For at least a decade, the English language has been extremely
popular in China, especially in urban areas and amongst the young,
generating, some would say, feverish activity to learn, practice
and use it. However, according to Lu Gusun, a professor of English
and a Shakespeare specialist attending the First Session of the
10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Beijing, not everything about the
current fever in China is rosy. He talks to China.org.cn staff
reporter, Chen Chao.
Courses of different types and different levels have mushroomed
across the country. And the current feverish climate is not seen as
a bad thing; well, not entirely. Since the 1980s, China has
experienced a rush of English activities including commercial
activities, literary fads and now "English fever." It is seen as an
inevitable development in the evolution of a contemporary society
that knowledge of a foreign language benefits a person by bringing
a wider scope to the new cultures they come into contact with. This
is particularly relevant in a global environment of which English
plays a very important part although not the most important part
needless to say.
Shanghai-based Lu is editor-in-chief of The English-Chinese
Dictionary that is published by the Shanghai Translation
Publishing House and is the largest dictionary of its kind in the
world.
"However, this English fever' also has its negative aspects, that
might intensify and spread at the expense of the purity of our
mother tongue," Lu says. "As the spiritual cord of all Chinese, our
language is very important to us and the introduction of language
idioms that have a foreign root, heard most commonly on campus
grounds, threaten the beauty and delicacy of the language," he
says.
"English is a very beautiful language too. In particular, it has a
very large vocabulary that makes it rich, colorful and interesting.
It is a pity that English learners often overlook this beauty;
something that is common today. The majority of learners seem to be
concerned only with its practical application: TOEFL; GRE; GMAT. It
is a truth that you cannot learn to master a language until you
learn to love it or see its beauty. The current fever seems to
focus on this aspect and this is just not enough," Lu points
out.
Current opinion on the many and varied schools of English in China
suggests that some are good but often suffer from poor management,
overcharging and poorly qualified teachers.
Lu
says, "Foreign language schools don't have a great reputation in
academia here, but that is not to say they do not have their
merits. Actually, I think many have good instruction techniques for
exam preparation and the teachers although young know the
teacher-pupil psychology well. The schools are certainly good at
the communication between teachers and pupil!"
"Yes, examination is not everything. I put linguistic proficiency
into three parts or at three levels: examination skill; language
knowledge; communication skills. Today's schools are good at the
first but inevitably poor at the other two. Some teachers in the
training schools don't even speak English as their native language,
which naturally creates a problem right there. They often just
teach it in Chinese," Lu says.
A
successful learner of the language should have comprehensive
capabilities in listening, speaking, reading, writing and
comprehension, and translation, at a more advanced level, he
concluded.
Lu
is currently working on the revised edition of The
English-Chinese Dictionary, first published in 1991. This new
edition will have 8,000 new entries and is expected to be published
in 2005, coinciding with the 100th Anniversary of the
Shanghai-based Fudan
University (Lu's Alma Mater) where he was once dean of the
Foreign Language Department.
(China.org.cn by Staff Reporter Chen Chao, March 12, 2003)