"Chinglish"- Chinese and English

For this class, one of the articles that I read was called "Shanghai Is Trying to Untable the Mangled English of Chinglish." This article detailed the specific struggles of learning English for native Chinese speakers and the efforts the government has taken to eradicate the challenges that Chinese native language speakers have faced. This article caught my attention because I have been looking to learn more about how various (specific) communities deal with learning a new language and the challenges they face. This builds upon the knowledge I have gained about language acquisition in general.

The part of this article that stood out for me the most was the amount of government resources and effort that is being put into communicating "correct" English in public sectors of society. The article cited how embarrassing it often is for native Chinese speakers to make mistakes when speaking English- speaking "Chinglish," the artle asserts. To combat the common mistakes that native Chinese speakers make when communicating in English, the government (mainly powered through 600 volunteers), have replaced 10,000 public signs that had previously contained incorrect English (based in "Chinglish"- such as "urine district") with the correct words. This intense effort, government officials assert, is steadily leading to a reality where Chinese maladaptations of the English language will not be significant.

I find it fascinating that the government (as well as other organizations, and perhaps more importantly, individual people) are so willing to put such an incredible amount of resources (time, people power, money, energy) into helping to ensure that English is better pronounced. While the article focuses heavily on the motivation coming from embarrassment from having incorrect English in interactions and in public settings (like street signs, etc), I have to assume that there is more at play. I believe that the bigger issue is reputation: speaking a language such as English incorrectly with errors that are jarring to native speakers leads to a comical, incompetent reputation. I believe that some people are worried that widespread incorrect English usage may lead to a "lower standing" of native Chinese language speakers in other people's minds. For example, people (or governments or organizations) might begin to consider Chinese language speakers as less competent, or less serious, leading their ideas/innovations/etc. to be considered with less vigor and interest, perhaps, as their counterparts. It seems that this can already be observed, as the article quotes various individuals around the world expressing their disappointment that this effort to change Chinese speakers' English, as this in turn takes away a common joke or "giggle."

At the same time, as one German radio show host eloquently put, “If you standardize all these signs, you not only take away the little giggle you get while strolling in the park but you lose a window into the Chinese mind." Indeed, by changing the natural, common errors that Chinese speakers make when speaking English, the government is in turn taking away data about links between Chinese and English languages, and what occurs commonly when a Chinese speaker articulates his or her thoughts in English. Maybe it is possible that this will take away from potential studies about language acquisition for Chinese speakers, for example, and what these common errors might reveal about brain functioning or human learning. Nevertheless, it seems that the more pressing issue for this community of Chinese language speakers is the humiliation and lack of respect they receive from others due to their errors in communicating in English, which is completely understandable.

To look further into the psychological and scientific work that has been done on dual Chinese and English language speakers, I read parts of the journal article titled "Cross-language transfer of insight into the structure of compound words." This study found "evidence for cross language transfer between two typologically distant languages of insight [Chinese and English] into the structure of compound words" (325). In other words, people (most of the participants were youth) are able to transfer meaning/function between these two very different languages. The ability to transfer from Chinese to English was seen in all levels of ability, while the transfer from English to Chinese was only found for high level proficient speakers. This transfer occurs on a phonological, meaning, and functional level for compounds. In relation to the article above, this study shows that language learning, and the transfer between languages- translation and dual understanding- is very possible, even with people who have low proficiency for Chinese to English language speakers. Thus, the ability and knowledge is there. Somehow along the way, however, it seems especially common for Chinese speakers to make certain mistakes when speaking English. I would be interested in knowing if there have been any studies that specify the common mistakes that are made, as well as some possible (or probable) explanations as to why these mistakes occur. Also, I wonder whether or not changing public signs will ultimately lead to less personal language mistakes (perhaps due to a different, and now correct, common input), or whether this will simply create a different public image for the country (and for Chinese speakers), while the actual language mistakes will still be common in day to day life.

Sources

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/world/asia/03chinglish.html?pagewanted=2

http://caslon.stanford.edu:3210/sfxlcl3?sid=CSA:psycinfo-set-c&pid=%3CAN%3E2010%2D03314%2D004%3C%2FAN%3E%26%3CPB%3EGermany%3A%20Springer%3C%2FPB%3E%26%3CPY%3E2010%3C%2FPY%3E%26%3CAU%3EZhang%2C%20Jie%20%281%29%3B%20Anderson%2C%20Richard%20C%2E%20%281%29%3B%20Li%2C%20Hong%20%282%29%3B%20Dong%2C%20Qiong%20%282%29%3B%20Wu%2C%20Xinchun%20%282%29%3B%20Zhang%2C%20Yan%20%282%29%3C%2FAU%3E&id=doi%3A10%2E1007%2Fs11145%2D009%2D9205%2D7&issn=0922%2D4777&volume=23&issue=3%2D4&spage=311&epage=336&date=2010%2D03&genre=article&aulast=Zhang&aufirst=Jie&title=Reading%20and%20Writing&atitle=Cross%2Dlanguage%20transfer%20of%20insight%20into%20the%20structure%20of%20compound%20words%2E