Dear Chinese Guy
I read the link to the article about not being Chinese enough and the illiteracy of the girl who wrote it.
I'm wandering if it is realistic or possible for foreign born Chinese people to actually be 100% completely literate and indistinguishable from Chinese born Chinese people? I've been to Chinese school on Sundays for years and speak Cantonese with my parents as they refuse to speak English with me.
What do you think?
J
Dear J
Of course it is possible. However like all things to be good at anything it requires lots of effort and time to actually get good at something. I forget where I read it actually its here To get good at anything you need at least 10,000 hours of it, (which is a bit of a pisser because to become an expert skydiver which I am not this would require 600000 skydives from a 15000ft drop and a 3000ft pull).
It is most aptly put forward by Gene Simmons in this song
God Gave Rock and Roll to Ya, I quite like this song (stop laughing at the back)
The bit where he goes
"Now listen"
If you wanna be a singer, or play guitar
Man, you gotta sweat or you won't get far
Cause it's never too late to work nine-to-five
It is completely apt. While it is relatively straightforward to get to the level of my parents who speak in a stilted way with a funny accent (My dad was taught by a Yorkshire man with a thick thick accent). A bit like this
Luckily he did not settle in Northern Ireland.
Sometimes I wonder what I sound like to native Chinese speakers tbh due to my really mixed wordage.
Secondly it is UBER important who and where you learn. The fundamental problem with schools is that they over egg what they are capable of. My travels through Korea, China and Japan illustrate this. Whereby a school will promise to make your child a fluent English speaker in only a few months. They of course do this to get customers and therefore raise expectations. To keep the children coming and their parents paying they will teach them poorly using teaching methods which give easily visible results. Results which the parents can see and they think oh my child is doing so well and they aren't so pained when the huge Hagwon bill comes. Since the parent isn't exactly fluent themselves they don't have the confidence or the skills to actually scratch beneath the surface and see the crappy methods they are being taught.
TCG Disclaimer * NOT ALL SCHOOLS ARE CRAPPY AND USE SUCH METHODS OF TEACHING, THE ONES WHERE THE OWNERS ARE NOT TEACHERS AND WHERE THEY PLAY OF IMAGE ABOVE QUALIFICATION AND QUALITY OF THEIR TEACHERS YOU SHOULD MAYBE BE MORE CAREFUL ABOUT*
I've experienced this a few times in my own limited teaching, TCG teaches ESL when he is bored, though with less anger ranting and swearing of course! Though I'm not expert teacher it is pretty obvious. Like you walk into a class and they can say, "Good Morning Teacher." absolutely perfectly as they've been rote taught. Now ask them something out of what they've been rote taught and they'll look at you as if you just pulled an AK47 out on them. TCG thinks the best method is total immersion btw. Not that a couple of hours a week isn't useful though but total immersion you're forced to learn pretty damned quickly and get 168ish hours of 'learning the language' and that's IF you mix with the locals and they are willing to talk to you and be patient.
In a nut shell, put time and effort and find a good teacher while at the same time being dubious of miracle claims of fluency within X weeks or months.
HTH
I read the link to the article about not being Chinese enough and the illiteracy of the girl who wrote it.
I'm wandering if it is realistic or possible for foreign born Chinese people to actually be 100% completely literate and indistinguishable from Chinese born Chinese people? I've been to Chinese school on Sundays for years and speak Cantonese with my parents as they refuse to speak English with me.
What do you think?
J
Dear J
Of course it is possible. However like all things to be good at anything it requires lots of effort and time to actually get good at something. I forget where I read it actually its here To get good at anything you need at least 10,000 hours of it, (which is a bit of a pisser because to become an expert skydiver which I am not this would require 600000 skydives from a 15000ft drop and a 3000ft pull).
It is most aptly put forward by Gene Simmons in this song
God Gave Rock and Roll to Ya, I quite like this song (stop laughing at the back)
The bit where he goes
"Now listen"
If you wanna be a singer, or play guitar
Man, you gotta sweat or you won't get far
Cause it's never too late to work nine-to-five
It is completely apt. While it is relatively straightforward to get to the level of my parents who speak in a stilted way with a funny accent (My dad was taught by a Yorkshire man with a thick thick accent). A bit like this
Luckily he did not settle in Northern Ireland.
Sometimes I wonder what I sound like to native Chinese speakers tbh due to my really mixed wordage.
Secondly it is UBER important who and where you learn. The fundamental problem with schools is that they over egg what they are capable of. My travels through Korea, China and Japan illustrate this. Whereby a school will promise to make your child a fluent English speaker in only a few months. They of course do this to get customers and therefore raise expectations. To keep the children coming and their parents paying they will teach them poorly using teaching methods which give easily visible results. Results which the parents can see and they think oh my child is doing so well and they aren't so pained when the huge Hagwon bill comes. Since the parent isn't exactly fluent themselves they don't have the confidence or the skills to actually scratch beneath the surface and see the crappy methods they are being taught.
TCG Disclaimer * NOT ALL SCHOOLS ARE CRAPPY AND USE SUCH METHODS OF TEACHING, THE ONES WHERE THE OWNERS ARE NOT TEACHERS AND WHERE THEY PLAY OF IMAGE ABOVE QUALIFICATION AND QUALITY OF THEIR TEACHERS YOU SHOULD MAYBE BE MORE CAREFUL ABOUT*
I've experienced this a few times in my own limited teaching, TCG teaches ESL when he is bored, though with less anger ranting and swearing of course! Though I'm not expert teacher it is pretty obvious. Like you walk into a class and they can say, "Good Morning Teacher." absolutely perfectly as they've been rote taught. Now ask them something out of what they've been rote taught and they'll look at you as if you just pulled an AK47 out on them. TCG thinks the best method is total immersion btw. Not that a couple of hours a week isn't useful though but total immersion you're forced to learn pretty damned quickly and get 168ish hours of 'learning the language' and that's IF you mix with the locals and they are willing to talk to you and be patient.
In a nut shell, put time and effort and find a good teacher while at the same time being dubious of miracle claims of fluency within X weeks or months.
HTH
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