Do Chinese people have to speak pure English?

Chen Jiuwo wrote the essay "Long Live Chinese, Long Live Chinese English", believing that thinking comes from cultural accumulation, and language is an extension of thinking. It is difficult to promote English communication in China with a population of 1.3 billion. Avoid the Chinese use of English. Not only is it difficult to avoid, it is unnecessary. The purpose of language is communication, which determines its practicality. If any language wants to expand its scope of use, it should evolve during use to adapt to needs. The wider the adaptability, the stronger its vitality. According to this theory, the process of language transmission should be two-way, one is the acceptance of the language by the users, and the other is the continuous enrichment of the language itself. There are many jokes that mock Chinese people speaking English. There are so many of them that you can find hundreds of examples online. Including myself, after living in New York for more than twenty years and going to two graduate schools, I still cannot avoid making mistakes when using English. A neighbor of mine in New York has done all kinds of translation work, from primary school English, to the Foreign Languages ??Primary School, to the Foreign Languages ??School’s English Department. He has done text translation and simultaneous translation. He told me that it is still inevitable to make mistakes. The biggest mistake is ' Chinglish'. Do you also use Chinglish? Yes, I will have that too. There are also a few friends who all have interracial marriages. Either their wives are old Americans or their husbands are. There is an old saying: If you want to learn well, sleep with the master. The best way to learn a language is to use it in multiple ways. If you spend time with your spouse day and night, the usage rate is definitely higher than that of ordinary people. Even so, their English cannot avoid being 'Chinese'. There is a wife whose foreign husband is an English editor and is very good at English. However, this wife still forgets the third person singular when she talks in English. Why, because there is no such rule in Chinese. Instead of making me despair, these phenomena can help me to escape. One of the purposes of coming to the United States to study abroad was to pass the English test. What does passing the test mean? Say it like an American. Even those who sleep with Americans and those who have studied English for most of their lives cannot avoid the "Chinese style", so let's not get over it. Then again, if these people cannot avoid speaking Chinese English, those local English learners in China, who neither sleep nor have so much time to listen, listen and write, can still speak English very well. Pregnancy is not chaotic'? China has been opening up to the outside world for 30 years, and has been studying abroad for more than 30 years. Practice over the past 30 years has proved a truth: Chinese people, excluding those born in foreign countries, cannot even understand which country they are from. As long as they are When speaking English, you cannot completely avoid 'Chineseness'. In fact, this truth also applies to Spanish culture, Indian culture, Korean culture, and Japanese culture. In a word, it is basically a universal truth. In this case, it is a false proposition for Chinese people to pursue speaking pure English because it is almost impossible. We often see such descriptions in reports: so-and-so can speak fluent pure American English. I think the person who said this probably doesn't understand English. It's possible to speak fluently, but it's hard to tell if it's pure. Fluency does not mean complete accuracy, nor does it mean not making Chinese mistakes. On the other hand, why do Chinese people have to speak pure English? It's not necessary. Based on my more than 20 years of experience in traveling to the United States, it's completely unnecessary. Language is a communication tool, as long as it achieves the purpose of communication. There is no need to be ashamed of the Chinese accent or Chinese grammar, nor to regret the things we cannot do. The level of English depends on needs, such as vocabulary. The more you need in work and life, the more you can remember, and vice versa. Furthermore, the same applies to Americans. When you hear Americans speak Chinese, there are a few who don’t have an accent, and a few who don’t make American grammatical mistakes. Even if that Canadian is a big guy, it would be the same if he could talk a little more. I met him at a party in New York a few years ago. At the end of the conversation, he said: In short, what I mean is... This is obviously British Chinese and conforms to English grammar, but no one agrees with him. I don't care, I just praise him for being more Chinese than a Chinese person in speaking Chinese. Foreigners can speak British Chinese, and we can certainly speak Chinese English. Not only that, there are more of us than there are of them. The law of language communication is majoritarianism, which is the result of convention. There was no road in the world. When more people walked on it, it became a road. There was no Chinese English in the world. But when more people spoke it, it became part of English. Is there anything strange about it? Many vocabulary and colloquial formulas in American English come from Chinese, which is the result of Chinglish. As more and more Chinese people speak English, this phenomenon will definitely continue, just like the phenomenon of English in Chinese. Communication is a process of mutual influence. This influence is natural, subtle, and therefore unstoppable.

Those jokes that satirize Chinglish may not still be funny in a few years. Just like American English was lampooned by British English back then, not only are they not funny now, they have become mainstream in English. With the development of China's economy and culture, Chinglish will undoubtedly have an impact on the development of English. This is reasonable and not surprising at all. If you are not preparing for an exam, make yourself more relaxed and try to speak English correctly, but there is no need to be ashamed of not saying it correctly. Relaxation will make you learn faster. Especially in China, on our own territory, there is no need to be humble and ask them if I am right? Guests and hosts are welcome, as long as we communicate sincerely, both Chinese English and British Chinese will be understood by each other. Communicate boldly, express yourself to your heart's content, express your confidence and personality, and our Chinese English will begin to show up.