said to journalists to explain the meaning of his proposal -. To test for a foreign language is fine, to test for ancient Chinese is fine too, but let's encourage students to freely choose which skills to develop. To improve the human kind and to upgrade society we need to promote a diversification of skills."
According to Wang, "in universities, especially in those courses that focus on Chinese traditional culture, a great amount of time is wasted into studying foreign languages. After one or two years, are even 10 percent of those graduates using foreign languages?"
Wang's suggestion, instead of falling on deaf ears as a minor concern compared to issues related to the economic crisis, provoked a wave of favorable comments from the public.
"Unless it is useful for one's profession, generally speaking there is actually no lively environment to practice English here," is the comment a Chinese professor of English called Xiaomei posted on a BBS.
"To see our students putting so much effort into studying English makes even us teacher upset. I really hope that, after the National Political Congress, English will become a secondary subject, to relieve the pressure on our students and to relieve the burden on teachers too," she added.
In a way, the anti-English vague could be a reaction to the "English fever" that heated up China before the Olympic Games and that created a rush to learn the language of Shakespeare in any possible way.
In the last few years, kindergartens in Shanghai and Beijing have started to offer "classes" with English native speakers, while "English corners" have popped up in university campuses as a way to meet 老外, foreigners, and to chat in English with them.
The government took direct measures too. To welcome tourists and journalists coming from all over the world in 2008, new rules required professionals, students, volunteers, sales attendants, taxi drivers and cops to brush up their English – or, more often, to learn its basics at least.
Policemen were sent to study abroad. Sales attendants were given 100 sentences to learn by heart. And taxi drivers were provided with cassettes to listen to in order to exercise while driving in the traffic of the capital.
Unfortunately, efforts don't seem to have paid off that much. And that is not because policemen, sales attendants and taxi drivers are particularly untalented when it comes to foreign languages. As many Chinese people explain it, to study English is just too hard for them. Besides, they say, it is simply pointless.
"My son has poor English. I often tell him that he has to study hard, but then he answers: ‘If I don't go out of China, what do I need English for?'", a 网友 netizen nicknamed E Xin Xiang commented on a BBS.
"I don't know how many people were ruined by the English college examination - a young blogger nicknamed Yang Guang Pu Zhao pointed out on Sina.com -. After studying it for ten years, many people still don't know what they have learnt. Even their pronunciation is bad."
However, despite learning English being considered a very hard task, Chinese explain that a good level of English is necessary to advance in their education system, to enter China's best universities and to secure the best jobs - even if one's profession has nothing to do with foreign languages.
Public disappointment on this matter is so widespread that everybody wants to have their say. The web is full of articles, forums and blogs discussing the issue and quoting one another.
Comments posted on her blog by a fourth-grade female student from the German language department of 北京外国语大学, the Beijing University of Foreign Languages, appeared as a hot topic on many websites around mid March and the student's page recorded more than ten thousands clicks in just one day.
"We don't oppose studying – the girl, nicknamed Xiang Nai Er, wrote-. Studying is a good thing and studying foreign languages and connecting with the rest of the world is an even better thing. But can't we have our own plan and make our own choice?"
"This cannot be a choice made at national level. No other country in the world carries on a system of compulsory courses of foreign languages. This way, the Chinese Ministry of education is behaving like a despot," she added.
But the debate is open.
"If we are able to speak more languages, we can better get along with other peoples – is the opinion of blogger and commentator Hei Xuanfeng -. If we stop studying English, this would take to catastrophic results. China would fall back 100 years."
Li Yang, the creator of "Crazy English", an unorthodox method of teaching the language, shocked many readers with a sarcastic article posted on his blog on Sina.com.
"In spite of the fact that I am a teacher of English, I raise both hands to support the idea to erase English from the college examination. I know it may sound a little crazy, but please listen to my explanation."
"For most Chinese people, studying English is a worthless accomplishment - he wrote -. Erasing this language from the college entrance examination, we would eventually crack down on the threat of English and make everyone go back to reasonable thinking."
Therefore, Li urged, "we must stop teaching English in kindergartens, stop the mythology of English! Everybody resume Chinese language, resume reading, resume math!"
"Even though the entire population does not study English – he argued - our society can still develop and international exchanges can still improve, because who ought, who wishes and who likes to study English can still do it. These talented people will become translators and that will be enough."
"To erase English from the college examination is an action of great historical significance. I firmly support it, Li concluded.
Surprisingly, many of the commentators who quoted his post took it extremely seriously. Perhaps, if their English was better, they would be better trained to catch the subtle British humor hiding underneath Li's words.
By Emma Lupano
"I grew up during the Cultural Revolution. At that time, it was not possible to study that much. However, my classmates and I were lucky to have a teacher of English coming from Shanghai. Through her lessons and through the stories she told in class, she disclosed a whole new world to us."
Even though English is the centre (and the title) of Wang Gang's best seller and an important part of his childhood, the author from Urumqi spoke Chinese in front of foreign listeners at the Bookworm Festival in Beijing on March 17.
When asked by the audience why, he joked: "Learning English is a life-long experience. I will continue to study it, unless there is another Cultural Revolution. I do not speak it that much, but there is a sentence I learnt very well at school: ‘Long live Chairman Mao'."
In his book, Wang Gang explains how to study a foreign language is a means to understand another culture. "Studying English I did not just learn a language. I learnt about a whole civilization."
His comments came almost two weeks after Wang Xinlu, president of the Shandong University of Chinese medicine and member of the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, tried for the third time to give English language a less important status in education in China.
On March 4, during 两会, the annual session of the National Political Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, Wang Xinlu proposed to erase English from the batch of subjects to be tested with高考, the college entrance examination. Other 30 members of the committee signed the draft.
"Let's completely unleash the exam – Wang Xinlu said to journalists to explain the meaning of his proposal -. To test for a foreign language is fine, to test for ancient Chinese is fine too, but let's encourage students to freely choose which skills to develop. To improve the human kind and to upgrade society we need to promote a diversification of skills."
According to Wang, "in universities, especially in those courses that focus on Chinese traditional culture, a great amount of time is wasted into studying foreign languages. After one or two years, are even 10 percent of those graduates using foreign languages?"
Wang's suggestion, instead of falling on deaf ears as a minor concern compared to issues related to the economic crisis, provoked a wave of favorable comments from the public.
"Unless it is useful for one's profession, generally speaking there is actually no lively environment to practice English here," is the comment a Chinese professor of English called Xiaomei posted on a BBS.
"To see our students putting so much effort into studying English makes even us teacher upset. I really hope that, after the National Political Congress, English will become a secondary subject, to relieve the pressure on our students and to relieve the burden on teachers too," she added.
In a way, the anti-English vague could be a reaction to the "English fever" that heated up China before the Olympic Games and that created a rush to learn the language of Shakespeare in any possible way.
In the last few years, kindergartens in Shanghai and Beijing have started to offer "classes" with English native speakers, while "English corners" have popped up in university campuses as a way to meet 老外, foreigners, and to chat in English with them.
The government took direct measures too. To welcome tourists and journalists coming from all over the world in 2008, new rules required professionals, students, volunteers, sales attendants, taxi drivers and cops to brush up their English – or, more often, to learn its basics at least.
Policemen were sent to study abroad. Sales attendants were given 100 sentences to learn by heart. And taxi drivers were provided with cassettes to listen to in order to exercise while driving in the traffic of the capital.
Unfortunately, efforts don't seem to have paid off that much. And that is not because policemen, sales attendants and taxi drivers are particularly untalented when it comes to foreign languages. As many Chinese people explain it, to study English is just too hard for them. Besides, they say, it is simply pointless.
"My son has poor English. I often tell him that he has to study hard, but then he answers: ‘If I don't go out of China, what do I need English for?'", a 网友 netizen nicknamed E Xin Xiang commented on a BBS.
"I don't know how many people were ruined by the English college examination - a young blogger nicknamed Yang Guang Pu Zhao pointed out on Sina.com -. After studying it for ten years, many people still don't know what they have learnt. Even their pronunciation is bad."
However, despite learning English being considered a very hard task, Chinese explain that a good level of English is necessary to advance in their education system, to enter China's best universities and to secure the best jobs - even if one's profession has nothing to do with foreign languages.
Public disappointment on this matter is so widespread that everybody wants to have their say. The web is full of articles, forums and blogs discussing the issue and quoting one another.
Comments posted on her blog by a fourth-grade female student from the German language department of 北京外国语大学, the Beijing University of Foreign Languages, appeared as a hot topic on many websites around mid March and the student's page recorded more than ten thousands clicks in just one day.
"We don't oppose studying – the girl, nicknamed Xiang Nai Er, wrote-. Studying is a good thing and studying foreign languages and connecting with the rest of the world is an even better thing. But can't we have our own plan and make our own choice?"
"This cannot be a choice made at national level. No other country in the world carries on a system of compulsory courses of foreign languages. This way, the Chinese Ministry of education is behaving like a despot," she added.
But the debate is open.
"If we are able to speak more languages, we can better get along with other peoples – is the opinion of blogger and commentator Hei Xuanfeng -. If we stop studying English, this would take to catastrophic results. China would fall back 100 years."
Li Yang, the creator of "Crazy English", an unorthodox method of teaching the language, shocked many readers with a sarcastic article posted on his blog on Sina.com.
"In spite of the fact that I am a teacher of English, I raise both hands to support the idea to erase English from the college examination. I know it may sound a little crazy, but please listen to my explanation."
"For most Chinese people, studying English is a worthless accomplishment - he wrote -. Erasing this language from the college entrance examination, we would eventually crack down on the threat of English and make everyone go back to reasonable thinking."
Therefore, Li urged, "we must stop teaching English in kindergartens, stop the mythology of English! Everybody resume Chinese language, resume reading, resume math!"
"Even though the entire population does not study English – he argued - our society can still develop and international exchanges can still improve, because who ought, who wishes and who likes to study English can still do it. These talented people will become translators and that will be enough."
"To erase English from the college examination is an action of great historical significance. I firmly support it, Li concluded.
Surprisingly, many of the commentators who quoted his post took it extremely seriously. Perhaps, if their English was better, they would be better trained to catch the subtle British humor hiding underneath Li's words.
Improving your motivation for learning English
© Tomasz P. Szynalski, Antimoon.com
In this article, we share our techniques for improving your motivation for learning English as a foreign language. We used them all the time when we were learning English and we still use them when we need to boost our motivation in areas other than English.
Imagine yourself in the future
Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.
It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well. There are two such articles on Antimoon: Why learn English and English makes you feel good.
You should know that it is possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it.
Remember that you are already good
You already know some English (you're reading an article in English right now). That's a big success! Now it's time for more successes. Time to start using powerful methods of effective learning. Time to gain an impressive knowledge of English.
Remember there is a lot that you don't know
You are good, but your English probably isn't perfect. You probably can't understand English-language TV, read books in English, talk to native speakers easily, write letters without mistakes, etc.
You should never think your English is perfect. Even if you are the best student in your class, always try to find your weak areas and work on them. When you've learned to speak English well, your problems will be quite small: punctuation, rarely used grammar structures, rare words, understanding "street language". Right now, your problems are probably more basic: mistakes in pronunciation, small vocabulary, grammar problems with the present perfect tense and conditional structures.
Use your English whenever you can
This is very, very important. The more you use English, the more you will want to learn it.
Because English is so popular, you can use it everywhere. You can use Google to find English-language websites with interesting information, you can watch American cartoons, you can play adventure games on your computer, you can read interesting books in English, or you can do other things that we write about.
If you do these things, you will not only have fun and learn English. If you see that a new English word lets you understand your favorite TV show (or communicate with people, or beat a computer game), you will want to learn more words. So you will learn English more, use it more, learn it more, use it more... If you also use effective learning methods, your English will grow faster than you can imagine.
Talk to people about English
This is a very simple method, but it is very effective. Here's how it works:
You usually talk about things which interest you. But the opposite is true, too. If you start talking about a boring subject, you will begin to get interested in it.
Imagine you are studying a subject that you hate. You are bored and tired, but you have to pass the test tomorrow. If there are people near you, you have two options: you can tell everybody how much you are suffering or you can tell those people about the things you've learned. If you choose the first option, you will only feel worse.
If you choose the second option, and start a conversation on the "boring" subject, you will begin to look at it in a totally different way. Suddenly it will become a subject worth talking about — therefore, an interesting subject.
How can you begin such a conversation? If you're studying English, you can surprise another person by talking to him/her in English. Say (in English): Hi, I'm studying English and I hate it. Or you can say (in your first language): Hey, I've learned 50 English words today. Do you know what's the English word for ...? If there are no people near you, you can telephone or send an e-mail message to your friend.
What will your friends say? Probably they won't be very interested, but it doesn't matter! The important thing is this: After talking about English, you will study it with much more passion. Try it.
Find a friend who is learning English
If you can find a friend who is learning English and is on a similar level of skill, you will be in an excellent situation:
- you will have someone to talk about English with. These conversations will increase your interest in English, as explained in the previous section.
- learning English will be easier, because you will be able to discuss your problems with your friend.
- you will study English more, because you will want to be better than your friend. :-)
You should meet your friend regularly. Ideally, he/she should live near you, or go to the same school as you. If you absolutely can't find anybody willing to learn English with you, you can try to find somebody by e-mail. This is a worse solution: your conversations will probably be less frequent, and it is difficult to compete with someone who you don't know well.
Spend some money on learning English
If you spend your money on something, you will want to use it. For example, if you buy an expensive tennis racket, you will probably go out and play tennis every day.
This rule is also true for learning English. If you want to increase your desire to learn English, buy a new dictionary, an interesting English-language book, English-language cable TV, etc. The idea is simple: You paid for it, so you will want to use it, and you will improve your English.
There is a problem with this method. It only works for a short time. You usually lose your desire to learn English after a few days. To keep learning, you would have to buy something every week!
However, this method is helpful, because it gives you an impulse to start learning. For example, if you buy a dictionary of phrasal verbs, you will probably learn some words from it. Then you should try to use them. For example, write an e-mail message with these words. This will increase your motivation (as explained before), and you will learn more.
Read Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
Anthony Robbins' book Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement gives excellent advice on how to achieve any kind of goal. This book has changed the lives of many people, so you might want to take a look at it.
Remember that learning English requires action
We have said this many times. One small action is more powerful than reading hundreds of articles. Yes, we know it is very hard to do things, even if they are good for us. We humans are lazy creatures. That is why not many people speak English well.
Still, we hope you can do the things we talk about in our English learning method — not only read about them. You will be successful only if you change something about your life.
Don't put it off. Begin now.
10 tips to improve the way you speak English
Anita D'Souza
i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.
When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.
ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.
If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.
Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.
iii. Listen to the 'music' of English.
Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of 'singing'.
iv. Use the dictionary.
Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.
v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.
Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.
vi. Buy books on tape.
Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.
vii. Pronounce the ending of each word.
Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.
viii. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day.
Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.
ix. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.
x. Be patient.
You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.
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