呂大樂（《誰說家長一定是好人》（香港：進一步多媒體，2002），一系列似是中產懷舊，多於評論香港的文章）說在香港生存的理由只有一個，「就是因為香港有病」。「香港的病在於它的不完美，在於它沒有一間認真似樣的書店，沒有一份認真似樣的報刊，沒有接近似樣的電視台，它不是倫敦、東京或者紐約，再沒有可以引起球迷注意的足球，它不是一個認真尊重民主、公民權的城市，它的種種『不是』，都帶著一種病態美，令無數香港人活得過癮。」（頁39）
關於家長，他說「香港的中產階級根本就不相信他們的下一代．．．可以在香港社會制度裏快樂地成長和生活。」「我所認識的教育界朋友當中，百分之九十五對本地的教育制度投不信任票（當然，這也可以理解為對自己投不信任票），不敢送子女去自己工作的同類學校，或自己培養出來的學生所任教的學校讀書。」（頁12）「在我所認識自命講究生活品味、熱衷文化活動的朋友當中，有一半不相信在香港可以怎樣改善文化環境、提高生活質素、讓下一代可以選擇更多不同類型的生活方式。」（頁13）
屋邨走廊是許多低下階層的回憶，是小朋友學會合群和成長的地方。呂大樂尤其鍾愛它的象徵意義。以下的一段文字，可以作為教育下一代的借鏡。「我從沒有想過要為孩子提供一個虛擬屋邨走郎的成長環境。過去的東西屬於過去的一代人。但作為一個概念，屋邨的長郎提醒我要給孩子自闖天下，在屋邨長大的孩子，都是在父母視線範圍以外成長的」（頁90）
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Why footnote?
"How green are you? Look at your sloppy footnotes." Professor Kelly irriated.
"Why footnote?" Student Walsh grumbled.
I used to distribute rules and examples of footnote format to students, major and non-major, at the beginning of every course. A curious question indeed for laymen (like freshmen), and practitioners too. Laymen see it as an unncessary evil, practitioner see it as a necessary evil. The following excerpts are from Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: A Curious History. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1997, which I have partly read recently.
"In the modern world - as manuals for writers of dissertations explain - historians perform two complementary tasks. They must examine all the sources relevant to the soulution of a problem and construct a new narrative or argument from them. The footnote proves that both tasks have been carried out. It identifies both the primary evidence that guarantees the story's novelty in substance and the secondary works that do not undermine its novelty in form and thesis. By doing so, moreover, it identifies the work of history in question as the creation of a professional." (p. 4-5)
"students move from craft to industrial styles of footnote production, peppering each chapter with a hundred or more references to show that they have put in hours of hard work in arhcive and library." (p. 5)
"the production of footnotes sometimes resembles less the skilled work of a professional carrying out a precise function to a higher and than the offhand production and disposal of waste products." (p. 6)
"All over the modern histtorical world, articles begin with an industrialized civilization's equivalent to the ancient invocation of the Muse: a long note in which the author thanks teachers, friends, and colleagues. Prefatory notes evoke a Republic of Letters - or at least an academic support group - in which the writer claims memebership." (p. 7)
"Long lists of earlier books and articles and strings of coded reference to unpublished documents supposedly prove the solidity of the author's research by rendering an account of the sources used." (p. 7)
"Few readers will have the tenacity to check the story for its accuracy, and most will assume that the elegant pickpocket, not the disheveled victim, has told the truth." (p. 14)
"The footnote demands attention for other reasons as well: not only as a general part of the practice of science and scholarship, but also as an object of keen nostalgia and a subject of sharp debate." (p. 14)
"A hundred years ago, most historians would have made a simple distinction: the text persuades, the notes prove." (p. 15)
"In fact, of course, no one can ever exhaust the range of sources relevant to an important problem - much less quote all of them in a note. In practice, moreover, every annotator rearranges materials to prove a point, interprets them in an individual way, and omits those that do not meet a necessarily personal standard of relevance." (p. 16)
"Why footnote?" Student Walsh grumbled.
I used to distribute rules and examples of footnote format to students, major and non-major, at the beginning of every course. A curious question indeed for laymen (like freshmen), and practitioners too. Laymen see it as an unncessary evil, practitioner see it as a necessary evil. The following excerpts are from Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: A Curious History. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1997, which I have partly read recently.
"In the modern world - as manuals for writers of dissertations explain - historians perform two complementary tasks. They must examine all the sources relevant to the soulution of a problem and construct a new narrative or argument from them. The footnote proves that both tasks have been carried out. It identifies both the primary evidence that guarantees the story's novelty in substance and the secondary works that do not undermine its novelty in form and thesis. By doing so, moreover, it identifies the work of history in question as the creation of a professional." (p. 4-5)
"students move from craft to industrial styles of footnote production, peppering each chapter with a hundred or more references to show that they have put in hours of hard work in arhcive and library." (p. 5)
"the production of footnotes sometimes resembles less the skilled work of a professional carrying out a precise function to a higher and than the offhand production and disposal of waste products." (p. 6)
"All over the modern histtorical world, articles begin with an industrialized civilization's equivalent to the ancient invocation of the Muse: a long note in which the author thanks teachers, friends, and colleagues. Prefatory notes evoke a Republic of Letters - or at least an academic support group - in which the writer claims memebership." (p. 7)
"Long lists of earlier books and articles and strings of coded reference to unpublished documents supposedly prove the solidity of the author's research by rendering an account of the sources used." (p. 7)
"Few readers will have the tenacity to check the story for its accuracy, and most will assume that the elegant pickpocket, not the disheveled victim, has told the truth." (p. 14)
"The footnote demands attention for other reasons as well: not only as a general part of the practice of science and scholarship, but also as an object of keen nostalgia and a subject of sharp debate." (p. 14)
"A hundred years ago, most historians would have made a simple distinction: the text persuades, the notes prove." (p. 15)
"In fact, of course, no one can ever exhaust the range of sources relevant to an important problem - much less quote all of them in a note. In practice, moreover, every annotator rearranges materials to prove a point, interprets them in an individual way, and omits those that do not meet a necessarily personal standard of relevance." (p. 16)
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Sandars Lectures
The Sandars Readership in Bibliography was instituted in 1895 by Mr Samuel Sandars of Trinity College, and continues today in the annual series of Sandars Lectures
1. Sandars Lectures 2007
Sarah Tyacke
Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, Royal HollowayDistinguished Senior Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London
Topic: Conversations with maps: world views in early modern Europe
Website: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/sandars/Sandars_Lectures_2007.html
Very interesting!
2. Sandars Lectures 2008
Peter Kornicki
Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Topic: Having difficulty with Chinese? - the rise of the vernacular book in Japan, Korea and Vietnam
Website: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/sandars/Sandars_Lectures_2008.html
Ready to read.
From Tyacke's lecture
"In line...with the long-drawn out end of the European world Empires during the twentieth ceutnry, the various European maritime powers invested time and money, especially noticeable in the case of Portugal and Spain (and to some extent similarly privileged in the Netherlands, France, England and Italy), in the celebration of the graphic record of their lost empires or of their 'goldern ages' and, in so doing, gave us views of the world in the early modern period from their very nationalistic perspectives. This normally meant that contributions from other countries, or the possibility of other non-nationalistic modes of history, were discounted, ignored or even just absorbed into the writer's own country's history in some way; this could be done by regarding, for example, the cartography of one country as merely a source of whatever then became the dominant cartographic power, often the dominant military and economic power as well."
"What we might call 'firstism' an obsession with the first or earliest map, derived from the general cultural view in western cultures at least that to be first is to be praised and of itself confers benefits, often material in one way or another."
"mapping intrinsically lends itself to cultural promotion and diplomacy on a global scale, being graphic and thus, apparently, immediately comprehensible, rather than being obscured by the use of a specific langauge as in other texts.
1. Sandars Lectures 2007
Sarah Tyacke
Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, Royal HollowayDistinguished Senior Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London
Topic: Conversations with maps: world views in early modern Europe
Website: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/sandars/Sandars_Lectures_2007.html
Very interesting!
2. Sandars Lectures 2008
Peter Kornicki
Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Topic: Having difficulty with Chinese? - the rise of the vernacular book in Japan, Korea and Vietnam
Website: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/sandars/Sandars_Lectures_2008.html
Ready to read.
From Tyacke's lecture
"In line...with the long-drawn out end of the European world Empires during the twentieth ceutnry, the various European maritime powers invested time and money, especially noticeable in the case of Portugal and Spain (and to some extent similarly privileged in the Netherlands, France, England and Italy), in the celebration of the graphic record of their lost empires or of their 'goldern ages' and, in so doing, gave us views of the world in the early modern period from their very nationalistic perspectives. This normally meant that contributions from other countries, or the possibility of other non-nationalistic modes of history, were discounted, ignored or even just absorbed into the writer's own country's history in some way; this could be done by regarding, for example, the cartography of one country as merely a source of whatever then became the dominant cartographic power, often the dominant military and economic power as well."
"What we might call 'firstism' an obsession with the first or earliest map, derived from the general cultural view in western cultures at least that to be first is to be praised and of itself confers benefits, often material in one way or another."
"mapping intrinsically lends itself to cultural promotion and diplomacy on a global scale, being graphic and thus, apparently, immediately comprehensible, rather than being obscured by the use of a specific langauge as in other texts.
Monday, 12 May 2008
Recent bites
- 沈國威：〈羅存德及其漢語研究〉，總頁數：8。
- 沈國威：〈1819年的兩本西方地理學書－－《西遊地球聞見略傳》與《地理便童略傳》〉，《或問》，No. 8 (2004)，頁161-166。
- 八耳俊文：〈入華プロテスタント宣教師と日本の書物．西洋の書物〉，《或問》，No. 9 (2005)，頁27-41。
- 朱鳳：〈英華書院の翻訳人材育成とその成果－－年間報告書を資料として〉，2008年北京大学国際シンポジウム：西学東漸と東亜近代新語新概念，頁41-54。
- 宮田和子：〈メドハーストの諸辞典とその影響〉，《或問》，No. 2 (2001)，頁13-22。 with useful bibliography
- Lucille Chia, "Publications of the Ming Principalities: A Distinct Example of Private Printing," Ming Studies, 54 (2007), pp. 24-70.
- Hilde de Weerdt, "Byways in the Imperial Chinese Information Order: The Dissemination and Commercial Publication of State Documents," Havard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 66: No. 1 (2006), pp. 145-188.
- Man-Houng Lin, "Late Qing Perceptions of Native Opium," Havard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 64: No. 1 (2004), pp. 117-144.
- Jinhua Chen, "Pancavarsika Assemblies in Liang Wudi's Buddhist Palace Chapel," Havard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 66: No. 1 (2006), pp. 43-103.
- Rachel Dinitto, "Return of the zuihitsu: Print Culture, Modern Life, and Heterogeneous Narrative in Prewar Japan," Havard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 64: No. 2 (2004), pp. 251-290.
- Patrick Hanan, "The Bible as Chinese Literature: Medhurst, Wang Tao, and the Delegates' Version," Havard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 63 No. 1 (2003), p. 197-239.
- William T. Rowe, "Owen Lattimore, Asia, and Comparative History," The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 66, No. 3 (August) 2007, pp. 759-786.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
What a girl should learn
An interesting column from a late nineteenth-century Hong Kong newspaper, the Hongkong Telegraph (June 14, 1889), caught my curious attention above all. It quoted the above title from the Spingfield Union, which suggested a list of virtues, in fact, not all exclusively for girls. After all, 'what a girl should learn?':
To sew.
To cook.
To mend.
To be gentle.
To value time.
To dress neatly.
To keep a secret.
To be self-reliant.
To avoid idleness.
To mind the baby.
To darn stockings.
To respect old age.
To made good bread.
To keep ahouse tidy.
To control her temper.
To be above gossiping.
To make a home happy.
To take care of the sick.
To humor a cross old man.
To marry a man for his worth.
To be a helpmate to a husband.
To take plenty of active exercise.
To see mouse without screaming.
To read some books beside novels.
To be light-hearted and fleet-footed.
To wear shoes that don't cramp the feet.
To be a womanly woman under all circumstances.
So, what a boy should learn? To sew? Like Giorgio? (I can't) To cook? Like Jamie? (I love to though) Shall make a list for my boy someday.
To sew.
To cook.
To mend.
To be gentle.
To value time.
To dress neatly.
To keep a secret.
To be self-reliant.
To avoid idleness.
To mind the baby.
To darn stockings.
To respect old age.
To made good bread.
To keep ahouse tidy.
To control her temper.
To be above gossiping.
To make a home happy.
To take care of the sick.
To humor a cross old man.
To marry a man for his worth.
To be a helpmate to a husband.
To take plenty of active exercise.
To see mouse without screaming.
To read some books beside novels.
To be light-hearted and fleet-footed.
To wear shoes that don't cramp the feet.
To be a womanly woman under all circumstances.
So, what a boy should learn? To sew? Like Giorgio? (I can't) To cook? Like Jamie? (I love to though) Shall make a list for my boy someday.
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Sir F. D. Lugard, HKU and Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Sir F. D. Lugard, Hongkong University: Objects, History, Present Position, and Prospects (1910).
Three advantages of HKU suggested, one of which was to avoid denationalisation (the other two rather commonplace). Sir Lugard said that a student studying overseas "must inevitably become greatly changed, and imbibing the manners and customs of his adopted country, be become denationalised. He often learns to look down on and despise the social customs and political institutions of his native coutnry, and his patrioism is often misguided by revolutionary ideas." By establishing HKU, he further elaborated, he hoped that Chinese youths "will establish for themselves a reputation as patriotic and loyal citizens, whether of a British Colony or of China."
In Sir Lugard's point of view, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who acknowledged "Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong are the birth place of my knowledge" was a misfortune to British Hong Kong, HKU and China; thus, unfortunately and even worse, today HKU's self-calimed connection with Dr. Sun is like a joke.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
近日所讀文章
章清：〈「策問」與科舉體制下對「西學」的援引－－以《中外策問大觀》為中心〉，《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》，第58期，2007年10月。
劉龍心:〈從科舉到學堂－－策論與晚清的知識轉型（1901－1905）），《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》，第58期，2007年10月，頁105-39。
劉龍心:〈從科舉到學堂－－策論與晚清的知識轉型（1901－1905）），《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》，第58期，2007年10月，頁105-39。
Thursday, 10 April 2008
The Best Students Will Learn English
Po King Choi, "'The best students will learn English': ultra-utilitarianism and linguistic imperialism in education in post-1997 Hong Kong," Journal of Education Policy, vol. 18, no. 6, Nov-Dec 2003, 673-94.
--- --- ---
Only the best schools were allowed to teach in English. (p. 674) In other words, the best students will learn English.
Language selection at any stage of schooling was blatantly segregationist and socially divisive. (p. 675)
It [language policy] helps maintain an elitist and socially divisive structure. (p. 676)
Brimer et al. (1985) states that: "There is no point in determining whether children in Hong Kong would learn more effectively through English or Chinese. We already know that they would learn more effectively through Chinese...Our problem arise because their learning of English will be more effectively achieved by using it as a medium of instruction. So long as this is a dominant aim of the education system then the question that remain relate to how it can be used with least distrubance of learning within the curriculum and for how many it can be used without serious and irrevocable disruption of learning." (A. Brimer et al. Effects of Medium of Instruction on the Achievement of Form 2 Students Hong Kong Secondary Schoools (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong and Education Department, 1985), p. 4) (p. 680)
Effective learning in English...only meant the ability of retaining information in English for the purpose of English testing, and for a language-dependent subject, i.e. history. (p. 681)
In 1989, Roy Harris, Chair of English Language, University of Hong Kong, stated bluntly: 'Cheap English doesn't go with quality goods, services or operations of any kind." He commented on the standards of English in Hong Kong: 'If Hong Kong English were up for auction on the international market, there isn't a self-respecting country in the world that would even put in a bid for it.' (p. 686)
An important question that is never asked, however, is to what extent, and for how much longer, Hong Kong has to sacrifice the development of young minds so as to ensure the production of the best linguistic brokers, instead of better citizens. (p. 687)
A lone voice in the commercial wilderness indeed, yet what he [a principal of a Chinese middle school] said brings out the extent to which a humanist discourse of education as cultural transmission has been subordinated to a narrowly utilitarin view of education as training for employable skills. (p. 689)
Language selection policy was both framed and legitimated by the narrowly utilitarian and labour market-driven goal of education in Hong Kong, with a highly elitist character that remains hidden in official discourses, whereby the socially endowed are selected for learning through a foreign language. (p. 691)
--- --- ---
Only the best schools were allowed to teach in English. (p. 674) In other words, the best students will learn English.
Language selection at any stage of schooling was blatantly segregationist and socially divisive. (p. 675)
It [language policy] helps maintain an elitist and socially divisive structure. (p. 676)
Brimer et al. (1985) states that: "There is no point in determining whether children in Hong Kong would learn more effectively through English or Chinese. We already know that they would learn more effectively through Chinese...Our problem arise because their learning of English will be more effectively achieved by using it as a medium of instruction. So long as this is a dominant aim of the education system then the question that remain relate to how it can be used with least distrubance of learning within the curriculum and for how many it can be used without serious and irrevocable disruption of learning." (A. Brimer et al. Effects of Medium of Instruction on the Achievement of Form 2 Students Hong Kong Secondary Schoools (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong and Education Department, 1985), p. 4) (p. 680)
Effective learning in English...only meant the ability of retaining information in English for the purpose of English testing, and for a language-dependent subject, i.e. history. (p. 681)
In 1989, Roy Harris, Chair of English Language, University of Hong Kong, stated bluntly: 'Cheap English doesn't go with quality goods, services or operations of any kind." He commented on the standards of English in Hong Kong: 'If Hong Kong English were up for auction on the international market, there isn't a self-respecting country in the world that would even put in a bid for it.' (p. 686)
An important question that is never asked, however, is to what extent, and for how much longer, Hong Kong has to sacrifice the development of young minds so as to ensure the production of the best linguistic brokers, instead of better citizens. (p. 687)
A lone voice in the commercial wilderness indeed, yet what he [a principal of a Chinese middle school] said brings out the extent to which a humanist discourse of education as cultural transmission has been subordinated to a narrowly utilitarin view of education as training for employable skills. (p. 689)
Language selection policy was both framed and legitimated by the narrowly utilitarian and labour market-driven goal of education in Hong Kong, with a highly elitist character that remains hidden in official discourses, whereby the socially endowed are selected for learning through a foreign language. (p. 691)
Monday, 7 April 2008
Language or Nonlanguage subjects - What will students/parents choose?
Herbert W. Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau and Chit-Kwong Kong, 'Late Immersion and Language of Instruction in Hong Kong High Schools: Achievement Growth in Language and Nonlanguage Subjects,' Harvard Educational Review, vol. 70, no. 3, Fall 2000, 302-46.
"For two subjects, Chinese and particularly, English, the effects of English Instruction were moderately positive; for one, mathematics, there were small negative effects; and for three subjects, history, geography, and science, the effects were extremely negative...The most important findings, however, were the very strong negative efects of Instruction in English on history, geography, and science." (p. 335)
Two points here. Firstly, apparently for parents and students, achievements in nonlanguage subjects are never and ever as important and useful as that in English. Second, in other words, better achievements in these subjects DO NOT justify Chinese language of instruction at all. Given the predominant advantages of English, the so-called modern lingu franca, and Hong Kong's undeniable position as an international city, mother-tongue education policy would hardly find substainable support and success.
"For two subjects, Chinese and particularly, English, the effects of English Instruction were moderately positive; for one, mathematics, there were small negative effects; and for three subjects, history, geography, and science, the effects were extremely negative...The most important findings, however, were the very strong negative efects of Instruction in English on history, geography, and science." (p. 335)
Two points here. Firstly, apparently for parents and students, achievements in nonlanguage subjects are never and ever as important and useful as that in English. Second, in other words, better achievements in these subjects DO NOT justify Chinese language of instruction at all. Given the predominant advantages of English, the so-called modern lingu franca, and Hong Kong's undeniable position as an international city, mother-tongue education policy would hardly find substainable support and success.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Lingua franca - what language(s) do you speak?
The above brackets should be particularly noted. Received a group mail from UKCASA on behalf of Philip Davies a couple of week ago, I only got time to read the recommended column last week, which was entitled "Mind my language? I only wish that I had, mes amis," by Tim Hames, from The Times on March 17, 2008. (see below for the link)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/tim_hames/article3564472.ece
It is a great piece. Very interesting and eye-opening! Also the illuminating comments from Brits, Brits overseas (in France, Germany, US, China, Japan, Thailand etc), French (of course, Brits and French are destined twins), Welsh, Luxembourgish etc.; by occupation, frequent-flying businessmen, language teachers, skilled exam candidates (Grade A result but speak none) etc. Here I quote some interesting points from the column and comments.
--- --- ---
From the column:
"at a time of globalisation and interdependency - when the advantages of speaking foreign languages have never been greater..."
"since a language is a key to understanding other cultures, we (Brits) risk becoming more ignorant about them."
From the comments:
"Many English people don't see the cultural insularity resulting from their monolingualism...When you a lingusitic colonialist, as native English and Americans speakers are, you feel superior to other cultures."
"the study of languages not only gives the practical ability to converse in another tongue, but also allows one to think differently."
"Students, especially those of modest means, aren't fools. They know what it takes to get hired. But if language ability ever starts leading to jobs, there will be a lot more of it on display."
"The benefits for an English speaker learning any other modern language are tiny compared with the benefits for anyone else learning English."
"everyone speaks English these days, so why bother." "We are not less capable of communicating with our neighbors, because they are all studying the planetary language, English, as hard as they possibly can."
"It's quite unture that everyone else speaks English." "it is a myth that everyone speaks English." "It is a myth that the whole world speaks English."
"fluency only comes when you live with a language."
"For non-British, larning English is a necessity. They have to learn it because they can't do without it. For native English speakers another language is an academic exercise."
"A German businessman said, 'When I'm selling, I'm willing to speak English. When I'm buying, I expect to be sold to in my own language.'"
"One does not learn langauges in order to speak to foreigners, but to understand what they are saying to each other."
"Foreign langauges are part of a good education, & the lack of them makes us look ignorant, insular & arrogant."
"Had those Brits had a knowledge of the German culture and language, they would have known to be clear in their expression of 'yes' or 'no'."
"my knowledge of German...was a hindrance rather than a help, as the managers doing the recruiting saw me more as a threat than an opportunity, as my German was better than their English."
--- --- ---
Let's face it. Learn the modern lingua franca, English, as hard as you can.
Like one comment, I also discovered the astoundingly high level of spoken English in Sweden when I travelled there in 2006 summer. The Swedish I had a chance to talk to spoke near native English. Almost everything out there were bilingual, Swedish and English. I had no difficult to communicate with the locals at all. However, I was told by a friend in Sweden that when you were unable to utter a word in Swedish supermarkets they would laugh at you at the back. Again in 2006 summer, I travelled to Italy for the first time. When I was out of the coach near the Milan Central Station looking for direction desperately, I tried hard to ask an Italian young man in my very limited Italian with the help of a phrasebook and a map. He ignored me and walked away. I was in despair. Anyway, it was very rewarding and interesting to use my kindergarten Italian in supermarkets in Roma and Fienze, a B & B in Venezia, a grocery store in Napoli, an ice-cream shop in Pisa, and in Basilica Sancti Petri and Musei Vaticani in Status Civitatis Vaticanae. It was wonderful memories!
--- --- ---
Postscript:
Reported by Telegraph on April 9, Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Olympic Committee, has described the Chinese officials guarding the Olympic torch as "thugs". He said "They are horrible. They did not speak English ... I think they were thugs."
Yes, it might be true that Coe was allegedly pushed out of the way by those "thugs". Even worse, the "thugs" were unable to utter a word in English, the "only" tool to communicate with Brits, so they were labelled as "thugs". As long as you can speak English, at least, I think, you will not be one of them. God knows whether those "thugs" could speak French, the dying language, to French Police and Olympic Committee member. Or are they not going to South America soon? Please teach them Spanish.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/tim_hames/article3564472.ece
It is a great piece. Very interesting and eye-opening! Also the illuminating comments from Brits, Brits overseas (in France, Germany, US, China, Japan, Thailand etc), French (of course, Brits and French are destined twins), Welsh, Luxembourgish etc.; by occupation, frequent-flying businessmen, language teachers, skilled exam candidates (Grade A result but speak none) etc. Here I quote some interesting points from the column and comments.
--- --- ---
From the column:
"at a time of globalisation and interdependency - when the advantages of speaking foreign languages have never been greater..."
"since a language is a key to understanding other cultures, we (Brits) risk becoming more ignorant about them."
From the comments:
"Many English people don't see the cultural insularity resulting from their monolingualism...When you a lingusitic colonialist, as native English and Americans speakers are, you feel superior to other cultures."
"the study of languages not only gives the practical ability to converse in another tongue, but also allows one to think differently."
"Students, especially those of modest means, aren't fools. They know what it takes to get hired. But if language ability ever starts leading to jobs, there will be a lot more of it on display."
"The benefits for an English speaker learning any other modern language are tiny compared with the benefits for anyone else learning English."
"everyone speaks English these days, so why bother." "We are not less capable of communicating with our neighbors, because they are all studying the planetary language, English, as hard as they possibly can."
"It's quite unture that everyone else speaks English." "it is a myth that everyone speaks English." "It is a myth that the whole world speaks English."
"fluency only comes when you live with a language."
"For non-British, larning English is a necessity. They have to learn it because they can't do without it. For native English speakers another language is an academic exercise."
"A German businessman said, 'When I'm selling, I'm willing to speak English. When I'm buying, I expect to be sold to in my own language.'"
"One does not learn langauges in order to speak to foreigners, but to understand what they are saying to each other."
"Foreign langauges are part of a good education, & the lack of them makes us look ignorant, insular & arrogant."
"Had those Brits had a knowledge of the German culture and language, they would have known to be clear in their expression of 'yes' or 'no'."
"my knowledge of German...was a hindrance rather than a help, as the managers doing the recruiting saw me more as a threat than an opportunity, as my German was better than their English."
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Let's face it. Learn the modern lingua franca, English, as hard as you can.
Like one comment, I also discovered the astoundingly high level of spoken English in Sweden when I travelled there in 2006 summer. The Swedish I had a chance to talk to spoke near native English. Almost everything out there were bilingual, Swedish and English. I had no difficult to communicate with the locals at all. However, I was told by a friend in Sweden that when you were unable to utter a word in Swedish supermarkets they would laugh at you at the back. Again in 2006 summer, I travelled to Italy for the first time. When I was out of the coach near the Milan Central Station looking for direction desperately, I tried hard to ask an Italian young man in my very limited Italian with the help of a phrasebook and a map. He ignored me and walked away. I was in despair. Anyway, it was very rewarding and interesting to use my kindergarten Italian in supermarkets in Roma and Fienze, a B & B in Venezia, a grocery store in Napoli, an ice-cream shop in Pisa, and in Basilica Sancti Petri and Musei Vaticani in Status Civitatis Vaticanae. It was wonderful memories!
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Postscript:
Reported by Telegraph on April 9, Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Olympic Committee, has described the Chinese officials guarding the Olympic torch as "thugs". He said "They are horrible. They did not speak English ... I think they were thugs."
Yes, it might be true that Coe was allegedly pushed out of the way by those "thugs". Even worse, the "thugs" were unable to utter a word in English, the "only" tool to communicate with Brits, so they were labelled as "thugs". As long as you can speak English, at least, I think, you will not be one of them. God knows whether those "thugs" could speak French, the dying language, to French Police and Olympic Committee member. Or are they not going to South America soon? Please teach them Spanish.
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