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)
