Lingual Bee

Change: New Blog Address

2008-01-03T21:58:00.000-05:00

It's the year of 2008 already. How come 2007 gone by faster than the Big Apple dropping to the ground on the New Year's Eve at Time Square?

At least it seemed so to me.

As I'm writing this blog, the Iowa Caucus--the first shot of the U.S. presidential election--is about to finish. Barack Obama, a young and charming African-American Senator from Illinois, is likely to win in the Democratic Party.

Something usual, or really big, is going on, eve if Obama doesn't win the Democratic nomination or the general election in the end.

I can't find a better word to describe it, except with the one that Obama has been reminding everyone constantly during his campaign: Change.

People are looking for a change, and they are looking for a true leader who is best to take them on the path of change. With his audacity of hope, Obama might just be the one.

While Obama is busy of making huge changes--to his or to other's life, I decided to make some changes too, starting with this one: moving Lingual Bee blog to a new address at Kantalk.com (http://blog.kantalk.com/).

I look forward to writing as often as I can, as much as I look forward to living through the year of change.

A New Skill Needed for the New Coach

2007-12-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

England's national team of football (called soccer in the U.S.) got a new head coach. It's a big deal. His name is Fabio Capello and his accomplishment speaks itself; he had led four clubs--Milan, Read Madrid, Roma, Juventus--to reach the championship in the European professional football leagues at one time or another.

Sounds like a great pick. But there is one problem. Capello is an Italian, and he is not one of those Europeans who can juggle several languages as skillful as David Beckham does with soccer ball. Will it be a problem? According to another famed coach in the similar situation, it may well be. Rafael Benítez, the Spaniard and head coach of Liverpool, offers this advice to Capello:

Rafael Benítez believes Fabio Capello's first task should be to improve his grasp of English after admitting struggles with the language caused him untold problems during his first season at Liverpool. "The first thing Capello will need to do is improve his English," Liverpool's manager said yesterday. "It is very important that you can express yourself, especially at half-time in a changing room which is the crucial time for a manager.

"I had many problems at first, confusing wine and win was one example, and my players would be laughing at times when I was trying to explain things. You think everyone understands football but a foreign manager also needs to understand the humour and the small details.

Can Capello be coachable to master English before the next World Cup qualification games starts?

Speaking English IS Hard (4)

2007-12-11T23:27:00.000-05:00

When I was at her age, I couldn't pronounce "refrigerator" either. And I had no clue what "cheese" is whatsoever.

Speaking English IS Hard (3)

2007-12-09T11:43:00.000-05:00

Can she just say a simple phrase "No comment"?

Speaking English IS Hard (2)

2007-12-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

Speaking English is STILL hard:

Speaking English IS Hard

2007-12-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

Speaking English IS hard, especially doing it in front of a camera.

Generation Gap in Spoken Language

2007-12-02T23:55:00.000-05:00

Some politicians are concerned that, as the population of Hispanics grows, English may become an optional language for many immigrants in this country. A new study shows that's mostly true for the first-generation immigrants. However, by the third generation, not that many can even say "hola". As it's reported in L.A. Times:

A study released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, reports that in families like the Peredas, for whom Spanish is the dominant language among immigrant parents, English fluency increases across generations. By the third generation, Spanish has essentially faded into the background.

According to the Pew report, which analyzed surveys with more than 14,000 Latino immigrants, only 23% of adult first-generation Latinos say they can carry on a conversation very well in English, compared to 88% in the second generation and 94% in the third. Mexicans are the least likely to say they speak English well, which the study's authors attribute in part to a lower educational level.

To put the number in a perspective, about three quarters of the grand parents in immigrant families are unable to understand what their grand kids say.

What's Love Got to Do with It

2007-11-30T22:54:00.000-05:00

What is the best scenario for a Japanese woman who is eager to learn English well and quickly?

Well, according to this story at The Sydney Morning Herald, she should buy an airticket to Australia, find her prince-charming--handsome native only--in a bar, and fall in love with him--or at least kiss him--as quickly as she can. It's not just a fairytale. A serious researcher has done a good study of it:

Macquarie University researcher Kimie Takahashi spent five years interviewing young Japanese women studying English in Sydney, and found that almost all had arrived coveting a handsome and courteous English-speaking "gentleman" loosely based on their favourite Western film stars.

Their blue-eyed Prince Charming would help them improve their language skills, boost their social capital and help them construct a new identity, explains Dr Takahashi, an expert in applied linguistics, in her recently-published doctoral thesis.

And the reporter cited an example of a Japanese woman:

"White western men who speak English as a first language are often considered the holy grail of romantic partners by young Japanese women", says the Japanese-born academic, who reluctantly admits that she felt the same way when she left her home city Yokohama for the Gold Coast in 1992.

Hey, what can you say to those Australian-born, Brad Pitt look-alike beach bums.

Lucky bastards?

What would you say to those Japanese men who are left behind?

Well....nothing. Maybe tell them to buy a Tina Turner's CD.

What's love got to do with it?

Never Too Old To Learn English

2007-11-28T23:56:00.000-05:00

There is an old American saying: You can't teach an old dog any new trick. That would be typical self-depreciating seniors joking about themselves when it comes to pick up a new skill. For many senior immigrants, they are in the same boat when it comes to learn English. But how old is too old? I'm a bit surprised to learn from this story:

At age 65, Jan walked from the family's home in Tucker to her free English class in Clarkston earlier this month.

She is one of many senior refugees who steadfastly attend English classes, hoping to adopt the language of their new country and become citizens. With citizenship comes the chance to bring over children left behind years ago.

In case you think she's your hero or role model, hold that thought for a second. According to the same story:
In a nearby classroom, Ghe Nguyen, 72, of Vietnam and Solomon Karmanue, 74, of Liberia study their lesson on Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.

With that kind of self-determination, they will be able to rebut the old American saying in English pretty soon.

Next Lesson Topic: Bankrupt

2007-11-26T23:04:00.000-05:00

Nova, the largest private language school chain in Japan, ceased to operate a few months ago. It came so quickly and unexpectedly that many ESL teachers--most of them came from the western countries-- didn't get paid for their last month of the service.

Some of the teachers got stuck in Japan because they had little saving to cover even an one-way ticket to fly back home. I guess either Nova didn't pay them well prior to the bankruptcy, or the teachers had hard time to save. It's an unpleasant scene that caught some attentions of the international media. But from this Canadian ESL's account, it wasn't as bleak as it looked like. In her interview, she said:

"It was pretty crazy. I loved it. I loved the people," she told CTV's Canada AM.

"They were so amazing. They were so nice. When Nova went down, I heard stories of people getting free food from their students, students offering teachers a place to stay. They were amazing about the whole Nova situation."

This debacle doesn't scare her from doing the same. Her next move? According to the same interview:

"Korea is the next option. A lot of my friends, the majority of my friends went to Korea and that's what I plan to do end of January," she said.

It seems that teaching ESL is a great fun hard to miss. Or is it teaching ESL in Asia sounds too exotic to miss out?

Russians Learn to Speak English Outside Classroom

2007-11-20T23:48:00.000-05:00

I've always believed that, to pick up spoken English, you are better off sitting in a park or a bar than in the classroom. How can you learn to speak from hearing teacher talking all the time?

A friend sent me an article appeared in today's The St. Peterburg Times. It's about Russian students getting out the classroom--finally--and practicing English in informal groups:

Tired of English classes held at universities, Russian students and professionals have taken to the Internet to find new ways of learning English. VKontakte, a Russian online social networking site, similar to Facebook, is now making it easier to find English language conversation groups in St. Petersburg.

VKontakte allows individuals registered on the site the opportunity to create groups based on their general interests. Speaking English is one of the most popular. One such group, called “I Speak English,” created in September, is described on its Vkontakte page as a club for “those who want to be able to converse fluently in English with foreigners.”

If the momentum of this grassroots efforts stays on, then I'd expect nothing short of a "October Revolution" in Russia in language learning and acquisition.

For the full article, here is the link.

Spanish TV Network Teaches English

2007-11-18T23:50:00.000-05:00

As the presidential election approaches, one issue is heatedly debated about English language. Should English be the only official language of the United States? Are all immigrants required to reach a certain proficiency level of English before being granted citizenship?

Latinos have a lot of stakes on this issue. Most of them came over crossing the southern border; many live in the Hispanic communities and don't speak English.

Not that they don't want to. Some say that they have no money or time, or both, to take the classes. So one of the Spanish-language network came out a solution. According to the report from L.A. Times:

Garcia will get a little help keeping his resolution in January when the Spanish-language television network Azteca America launches a series aimed at teaching English to its nationwide viewers. Called "Survival English," the show will focus on basic language skills for real-life situations such as renting an apartment, shopping at a market and visiting a doctor's office. The television program represents a major departure for Spanish-language media and one that Azteca officials hope will foster assimilation of Latino immigrants and boost their political and economic clout. It also addresses concerns of some elected officials and other critics who assert that speaking English should be a priority for all immigrants.

The same report also says that the television program will air on weekends and last 15 minutes to an hour.

If that's all it takes to learn a new language, we wouldn't have this immigrant not speaking English issue at all. A political move? or a marketing gimmick? Stay tuned.

2007-11-15T23:53:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, traditional language teaching in schools has been consistently failing to prepare the students to acquire a new language, yet there is little innovation to change it over the years. That might be changing now, as reported in this article at Washington Post:

In the Cultural Identity in a Changing World course, 16 students sitting in a four-hour class last week learned about chameleons in apartheid South Africa, people whose official racial designation was changed by the government through the stroke of a pen. Indians became colored. Chinese became white.

The course is designed to teach the nitty-gritty of language acquisition -- reading, writing and oral communication -- through the context of content rather than through drilling of basic skills, something common in traditional classes for nonnative English speakers.

(The full article is here) I wish every school and community college that offer ESL course would do the same.

Singlish Tutorial

2007-11-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

Five-minute Singlish tutorial does help a bit, lah:

How Does Singlish Sound Like?

2007-11-11T23:01:00.000-05:00

So, how does Singlish sound like exactly?

I'm completely lost. Slow down, lady. Well, I don't know if that will help either.

How to Bashing Man in Singlish

2007-11-09T23:29:00.000-05:00

After a girl talk at a lunch with two Singaporean ladies, the novelist Rosie Milne ventured some awkward questions. She was being fed delightedly by her lunch companions. Not the foods, as Rosie dutifully reported at the Telegraph, but man bashing.

There is nothing unusual for girls to bashing men behind their back. Actually, something is wrong if they don't. What is unusual for this particular girl talk is that Rosie was taught to bash man in a colorful language called Singlish.

Here is how one of her companions defined Singlish:

“It’s a bit like a rojak, is Singlish” said one of the Singaporean Luscious Ladies, using the Singlish word for salad - an actual rojak is a mixture of vegetables and fried snacks, served with a sweet, spicy sauce.

No doubt they were eating. Then they quickly moved on to man bashing, in Singlish:

Like a schoolboy looking up rude words in the dictionary, I asked these Polyglot Paragons to teach me a few phrases of Singlish that I shouldn’t know.

They kicked off by teaching me a mild insult often used of hen-pecked husbands. These unfortunates are apparently described as Kiasu-kaici-kaibor – three words spoken all in a rush, as though they were one.

It all went downhill from there. You can read the complete article here to get the full flavor.

Plain English in Diverse Cultures

2007-11-07T23:19:00.000-05:00

Plain English is supposed to be plain, no matter who speaks it. It's more complicated than that, according to an article in Wall Street Journal titled Plain English Get Harder in Global Era.

The reporter featured several multinational companies' communication problem of their global workforces. His plain message is that plain English could be very confusing in the same circumstance but set in the different cultures.

No need to explain. Try to say "shut up" to your Japanese colleague just once in life and see how life--his or yours--would be forever changed from then on; whereas you tell your American colleagues to "shut up" million times a day and life goes on without a hitch.

Plain enough.

The reporter also touches the issue of accent. Here is excerpt:

Those samples help customers like Heyam Khalil, business-communications manager for Dubai-based Emirates Bank. She sought help for local trainees struggling to understand the accents of the bank's polyglot clientele. Most GlobalEnglish exercises feature American or British accents. But bank employees have to serve Egyptians who often pronounce "p's" as "b's," and Lebanese and Jordanians who tend to use a "z" sound instead of "th," Ms. Khalil says.

"We have Russians, Asians, Spanish, Italians -- you name it," says Ms. Khalil, an Iraqi. "You'd hear an Indian-English accent or Arabic-English accent, but not an American or British accent."

Money talks louder. It's sort of saying: "Hey, multinational companies, want my money? Get used to my accent, will ya?"

Sorry, I Don't Speak English

2007-11-05T23:15:00.001-05:00

I'm terribly sorry, Madam. I don't speak English......

Between You and I

2007-11-02T23:38:00.000-04:00

Every once a while, a serious English man (or woman) would get really serious about English language. What he or she do is to write a book about how bad the language is being spoken or written. They are not even talking about non-native English speakers; they lay blame to Brits and Americans, some of whom are supposed to be highly educated.

James Cochrane, a book editor in London, is one of those serious English men (Or Scottish, as he corrected). Here is the interview he did at NPR talking about his book called Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4562900

Just between you and me, if even many of the educated natives can't be sure between I and me, who am I to be guilty of speaking a bad English?

Learning a Language, Inventing a Future

2007-10-31T23:31:00.000-04:00

Commentating at NPR, Andrew Lam, a Vietnamese who came to America at the age of 11, offered an interesting perspective about his experience of learning English at the same time that he entered into puberty.

Here is the link for the audio:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5374822

So, if one has to speak broken English, the puberty is not the best time to do it.

Accent and Mistake Don't Matter

2007-10-29T23:30:00.001-04:00

The secret of mastering another language is really simple. It all boils down to two fundamental principles. First, feel comfortable with your accent--since you won't get rid of it anyway; second, not afraid of making mistakes. That includes the mistakes being made to you. The following BBC interview exemplifies the principles brilliantly:

Here is a bit of background information. A taxi driver, who speaks French-accented English, was waiting for his fare outside the BBC's studio in London. Out of blue, he was ushered in and put onto the stage. A few minutes later, the news anchor started the interview with him. That's what you've just watched.

The anchor didn't find out she was talking with a wrong guy during the live broadcast. The right one was supposed to be an IT expert of some sort, who's white, beard, and speaks a perfect Queen's English. He was sitting somewhere else and watching his name appeared on the TV screen.

All in all, the taxi driver handled it very well, despite his expertise lays behind steering wheel, not in front of computer. He proves that accent and mistake don't matter. Particularly if it's other's mistake.

Accent Parade

2007-10-26T23:18:00.001-04:00

Again, quoting the same article from L.A. Times about accent reduction in my last blog, but this time with the demonstration of each accent.

"I If someone speaks with an accent associated with an Asian language, people may assume they work as engineers or computer scientists."

"If someone speaks with certain Spanish accents, people may think they are recent immigrants working in landscaping or the hospitality industry."

"a French accent evokes images of romance and elegance."

"A British accent -- the "Queen's English" version -- suggests superiority and sophistication."

"An Australian accent brings to mind adventure and fun."

My lack of cultural sophistication failed me in picking up the social cue of each accent. To me, frankly, each accent sounds funny in its own way.

Accent Speaks for Itself

2007-10-24T22:38:00.000-04:00

If you only started to learn a second language in the late teen, you would almost be certain to speak the language with a traceable accent. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you can communicate clearly.

Well, not quite. At least, it's a bit more complicated for the non-native English speakers living in America. Each ethnics group has a few distinctive physical features, such as hair and skin color. Interestingly enough, accent is just like a physical feature. Once you open the mouth, an average American can pretty much tell where you were from without even meeting you.

That's when racial or national stereotypes kick in. How does each unique accent fare? The following paragraphs from an article in L.A. Times yesterday (titled "Accentuating the 'American' in their speech") explains it well:

Accents can lead to stereotypes, linguists said. If someone speaks with an accent associated with an Asian language, people may assume they work as engineers or computer scientists. If someone speaks with certain Spanish accents, people may think they are recent immigrants working in landscaping or the hospitality industry. Some accents are more desirable than others, said UC Berkeley linguistics professor Robin Lakoff. For example, a French accent evokes images of romance and elegance. A British accent -- the "Queen's English" version -- suggests superiority and sophistication. An Australian accent brings to mind adventure and fun.

Good or bad, it sounds that accent speaks for itself.

Putin Does Speak English

2007-10-22T23:16:00.000-04:00

After my last blog entry, I got really curious about the Russian President Putin's English skill. What a better way to tell it than hearing him giving a speech in English?

Over three months ago, Putin went to Guatemala and spoke in front of the delegates of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was pitching for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia's Black Sea resort Sochi. The presentation was five-minute long, delivered in English, expect the last one or two sentences in French (I guess).

During Putin's speech, his facial expression was animated, his hand gestures were assertive, and his accent was, well, thicker than the winter snow on the Sochi mountains. Your ears have to be tuned in with a typical Russian accent to completely understand Putin's pitch. And it didn't help that he tried to talk fast. I guess learning a foreign language like a circus bear can only get you that far.

But that's far enough for the delegates of the IOC. Sochi won the honor unexpectedly, beating the front runner, the South Korean resort of PyeongChang, by just four votes.

The polar bear was dancing after the IOC's announcement. Might ride on a bike too.

Learn Like a Circus Bear

2007-10-20T23:30:00.000-04:00

When Vladimir Putin first stationed in East Germany as a KGB officer in 1985, he didn't speak German. By the time he returned to the Soviet Union five years later, he was bilingual.

How did he do it?

According to a AFP report, it had little to do with the legendary KGB training school. He elaborated:

"In five years, even someone with average language ability can master a foreign language -- like the bear that goes to the circus and learns to ride a bicycle,"

Train like a bear in a circus apparently worked. Now, the Russian President, Putin also got English under his belt. Plus, he can speaks a few French words, according to the same report.

When Henry Talks, Everybody Listens

2007-10-18T22:07:00.001-04:00

Henry is Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State under President Nixon and Ford. He had since left the Washington a long time ago and has been making money. But he keeps his profile high in the public scene by doing interviews often with media.

Kissinger always has something to say about the current affair and diplomacy. He's known for being a master of political strategic thinking. So when he talks, everybody listens. Or at least the Washington does.

He got on Charlie Rose's show and talked for an hour. People tuned in to hear his view about the war in Iraq and other national security issues. I wasn't that interested in his views. But I was fascinated by his accent. Listen with me.

Kissinger emigrated to the U.S. from Germany when he was young. Should he have had stayed in Europe, he, being a Jew, could have lived a completely different life in Nazi Germany. Or might well be a short one.

America has been a great country for immigrants.

Mac vs. PC and American vs. British

2007-10-16T23:11:00.000-04:00

Watching TV ads Mac vs. PC is fun. The ads is simple and sleek--two guys standing next to each other, dressed remarkably different, and chatting casually to make fun of each other. Depending on which generation you are, or what type of a computer you use, you are bond to like at least one of them.

Then I watched the British version of the ads. Exactly same setup, equally sleek, but one thing is bloody different. They chat with a strong British accent. Although neither guy has said "bloody" once, the feel for their conversation is just different.

Exactly what and how, I can't articulate. Not the way I can tell the different feel between Mac and PC.

Yankee:

Jack:

An Accent Induction

2007-10-14T22:28:00.001-04:00

I didn't understand why Steven Speilberg would direct the movie The Terminal. It's just not his type. Being a legendary director as Speilberg is, he can cast any super start he wants. I guess that was the only reason Tom Hank played the lead role in the movie.

Hank's the performance isn't one of his best. Disappointed with the movie, I was nonetheless impressed by Hank's ability to fake an English with thick eastern European accent. Sure, manipulating voice is an essential skill that every actor should process, but I didn't expect an accent can be acted out consistently.

In an interview at NPR, Hank mentioned what the accent was based upon and how he did it. You can listen to his interview here at NPR.

Hard to Understand Soft English

2007-10-11T22:34:00.001-04:00

Even if you have mastered the standard English, you may still have big trouble to understand an American if he talks a soft English, which the comedian George Carlin prefected in this stand-up gig:

What Is Cool In Trendy Beirut

2007-10-08T21:43:00.000-04:00

First of all, I've never thought of Beirut being trendy. Admitted, I've never been to the Middle East before, and I don't think I have any friend from Lebanon. But I've watched way too much network evening news on TV. Somehow, Beirut came through to me as a perpetual war zone. At any give time, either someone was bombing somewhere in the city, or someone was talking about the bombing deemed to start soon.

If that's what Beirut is trendy of, I would think bullet-proof vest be the coolest thing, if not the most necessary one. I was way off on both fronts.

According to this report from Toronto Star's Middle East Bureau, Beirut is a charming city:

"Despite the pummelling it has suffered during a succession of wars, Beirut continues to boast an array of continental charms, including fine restaurants, an exuberant nightlife, a sophisticated café culture, and enduring ties to a certain former imperial power whose capital is the Paris of Europe."

So, guess what's cool in Lebanon's capital?

The same article says:

"English is cool," said a Western diplomat in Beirut. "If you're hip and you're young, you speak English."

You do if you are Lebanese.

According to Christian Merville, an editorial writer at L'Orient Le Jour, Lebanon's only French-language daily newspaper, English has incontestablement (indisputably) supplanted French as the language of status in this resolutely status-conscious land. Or, as Merville, puts it: "Rambo has replaced Rimbaud."

The article offers a few explanations, some of which are just usual suspects, such as that English is the lingua franca of global business and commerce, or that Hollywood has conquered the world earlier and more effective than Pentagon ever had.

But I found the following view laid out in the article is much more plausible:

At the same time, Lebanese citizens who may be contemplating an international move – as many do – are far more likely to be accepted as immigrants in English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada or the United States than they are by France.

"English," said a French-speaking diplomat, "is a lot more useful if you want to go abroad."

If Pentagon's success, or failure rather, continually lags off Hollywood's in that region, English could soon be desperately cool in many neighbors of Beirut.

If You Don't Speak Seven Languages

2007-10-06T22:15:00.001-04:00

If someone can speak seven different languages besides her native tongue, it's safe to say that she was born with a great talent; sometimes, it doesn't have to be a linguistic talent.

If you don't speak it, fake it.

It Takes Two Generations

2007-10-04T22:02:00.000-04:00

Linda Furiya, a columnist of the San Francisco Chronicle's Food page, grew up in rural Indiana in 1960s. She could be just another mid-western girl who's fond of farmland.

Not a Linda with last name Furiya. She's a second generation Japanese-American, living with the parents who speak heavy-accented English. Even if they spoke a perfect English, back to the 60s, they would surely stand out in rural Indiana, as exotic as a bamboo tree sticking out in a corn field.

Not a surprise, Linda has a good story to tell. She wrote a memoir about her childhood. The book is titled Bento Box In The Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood In Whitebread America.

It's about her girlhood, but she talked about her mother's ordeal of struggling with English. Here is the excerpt she was reading at an event in San Francisco:

Perhaps, millions more immigrants have gone through the similar ordeal that Linda's mother had. Only that hers got written, thanks to the second-generation who overcame the language barrier, and the shame of talking about it openly.

Comedy

2007-10-02T23:48:00.000-04:00

Someone said joke is the sudden death of an intermediate language learner. I found it to be so true.

I don't remember how many times I smiled politely or even pretended to laugh at some English jokes I didn't quite get. It became such a bad habit that I got caught once by my cousin. We were watching a comedy, a Hollywood movie, when she asked me what the actor just said that made me laugh. I looked at her confusingly. "Was I laughing? Well then, never mind."

I felt lucky she was the one asking the question. Native speakers usually wouldn't question you. They assume you, an intermediate learner who can speak fluent English, should already have the cultural knowledge and background to under the jokes they are telling, for example, knowing a main character from a popular TV program in the 60s or 70s.

Non-native speakers can easily get tripped on those. I found watching lots of comedies help. Not the homemade YouTube videos, (because they are harder to understand and some were just nuts), but rather TV sitcoms, stand-up comedies, etc.

One of my Chinese friends is a natural born comedian. Being at the center of every party we had, he'd be cracking jokes all evening long, in Chinese of course. One day, after being in US for almost 10 years, he finally announced: "I can do it now! I can crack jokes in English now!" No small amount of achievements, believe it or not.

Joke doesn't have to be sudden death if we learn to understand it and tell it too.

CNN Reports: Speak Chinglish

2007-10-02T23:18:00.000-04:00

John Vause, the corespondent of CNN's Beijing Bureau, had a piece on Chinglish a bit while ago. It cracked anchors Kiran Chetry and John Roberts up, despite they both tried hard to stay subdued.

I've been wondering about the effectiveness of the government's campaign to address the issue. John Vause should do a follow-up piece.

But, long time no see.

I Have a Bad Case of Diarrhea

2007-09-30T23:00:00.001-04:00

After my posting two days ago, I got a bit curious about that peculiar English learning method. It turned out to be a well known television series in Japan. Its official name is Eikaiwa Taisō Zuiikin' English, or short for Zuiikin English, which means English conversation and gymnastic exercise.

The mastermind of this TV program is a genius; who would have thought to link these two things together! And not just a genius, but a philosophical, creative genius, according to this Wikipedia entry:

"Fernandez Verde, demonstrates an interesting philosophy in learning languages. He proclaims that different cultures use muscles in different proportions due to their customs. For example, in one episode he states Japanese people have stronger lower back muscles (from bowing and keeping a lower posture), and a different leg muscle structure (due to squatting for long periods of time). He feels that using those particular muscles while learning the language of that culture will create strong connotations in your mind and faster learning."

Still, after watching one more episode of Zuiikin English, I truly feel I have a bad case of Diarrhea.

Spare Me My Life

2007-09-28T21:19:00.001-04:00

I always thought that the best way to learn English is to watch a drama film. The good drama is better than the best ESL teacher; the plot draws you in, the visual makes scenes vivid, and the dialogue keeps you engaged. Even you don't completely understand it, you are bound to learn a lot more by sitting in a dark theater for two hours than in a bright classroom for a whole day.

Until I watched this video clip, I never thought that a bad drama could have done even a better job:

Well, whoever directed this drama, he's mastered one technique that's often seen in a great drama: swift and drastic scene transition to achieve maximum emotional impact.

Even if I were desperate to learn English, sparing three cheerleaders' lives to do it is just too much for me.

Talk About How They Learned English

2007-09-25T23:24:00.000-04:00

Talk of the Nation, a regular talk show at National Public Radio (NPR), brought in Tom Miller, the editor of How I Learned English, to talk about the book. Two of the Latinos featured in the book also came on air to share their experiences. One of them had Frank Sinatra to thank for his master of English language. Several non-native speakers with various backgrounds called in and talked about their personal stories.

Each one of them speaks almost a perfect English. But as far as I can tell, no one has mentioned a word of textbook. Or classroom.

Listen to the whole interview here.

Book: How I Learned English

2007-09-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

A new book came out recently titled How I Learned English. I was hoping the author were Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or George W. Bush. But its subtitle tells that more than one has a story to tell, and they all have one thing in common--55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life.

It got me really interested. I've always been curious about how others learned their English. This is the editorial review from Publishers Weekly:

"Veteran travel writer Miller (On the Border) has put together a substantial volume on language, knowledge and cultural assimilation, gathering essays and excerpts from more than 50 authors, poets, professional athletes and musicians, doctors and politicians who took up English as a second (or third, or fourth) language. As PBS correspondent Ray Suarez notes in the foreword, for many "the need to learn English was accompanied by wrenching personal circumstances: exile, illness, economic migration, family dissolution," but it was also "a proffered ticket to... the modern and changing world." In a piece from 1982's Hunger of Memory, for example, Richard Rodriguez recalls distinctions he made as a child between a private and a public language-Spanish had always been his to use, but English, what he needed for school, felt more difficult to embrace. In a selection from her 2001 memoir American Chica, Washington Post books editor Marie Arana tells how she feigned ignorance of English on her first day at a new elementary school so she'd be funneled into the Spanish-speaking class. Other contributors such as Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Walter Mercado, Enrique Fernández and Daisy Zamora provide nuanced perspectives on the ongoing immigration debate, putting faces to the statistics and concrete meaning to broad points of policy and ideology."

Los Angeles Times also had a review about the book by a Cornell University professor. Here is an excerpt from her review:

"The result is a wide range of remembered English lessons, some of which are comical: Poet José Kozer advises that instead of using "beach" (which sounds too much like "bitch"), "I would say 'shore.' " Others offer practical advice, such as to carry a pocket dictionary, or to ask "older people who [don't] seem in a hurry" for directions. Some can be heartbreaking, as in the case of physician and poet Rafael Campo, who felt he had to "unlearn" Spanish to "finally leave Cuba behind and become truly American.""

I can't wait to read it.

English Crash Course

2007-09-21T23:07:00.000-04:00

No one has yet figured out exactly how our brain works when we learn a new language. But it's safe to say it takes a lot of efforts and time; a few months for those who are talented in language, and maybe years for those who are much better working with numbers. There is no shortcut even if you are in a hurry.

Until your head is smashed, luckily.

According to this report, this was what happened to a Czech speedway racer after a rider ran over his head in an accident:

"Non-English speaker Matej Kus, 18, took the spill during a race in the UK. Paramedics were stunned when he came round and asked where he was – in perfect English. It soon became apparent that Kus had lost his memory, forgetting he was a Czech bike racer, and presumably thinking he was an accent coach at the BBC."

I was about to take a crash course myself, and wonder what language I would end up with after I come round--it didn't occur to me that I might not. Then one more glance at the story stopped me cold. It says:

"The biker's foray into the world of received pronunciation was shortlived, however. As soon as his memory returned, two days later, his command of English evaporated."

Wow, isn't our brain something?

TV Commercials: Wanna Learn English?

2007-09-19T20:17:00.000-04:00

Learning English is a huge business. No surprises a few TV commercials were made to promote it. Here are three samples.

This one was aired in Germany:

German is quite good at humor after all.

This one was aired in Japan:

Let's just say it's a low budget commercial. And it's lost in translation.

This one was aired in Netherlands:

Well, it was aired first, then banned.

I guess that vulgar language is no longer covered in the Soesman's lesson plan any more.

Flying in Blind

2007-09-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

If you are about to take an international flight, and you are usually jitter about flying, then what you want to know about the captain of your flight that may calm you down a notch or two?

The pilot is well-trained in flying? He's very experienced to handle the emergency?

All right, those are in my mind too. A positive answer to either can make me feel better. It helps further if he's able to tell a few good jokes. Laugh, after in-flight red wine, is always able to sooth my nerve.

Then I watched this CNN report about the Air China Flight 981, flying from Beijing to New York's JFK International Airport:

(for the complete exchanges between the pilot and the controller, see this YouTube clip)

Okay, forget about telling jokes. And I don't even care if the captain were flying space shuttles before retiring to become a commercial pilot. From now on, I'd just pray like a hell that the captain of whatever flight I'll be on can speak damn English. Or at least understand it.

In case that isn't answered, then pray harder for the controller on the ground; better is he bilingual. Well, make it multilingual, just to play safe.

Is that clear?

That is NOT a question.

Wag the Dog

2007-09-15T22:43:00.000-04:00

Even a Dog Can Teach You English. Not just any dog; it's the world's most famous beagle, Snoopy, of the comic strip Peanuts.

Nintendo has recent released a DS game called English Lessons With Snoopy in Japan. Using the touch screen, it teaches kids English words and phrases, with the help of Snoopy and the rest of Peanuts gang: Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy.

I don't play the game. But I know Peanuts a lot. Hey, why play the stupid game to learn words and phrases piece by piece, while simply letting kids watch the Peanuts cartoon or read the comic strips would do a much better job. For one, it's a lot more fun; and kids can pick up the language in whole with the context, often masterfully written and lovingly narrated by Charlie Brown.

It's not Snoopy's fault, though. He is too smart to wag the dog.

It Takes a Village

2007-09-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

Hillary Clinton wrote a book called It Takes a Village, subtitled And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. That was over ten years ago, while she was the first lady. Given the star stature of Hillary, the book generated tons of publicity and interest then.

Someone in Taiwan might have taken it literately, according to the following BBC News report:

"Every day, 120 students travel by school bus to the Happy English Village in Taoyuan county - about an hour from the capital, Taipei, for English immersion classes.

The "village" is actually attached to one of the county's elementary schools.

Ordinary classrooms have been transformed to look like an airport waiting room and customs area - complete with the fuselage of a real plane donated by a Taiwanese airline company.

There are other themed rooms including a hotel; a bank; a pharmacy, general store; restaurant and coffee bar; science and cookery rooms and a dance studio."

Okay, it's not exactly what Hillary envisioned. At least, the subtitle has to be changed to And We Teach Children Other English Lessons.

It's spoken English lessons, by the way.

"At the Happy English Village in Taoyuan, foreign volunteer teachers interact with groups of 12 children in each class. The emphasis is on speaking. There are no lectures or written tests."

Taiwan isn't even the first country that stole Hillary's plan. South Korea has done it in several locations, so have Spain and Italy.

Sounds like a neat idea. Will it fly?

These two kids, going through a mock airport onto a 'plane' at the village, were apparently saying: "Oh, Yeah."

9/11 Anniversary: Tears In Heaven

2007-09-11T22:21:00.000-04:00

March 20, 1991 was a tragic and painful day for one particular individual, guitarist and singer Eric Clapton.

At 11:00am in New York City, a small boy fell from a window of the 53rd floor in a high-rise apartment building. In a few seconds, gone was the young life, completely unexpected.

The boy was Clapton's four-year old son, Conor. In the following months, Clapton wrote one of the greatest songs of all time, Tears In Heaven, and performed many times on stage. The melody was sad and blue; the lyrics was personal and touching.

Writing and singing the song helped Clapton heal the wound and recover from the tragedy. Listening to the song, I felt deeply sorry for him. But I couldn't say I had really felt his pain.

Then came another tragic day, September 11, 2001.

Within a short few hours, 2974 lives were falling, totally unexpected. It was so surreal that I had stayed numbed in front of a TV set for hours. Only afterward did the pain and grief begin to sink in.

Then from nowhere, the melody of Tears in Heaven started to fill my ears. At that moment, I understood and felt Clapton's pain. On that day, millions of Americans had felt what Clapton did ten years before.

I've listened to Tears in Heaven many times since. Clapton wrote that song to heal himself; he probably doesn't know that it has also healed millions of others.

At the sixth anniversary of 9/11, I turned to Tears in Heaven one more time.

The Best Movie Scenes For Voice-Over

2007-09-09T17:31:00.000-04:00

In practicing English by doing voice-over, you have endless Hollywood movie scenes to choose from. Here are the top five scenes that I've never gotten tired of doing:

1. Scent of a Woman

His eyes are blind, but his words are electrifying. This is Al Pacino's best performance.

2. Dead Poets Society

He stands tall, and he delivers the best inspiring speeches that a teacher can ever give; Robin Williams, when not making us laugh in a comedy, makes us cry in a drama like this.

3. Before Sunrise

He talks fast, and he's nervous; she listens closely, and she's curious. Ethan Hawke looks innocent in his appearance, but radiates charm in his words.

4. Patton

He's foul-mouthed, and he talks tough. George Scott's voice maybe hoarse, but his words are piercing with a ringing truth.

5. Wall Street

He's sharp, and he's audacious. Michael Douglas delivers the sleekest speech ever while still keeping his mega-ego in check.

Voice-Over with Hollywood Movies

2007-09-07T22:29:00.000-04:00

To speak like a native speaker, you need to act it out like one as often as you can, before it starts to sound naturally to you.

Acting? All right, you don't have to be on stage in school performing Shakespeare classics and pretending you are Romeo or Julia; just rent your favorite Hollywood movie, turn on the English subtitle, and do the voice-over as if you were Tom Hanks, or Meryl Streep, or whoever do the talking on the scene.

Watch how this Japanese did it with On Any Given Sunday:

(Here is the original. Gosh, how I admire and love Al Pacino's signature rhetoric! )

This guy also did voice-over with The Matrix and Independence Day. Sure, he needs to work on his accent harder. And the trace of an accent may stay with him no matter how hard he tries. But as long as he does it long enough, he will speak English with a natural rhythm and tone as a native speaker.

I wish I had done it much earlier. I had an easy excuse, though: in the late 80s, VCR in the Chinese households was as rare as panda in the wild.

On top of it, the authority did a much better job to protect original Hollywood movies from falling to our hands than to protect pandas from falling to the hunter's traps.

Joey Speaks French. Or Not.

2007-09-05T23:49:00.000-04:00

I had a good laugh watching Joey to learn French at this Friend episode:

He's born with one trait that most language learners would die to have: completely lack of shyness and feel for embarrassment. This should be his biggest advantage. But, as Phoebe madly found out, Joey's ears tune out anything that's not familiar to him. It's balanced out his advantage. He ended up like a moron.

For someone who is born with a pair of ears that's completely insensitive to the tune and rhythm, learning a new language could be a painful struggle.

No Kidding, No Degree

2007-09-03T22:03:00.000-04:00

The year I went to college in China, the Education Ministry raised the bar of the English proficiency level that every college student needed to cross by the time of graduation, regardless one's major. It went nut with a standard test and mandated the national Certificate English Test (CET) test, starting from Level One to the highest Level six. Either you passed the Level 4, or you kissed off the diploma.

By all means, CET was a serious test. It included all the standard areas of a language acquisition: listening comprehension, vocabulary, reading, and writing. Whoever designed the test, they made sure one criteria being met: squeeze out every bit of fun in language learning. On the receiving end, many students felt it's pain in the ass to prepare for and to take the test. My pain was felt well beyond the ass.

I knew it wasn't purely my fault, but I dared not challenge the authority either. Only reading a piece of news today did I come to a sudden realization: that I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. According to this report on Taiwan's new education policy:

"In a decree on August 28, the education ministry suggested that vocational schools and technical colleges should revise their curriculum to improve the standard of the students, the United Daily News (UDN) reported on Tuesday.

Regarding English, the ministry suggested that each student must be able to sing at least eight English songs and tell eight jokes as part of the graduation exam. Those who fail cannot graduate."

No kidding!

Follow Me in YouTube

2007-09-01T00:55:00.000-04:00

I blogged about Follow Me, an English educational TV program produced by BBC, about a year ago. To the millions of Chinese, Follow Me wasn't just an educational program; it was our first peek of a colorful, unbelievable contemporary world, contrasting so drastically different from the dull, somewhat depressing one that we were living then.

When I was writing the piece, several main characters in the program came back to my memory with the vividly images. I knew that memory would stay with me for many years to come, if not forever.

Well, those characters no longer just dwell in my memory; thanks to YouTube, they are now right in front of my eyes and, with just a few clicks away.

Delightedly, I found two Follow Me clips on YouTube. The first one is the promo:

Gosh, my memory didn't fail me. Both Francis and Jane came out almost exactly as them of I recalled.

The second one is one episode about travel:

The obese husband is still as funny as I watched the first time.

Speak with Authority

2007-08-29T09:21:00.000-04:00

Poet and English teacher, Taylor Mali, taught us to speak with authority, something that has been lost in the "totally like whatever"s of the modern English language. And all along, I thought those are the cool words that I, as a non-native speaker, should be inserting to my sentences to make them sound, you know, more American-like?

Introducing Taylor Mali, doing poetry slam:

Totally Like Whatever
By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

In case you hadn't noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you're talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you're saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences - so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . .
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we've become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

Who Else Has Time To Study English?

2007-08-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

I dug out a piece of an old news, reported by the official China Daily. It shows that the zealous drive to study English for the Beijing's Olympics Games goes way beyond overworked taxi drivers in the capital city. As a further proof of the host city's hospitality to foreigners, an even more strategic important service profession is affected too. Here is an excerpt:

"China's capital Beijing plans to require attendants at its public toilets to speak basic English in a bid to improve the services provided to foreign visitors, state media said.

It is part of an ambitious campaign to raise the standards of public loos in the city of 13 million as it gets ready to welcome thousands of tourists for the 2008 Olympics, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

The paper did not specify the level of English toilet staff need to possess, but said they must in future also be proficient in sign language."

--China Daily, December 11, 2004.

No shit, I thought to myself. (My friend Bob always says "No shit" whenever I tell him something he never heard of.) Public toilet attendant? Sounds a lot less prestigious job than flight attendant. And what services do they provide exactly?

Okay. Never mind. I don't want to know anyway.

But I can't help think what lessons should be covered in their English training. I came up with a short list that's barely minimum:

Hello.

Welcome to Beijing.

Do you enjoy today's game?

May I help you?

No thanks. We don't take tips in China.

The next public toilet is five Hu Tong's away from this one.

Excuse me, sir (madam). Your fly is still open.

Hope you enjoy staying in Beijing. Goodbye.

Who Has Time To Study English?

2007-08-24T00:58:00.000-04:00

Who works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and still has energy and time to study English?

Meet the superman:

He doesn't look like a nerd, does he? He is not. He is a taxi driver who makes a living in the streets of Beijing, according to this BBC report:

Mr Mu, like other Beijing taxi drivers, is currently studying English so he will be able to better understand visitors at next year's games.

Taxi firms provide each driver with one free English lesson a fortnight, and give them a free textbook.

"The book is really thick," says the 33-year-old, who works 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ever since China won the bid to host 2008 Olympics Games, the western media has never tired of putting out the stories like this, which, along with another frequent topic--public toilet, always makes a good headline.

However, when a foreigner hops a cab in Forbidden City a year from now, I seriously doubt he will be greeted anything more than a Hello. Not that taxi driver can't learn English and speak it well--anyone can; it is just I don't believe any one of them gives it a damn about doing it. After a 12-hour shift with no day off, the first thing they most likely do is go to bed straight.

They don't need a English book to put them asleep.

Is Baby Talk The Universal Language?

2007-08-23T00:42:00.000-04:00

Every time I read something from a legitimate media outlet that starts with "A new study suggests that...", I knew I would have some fun. Half of the cases, the "new" study only tells something old and plain common sense, like obesity is not good to your health; another half are simply silly. It's called junk science, churned out by, well, junk scientists (I wish I had their job).

Here is the latest I read that has to do with language, reported by CBS News. It asks a rhetoric question: Is baby talk the universal language? and it starts with, what else, "A new study suggests...".

Baby is a little creepy genius in language, regardless his or her race or any other background.

That's what it suggests, not so subtly. Want a proof, here is a few words from the scientists:

"Researchers Greg Bryant and Clark Barrett, of University of California, Los Angeles, say the findings show that the relationship between sounds and intentions is universal because much of the meaning of language is communicated through nonverbal cues, such as pitch, loudness, and rate of speech."

After reading this, I was elated; the day has finally come, that we human can talk to a bird directly. Or at least our baby can.

Great Leap Forward: English For Everyone in China

2007-08-20T23:01:00.000-04:00

The latest Newsweek issue (Aug. 20-27, 2007) did a special report on global education. One of the stories was about the English fever in China and other Southeast Asia countries. According to the report, some 170 million people are studying English in China alone. That's more than half of the U.S. population. In comparison, 40 million people worldwide are studying Mandarin.

Here is an excerpt:

"And the consulting group McKinsey warned China in 2005 that fewer than 10 percent of its college graduates were suitable for employment at multinationals—primarily because they couldn't speak English. "Any nation that ignores English learning does so at its peril," says James Oladejo, an expert in language acquisition at Taiwan's National Kaohsiung Normal University."

For the full article, click the link: English For Everyone.

(Note: "Any one who ignores this Newsweek report does so at his peril," says Lingual Bee, an expert in language exaggeration at Mainland's National Abnormal University.)

Russell Peters Again: "Are Wee Goool?"

2007-08-18T00:48:00.000-04:00

Watching Russell Peters's mocking of Indian accent brought me back a fond memory.

Freshly minted at the graduate school years ago, I was pondering which courses to take at the beginning of the semester. A fellow Chinese student, who was half way through his Ph.D. program, offered his advice. The way he delivered it, however, sounded more like a stern warning: "Whatever you take, just keep one thing in mind: skip the course taught by any professor whose last name is Singh or longer than 12 letters".

He was dead serious. But, what a hell, I was young and full of myself then. A week later, I was sitting at the back row in a class called Fluid Dynamics, taught by Associate Prof. Singh, who, at the first glance, seemed amicable and smart.

The problem was, he spoke in a rapid fire, as if he's always in a hurry; on top of that, his accent was so thick that I wondered whether he was speaking Hindi with an English accent. By the end of the class, I was sure that some sort of fluid had flooded my ears dynamically; almost nothing the professor lectured came across.

I should have heeded warning.

But I stuck out. It turned out Prof. Singh was indeed amicable and very smart. That's how I recall him now. Otherwise, I can't explain why I didn't drop his class. I also remember, somehow along the way, the dynamic fluid receded, and my ears started to tune into his English, to the degree that I was quite fond of his unique accent.

I got A in the end. I thought Prof. Singh was very "goool".

The Talent That Makes You Laugh

2007-08-16T00:55:00.000-04:00

If only his name, not his face, be seen first, then he would be thought as a white; if the other way around, then he would be taken as an Indian. Truth to be told, Russell Peters is a Canadian, born to an Indian immigrant family.

Not your average Canadian.

Had he become a first-rate computer scientist or medical doctor, Russel would be a fairly standard success story of a second-generation immigrant, making his parents proud, but unlikely turning any head in a street. Yet, against all odds, he becomes one of the most recognized persons in Canada. He's achieved the celebrity status not by his brain power, but his talent to make people laugh.

Russell is a brilliant stand-up comedian.

His brilliance, however, doesn't rest solely on telling jokes smoothly--that's given for any stand-up comedian; his brilliance shines through his great motor skill. Name any ethnic group, Russell can mimic a typical accented English that's associated with that group.

No surprise, Russell's Indian accent is authentic and non-mistaken, as he loves to make fun of his parents. But my favorite is his take on a Chinese accent. Here is his performance:

Based on my observation, the store owner's accent that Russell has a great fun of is more like from someone whose native language is Cantonese.

A Mandarin speaker, usually from the northern China, has a distinctive accent from that of a Cantonese speaker. That aside, he wouldn't be so adept in bargaining as that store owner, either.

The Bee Has an Accent Too

2007-08-15T00:38:00.000-04:00

I hate all the TV commercials by big phama. It just ain't fun. Even animation can't do the trick. Such as Nasonex, an allergy medicine, which features a suave bee in its commercials. How suck are they? I would rather suffer the allergy for one day than watch the Nasonex's ads for 30 seconds. Take your turn:

Only one thing in it stirs my curiosity. The bee talks in an accented English in the ads, as the Gecko's lizard does. As far as I can tell, it sounds nowhere near East End London.

A few keywords later in Google, I uncovered the bee's origin; it's about a thousand mile south of London.

Hola! That's Spain.

It turned out, the voice-over was done by Antonio Banderas, an Spanish actor. No wonder it sounds familiar. He did the voice of Shrek II's Puss too.

The Lizard Has an Accent

2007-08-14T00:50:00.001-04:00

These days, I seem to be the only person who doesn't have TiVo. The 20-dollar a month saving has a trade off: live with TV commercials each time the tube is on. Luckily, many ads are not half bad, except those churned out by the big phama. They always urge me to "call you doctor today".

In general, the TV ads with an animal as its central character are more fun to watch. Budweiser's frog and Aflac's duck always make me laugh, which not the case with a lot of prime-time comedies. Most of the time, the animal in the ads talks funny, just as the way it usually does in a Disney cartoon.

Gecko, the big insurance, tried to do it a bit differently with its rival's duck in mind. It featured a lizard in a series commercials. That little creature is cute and cocky, and walks like a duck. But it doesn't talk in a typical exaggerated tone in a cartoon, but instead with a serious, distinctive man's accent. It sounds like this:

For a while, I couldn't figure out what exactly the accent is. Until I came to the Gecko's blog:

"A lot of people are writing to me asking, "What's up with your accent?" Some people say I sound like an Aussie from "down under." (After all, geckos are found all over the world.) Others say it sounds like an East End London, or Cockney, accent. Cockneys are considered working-class inhabitants of London. According to tradition, the strict definition is limited to those born within earshot of the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow, a historic church in the City of London. I think I'd agree that my voice does sound a bit like an East End London accent."

So, the cocky lizard has an Cockney accent.

Don't Tell Him

2007-08-10T01:35:00.000-04:00

I once read a joke while eating. It nearly choked me. The joke goes something like this:

A guy went to a fancy restaurant in New York to see his Jewish friend, who owns the place. After the meal, his friend proudly showed him around. In the back kitchen, the guy keenly observed the celebrity chef, who's leading a crew of 20 something staffs. He acted like a general--barking orders, giving instructions, and occasionally cursing someone. This was all done in Yiddish, since the whole crew seems to be Jews.

Except for one guy.

His look tells he is Asian for sure, maybe Chinese. But he was talking to the chef and others back and forth in Yiddish with an ease. The visitor turned to his friend and said: "Wow, he speaks perfect Yiddish. How did he learn it?"

"Shih..." his friend lowered his voice, "don't tell him. He’s been with us for many years; he always thought he speaks English."

Language Exchange with a Native Speaker? Good Luck

2007-07-23T12:07:00.000-04:00

The whole language exchange thing is built on one ground: any native speaker, by definition, can teach non-natives of his mother tongue, particularly in spoken form.

The ground is shaky. From my experience, the rule of thumb is that you would be numbed before you found a good conversational partner to practice with. It’s mostly the game of luck. Let’s be realistic; even speaking in native language, a good conversational partner is in a short supply.

I knew I’m a pretty bad one. By all means, I’m no where near clinical egomaniac. But during a typical conversation, whenever someone said something—or anything—to me, I couldn’t wait till he finished before jumping in with “Yes, that reminds me when I…”. Then my big mouth wouldn’t shut up for next five minutes—ten minutes, if not the other guy was yawning. I take it as human nature; as the privileged species, we all love ourselves more than anyone else. True or not, thinking that way make me feel less guilty.

Every once a while, the other guy might get lucky. I was humble and not talking about Me Me Me in every other sentence. This was usually when I got carried away talking about things. And I do have a few hot spots, such as politics, to bake. It only worked well, however, if the other guy is also as nut as I am about politics. Otherwise, I was practically tone deaf; even he’s talking about his recent trip to Paris, I could easily turn it a political debate—starting with whether Sarkozy’s victory signaled the death of socialism once for all. I was sure that his fond memory of Eiffel Tower would be long gone before I launched into the bilateral relationship of the U.S. and France.

So, what is the odd to find someone who doesn’t fall in love with himself and who is actually curious about what you have to say? Less than the Socialist Party leader Royal moving into the Élysée Palace in her life time.

Am I too slow? Or are they too fast?

2007-07-12T00:39:00.000-04:00

Recently I listened to some Spanish learning podcasts like Coffee Break Spanish. Well, on and off, anyways. These are podcasts that are at or slightly above my level.

What is a little disheartening for me is not the stuff that I haven’t learned and therefore don’t understand. It is the words and phrases that I have learned. Sometimes even over and over again.

It is also not that I can’t understand these words. The most frustrating part is I don’t seem to respond to what I heard, at least not immediately. I can’t grasp the meaning, right then and there. No matter how focused I tried to stay, my brain simply doesn’t function as fast as the host’s tongue.

I can’t recall having this problem when I learned English. With English, either I knew or I didn’t. I don’t remember getting caught between knowing something and not comprehending it quick enough.

Of course My English learning experience is nothing to brag about. Like many Chinese, I took English classes at schools starting from elementary school, all the way to college. So we can conclude I started at a young age and made gradual progress throughout a lengthy period of time.

How is learning Spanish NOW different from learning English THEN?

a) I am a few decades older

b) Spanish is a completely different animal from English

c) I am more eager to shorten the learning process

d) I have less time to spend on language learning every day

I could hide in the excuses a) and b), but the real answer might lie in the conflict between c) and d). Even the best pianist has to practice every day. What makes a beginning language learner think she can be different?

Who is Her English Teacher?

2007-06-28T01:29:00.000-04:00

Zhang Ziyi is a super movie star in China. But success in a country with 1.3 billion audiences means little to Hollywood. You need to conquer the English-speaking world to be taken seriously in Hollywood. An ambitious actress, Zhang is taking on that challenge head on.

The first barrier she needs to overcome has nothing to do with showing her talent in acting. It's how quickly she can master spoken English. In a short period of time, she's made a remarkable progress, so much so she was able to play a leading role in Memoirs of a Geisha in English.

When asked about her her secret, Zhang said she owed the success to her English teacher, who has his own fame in entertainment industry.

"It was television commercials and Eminem. I loved to watch the commercials because they pronounce their words so clearly.I don't always know what (Eminem) is talking about, so I write down the lyrics and repeat them.Later, I understood how rude they were."

Zhang apparently didn't realize how lucky she was when picking Eminem as her English teacher; speaking the rude language is required in a Hollywood movie unless it's rated G.

Are Movies Good for Beginning Language Learners?

2007-06-19T01:10:00.000-04:00

I am a believer in using real world material to study a language. I love watching movies so I thought watching Spanish movies may boost my snail-paced Spanish learning.

I rented two DVDs: The Motorcycle Diaries and Volver. Both turned out to be great films.

The Motorcycle Diaries followed young Ché Guevara and his friend on their journey across the continent on a motorcycle. From a realistic angle, the camera captured a beautiful landscape and the people who lived on that land, both of which had a profound impact on the young man who later became a Cuban revolutionary leader.

Volver set a completely different tone with its unrealistic twists of plots. And it’s all about women, women from different generations who struggle with life, revenge and love. Penelope Cruz turned in a stellar performance. I think we can finally take the label “Tom Cruise’s ex-girlfriend” off of her.

Since my Spanish is very limited, I had no clue what everyone was saying in the movies, until I turned on the English subtitle. After that, I got into the story line, into the characters’ lives and their world. In the end, I enjoyed the movies very much.

How much Spanish did I learn? A couple of words like “sobrina” for niece and “tia” for aunt. Other than those, I hate to admit I didn't retain many more words.

If my goal was to study Spanish efficiently, I’m probably better off spending these 4 hours reading grammar books and memorizing vocabulary. I didn't accomplish what I set out to do - my Spanish learning is still crawling. But, on the other hand I wasn’t particularly discouraged by not understanding more than a few words in the movies. I actually look forward to watching more Spanish movies. Is that a good thing in itself?

What Is She Doing?

2007-06-07T23:47:00.001-04:00

Here is a multiple choice question from the latest TOEFL:

(After hearing a short conversation between a American woman and a Russian man)

What is the woman doing to the man?
(a) hugging him
(b) slapping him
(c) straightening his neck bone
(d) reducing his accent

I was trained to be very good at the elimination technique, which is the ETS killer, according to a Kaplan's test prep instructor. So I quickly crossed out the answer (a), because she can't be that dead serious, and the answer (b) because he can't be that happy about it.

I was about to choose the (c), until I observed she wasn't wearing a physician's standard white uniform. And that left the (d) only possible right answer.

According to a story on the June 5th's New York Times, I was right (kudos to Kaplan) ! The story is entitled Accents on the Wrong Syl-LA-ble. It's about how several accent reduction professionals using various techniques to reduce, or improve, non-native speakers' accent.

So what's the problem? According to one of the featured professionals:

"Ms. Pawlitschek said the “r” and the “l” are problematic for Asians, and the “v” and the “w” for Indians, who also often have “a mix of their own mother tongue and then a British layer on top of it.” Some problems appear across cultures. “The ‘r’ is fascinating,” she said. “You can go to so many countries, and the ‘r’ is done in different ways.”

And how does she take on the problem?

"Ms. Pawlitschek teaches clients jaw exercises and muscle relaxation to reduce “a tightness in the jaw that nasalizes the sound.” Her exercises focus on mouth muscles, and her clients listen to themselves from recordings and practice speaking in front of mirrors."

Well, before you hire someone to drop your jaw, you might want to record "Please Call Stella" at Kantalk.com. It takes about one minute. After you've done, someone may give you some feedback about--or make fun of--your accent and pronunciation.

But it's fun. It's certainly not as painful as someone twisting your jaw.

Oh, (English) Baby, I Love It

2007-06-06T00:47:00.000-04:00

Oh baby, I don't know how it came out its name, but English Baby is a fascinating site for English learners. Its daily lesson is great! Check out this video, which it put out in YouTube:

Of course, it's not babies talking; the material suits better for advanced learners. I like its natural conversational style. And it's fun. Which is the golden rule for self-study: you won't last long unless you enjoy it.

Oh, baby, I love it.

The Forgetful Grandpa

2007-05-27T21:38:00.000-04:00

I came across this article about language, brains and Alzheimer’s. A Canadian study shows bilingualism has protective effect in delaying onset of dementia by four years.

I thought of my grandfather. He had always been this crazy old man for as long as I could remember. He would point at our elementary school geography textbook and said he learned those facts in college. We children used to laugh at him, wondering whether he did go to college or not. Later I learned to associate his memory loss with Alzheimer’s.

He liked to read newspapers and magazines. His reading capability deteriorated as the disease got the better of him. First he could finish the entire paper from first page to last. Then he could only finish 4 pages, then down to 2 … I remember seeing him, using his finger, trying to write out the Chinese characters on his leg. That didn’t help either. Finally he couldn’t even finish half a page in one long day.

The only thing that reminded us of his youth and his western-style education was a picture of him in his twenties. Handsome, impeccably groomed, he was wearing a suit, a tie and a pair of nice looking glasses. The image was in stark contrast with both his aging self and the uniform-like outfits that dominated the early 70’s in China.

His pro-West tendency was especially demonstrated when he stubbornly pushed us to learn English and insisted we should study abroad one day. He died one month after I arrived in US.

There is always the fear in me that the disease that claimed my grandpa’s brain will eat me away slowly when I get old. There is no time to worry about it though. We only have time to live life to its fullest, to explore the world, to live the dreams and good lives that all grandparents had hoped for their grandchildren. When the day does come, I know I would also put up a good fight just like grandpa did.

The Daily English Show and Sozo Exchange

2007-05-15T23:44:00.000-04:00

When I was in school studying English, I hated almost all the text books and learning materials. They were not only useless; they were just so damn boring. If doctors could prescribe reading them as a remedy to insomnia, 80 percent of the patients would be in sound sleep in 60 seconds. The only lucky break I got was watching Follow Me after school.

It used to be only “authoritative” institutions—like BBC—are able to produce the high-quality contents in ESL learning. The came along Internet. It shifts that power to the individuals, who own a cheep digital camcorder and have a passion to teach. And you would be surprised by what a great work those passionate people could have done, once they have the means to do it. Here are two examples:

First, The Daily English Show, produced—almost single handedly—by a girl named Sarah, a New Zealander living in Japan. I couldn’t keep up with writing a blog everyday. And yet, she’s been churning out very sophisticated video with great contents every 24 hours for over a year! Here is the latest. She’s on the road.

Second, Sozo Exchange, produced by Manny in Los Angels. His video English lessons, now five episodes in total, are much better than many of which I’ve seen done by professionals. I spoke with him once, and asked how he could manage to do such fine pieces. The secret, as he gladly shared, is one word: Hollywood. It’s the center of the entertainment industry. All kinds of talents—actors, screen writers, cameraman, editors, etc.—are very handy.

If they can keep million of people sitting in the dark for two hours, then they can do the same magic of sound and scenes to the English learners.

Memory through Association

2007-05-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

I started learning Spanish since the New Year. After 4 months, I am sad to report my Spanish has not made very far beyond hello and goodbye. There is just not enough time to fulfill all life’s obligations. After a long day’s work and chores, one can always find excuses not to study.

The road to master Spanish may be long and winding, but there is help along the way. Not in the form of teachers or classroom learning, (those work best if you have time and money), I am referring to the tremendous resources on the Internet. There are many podcasts out there that target Spanish learners of different levels. There are language exchange websites or social networking websites where you can find groups of people just like you who are studying a foreign language. Videos are one of my favorites because they are vivid and fun.

I ran into these two little Spanish words in a podcast one day: 1) ojo which means eye 2) lejos which means far. It was hard to memorize them for someone who barely spends 15 minutes on Spanish every day.

Luckily I was able to locate a video clip of my favorite singer Andrea Bocelli singing “Besame Mucho”. These two words happened to be part of the lyrics.

All memory techniques rely on association. When you watch this youtube video, you will know why I will probably never forget the “ojos” if I can “mirarme en tus ojos” (see myself in your eyes) and why I will always associate “lejos” with the sad yet beautiful verse “muy lejos de ti” (very far from you).

Pleasanty Surprise of Groping

2007-04-21T00:22:00.000-04:00

For those who travel to China the first time, it’s almost certain that they will experience some surprises—pleasantly or otherwise. One of the often mentioned surprises is how commercialized the major cities have become: the shiny skyscrapers, the crowded shopping centers, the jammed but hairsplitting traffic, and the ubiquitous advertising billboard.

Wondering in the Pudong district in Shanghai, a foreign tourist might easily get a false impression of walking down the Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Until he pays attention to the billboard like this one:

Okay, it can’t be Chicago. Even Playboy wouldn’t be caught to put out the billboard ads with a tagline like that. If they did, the surprise could be at least very unpleasant, if not completely disastrous.

So, it’s China, still. Anything goes in modern China? True. But before you tempt to taste the pleasantry of groping, be alert with the notorious Chinglish. The literal translation of that tagline is close to “Find something new and be pleasantly surprised.”

Pleasantly surprised, huh? Even without groping.

(Photo source: New York Times, April 17, 2007)

Straight Answer From Daily English Show

2007-04-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

In my last posting, I said I had no clue what "nappy-headed hos" means. And I couldn't find a plain explanation anywhere even after Googling it hard. No more. I got the straight answer from Sarah, who's the producer and host of her Daily English Show. A lesson for me: always ask an English teacher first. Here is how she explains it:

Having followed Sarah's Daily show for a while, I'm amazed by her energy to produce the show everyday. Does she sleep? Does she have a clone? Plus, she's so at ease in front of camera that I thought her best career path might be in Hollywood. Hey, if Nicole Kidman can hit big with an Australian accent, why can't someone with a New Zealander accent?

My Problem with Don Imus

2007-04-16T01:46:00.000-04:00

Don Imus, an influential radio host, lost his job last week. His crime? Racial slur he said on the air about the athletes of the New Jersey's woman basketball team during the WNBA final. Many people really had problem with his words. And the wave of the outrage from all corners out powered the wave of Imus's radio shock. In a short succession, it brought him down, despite he couldn't apologize enough for what he said.

Here is my problem with Imus: I had no clue whatsoever he's talking about. When the news first broke out, I browsed YouTube and found the video clip that caught him saying "nappy-headed hos". I watched the clip ten times and was still clueless. Then I did a search on those words on Google. It came back empty handed--none turned out in the search results could explain what the words mean, a rare performance of Google that must make Microsoft happy.

After reading articles on newspapers, I still couldn't get a straight answer from those reporters, who might be too concerned with political correctness to tell it in a plain word. I only got a hint that it's the language that the rappers sing often.

Do I need to listen to Snoop Dogg in order to understand what Imus said?

In Her Own Words: From the Author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

2007-04-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

I wrote about the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Here you can hear the words directly from the author, Prof. Dweck of Stanford University.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

2007-04-02T23:47:00.000-04:00

After a long dormant winter in Michigan, I was delighted to see a refreshing spring shower last night.

My favorite weather is rain. Not just any kind of rain. I used to love thunderstorms on Shanghai’s steamy summer afternoons. Rain pounded heavily on the windows. Huge tree trunks bent at the force of the gusty wind. The heat vaporized in an instant. Sometimes the rumbling thunders were so close as if it would split the top of our roof. But I was never shaken by them. Curled up on a bamboo chair, I would calmly watch the power of nature in full swing.

Several years later, a friend pointed out to me the only reason I could have enjoyed these thunderstorms is because I wasn’t in the storm.

Now I feel like this is a poignant analogy to what’s happening in today’s world.

Wars, fights, bombs ... became part of our everyday vocabulary, as news breaks out and being syndicated 24 x 7. Situations are being analyzed by commentators, analysts and consultants over and over. But who are these people to judge the wars? They are not part of it. Ask those who are suffering, those who will likely die tomorrow or those who are simply dying inside.

A fellow language learner once expressed hopefulness that learning languages will increase communication and understanding among countries. I would like to believe him and believe language and culture exchanges can make a difference somewhere . Is this only his wishful thinking? Are we too naive?

I am just a casual blogger who is neither interested in history nor politics. But if we human beings ever learn something from history, how come our politics never seem to make sense?

I feel lucky that I will be able to wake up and see May flowers that these April showers will bring. Life is good for me.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

2007-03-26T02:59:00.000-04:00

I was strolling in the bookstore today. My mind was blank before a cup of in-store coffee kicked in. Even after it, it didn’t really cheer me up. The coffee was all right. It was that the books I was glancing at, all with the same yellow color pattern on the cover, neatly laid out on a table. It’s the series of For Dummies.

A quick survey of the titles depressed me; I was dumb to at least 20 subjects (among them: wine tasting), not yet counting an array of the Dummies on the shelf. I picked up one on the edge—French for Dummies—and flipped through it. Before long, my mind was set: I am a dummy. Only a moment later, a book on the new non-fiction table caught my eyes. I skimmed it, and my mood turned; it wasn’t because of the coffee.

The book has a serious title: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, written by Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University. In a nutshell, she says that everyone has a mindset; someone’s is fixed, and other’s is fluid. The former believes that one’s talent and ability is innate—either you have it or not, so there isn’t much you can do about it; the latter thinks that one is a work in progress. You can always learn and improve, as long as you put in time and efforts. Not surprisingly, she concludes that the successfully people tend to have a changeable mindset. They are flexible, they see more opportunities, and they are more eager to learn.

That’s the “Aha” moment for me. I walked back to the Dummies table with my changed mindset. Hey, man, I could do it. That thought alone made me felt like a success. I picked up both Wine for Dummies and French for Dummies, before finally settled with Wine.

My mindset was clear: it would be easier to drink like a French than to speak French.

Why do you learn a foreign language?

2007-03-16T00:54:00.000-04:00

As I was reading Andy Grove’s memoir “Swimming Across”, I came upon an interesting Hungarian saying: “You are worth as many men as the languages you speak.” Andy’s dad hired a tutor to teach him English when he was about 10 years old. Andy didn’t like it and thought it was boring. Later English played an important role in his life, as he emigrated to US, studied science there, founded Intel and became arguably one of the most influential businessmen in his new country.

I wonder why we Chinese don’t have any similar saying. As a matter of fact, I haven’t heard of any old Chinese saying related to language or language learning. Maybe because our ancestors consider China to be the Middle Kingdom (translating the word China 中国 into English literally), the center of the world, therefore no need to learn a second language. I don’t know.

What I do know is there is an overflow of English learning companies, websites and schools all over China now. English Corners can be spotted in most major cities and universities. From English learning boot camps like Crazy English, to bilingual preschools, Chinese people are spending tons of money trying to learn English. This global language is viewed as the golden key for us to access a wide array of opportunities.

I hope that is not the only reason why we study a language. There has to be something in the target language that motivates a learner. Something fun. Things like:

“French is a beautiful language.”

“Wouldn’t be nice if I could read War and Peace in Russian and feel the power of the book in its original language?”

“I always love Spanish people and culture.”

“I love American movies.” “and I am a big fan of Korean TV dramas.”

“I am a die-hard soccer fan. I thought I’d start to learn German so I could go to Germany and watch World Cup Soccer finals there.”

What motivates you when you learn a foregin language?

The Most Exotic Entrée of Chinese Food You Ever Eat

2007-03-08T01:57:00.000-05:00

What would you do if you pick up the menu (pictured below) at a Chinese restaurant?

If you read only Chinese: loudly order ten-course meal and boss the waitress to hurry up.

If you read only English: quietly order the first and the last entrée on the menu while avoiding eye contact with the waitress.

Pardon Me?

2007-02-27T21:53:00.000-05:00

My wildest accent related story took place in Chinatown Los Angeles.

After one day of touring the city, my husband and I were exhausted and hungry. We picked a quiet and clean restaurant. As soon as we sat down, the waiter brought us water and gave us a few minutes to look at the menu.

We have been living in the Midwest US for years. Chinese food there means American-ized Chinese food like General Tsao’s Chicken. Needless to say, we were eager to try some real Chinese food in California.

So I asked the waiter if he has any recommendations for us.

“Honey, wanna shrimp?” he asked, looking at me and smiling.

Who is he to call me honey? The waiter is clearly at least 10 years younger than me. Can’t he see my husband was sitting right next to me? No decent woman in her right mind would respond to such a question.

My husband was apparently surprised too because he asked the waiter to repeat what he just said.

“Honey, wanna shrimp.” The waiter said again, this time looking at my husband and still smiling. This was getting way out of line. I managed to keep my silence and dignity.

I am glad I did that, instead of protesting, because the waiter then pointed at these words on the menu: “honey walnut shrimp”. In his Chinese (maybe Cantonese) accent, walnut turned into wanna.

From that day on, “honey wanna shrimp?” became our secret code whenever my husband and I consulted each other whether we would have shrimp for dinner.

By Spread Your Wings

Accent Seduction

2007-02-23T03:24:00.000-05:00

I was listening in a Skypecast of the non-native speakers practicing English the other day. The topic changed almost randomly, and the speakers often struggled with their words along with it. It’s typical in such group conversation. I was a bit bored after a while.

As it was dragging on, some speakers started to drop off the conversation, gradually leaving only three in talking. Little did I know, my boredom was about to take a sharp turn.

All three were my fellow Chinese; well, two and an half Chinese, to be accurate: one attending a college in Australia, another working in Netherland, and the third (one of her parents is Chinese) living in Japan.

This was rare. Not that Chinese talking to one another in English, but how well these three speak—no Chinglish here, unless they deliberately made fun of it, and no traceable accent; I can recognize an accent from a Texan talking much easier than from them.

And they focused on one topic like a laser: is it better to speak English with an American accent or British one. Judging by their talking, I would say American’s has won, although one of them reveres London accent the way that some revere British royal families. I was disappointed that no one mentioned the Australian’s. I became quite fond of it after watching a few interviews that the Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowne gave.

At the beginning, they were comparing notes on how to reduce their accent further. I was worried on the side. They can easily fool me as native speakers already. How much purer would their accent get? Sounding like “Press-one-if-you-are-calling-about-your-checking-account” greeting that I was subject to listen each time I called a bank while being put on hold?

As the conversation went, their politeness began to wear off. The tension was building up, as if they were engaging in an undeclared competition of whose accent sounding more like an American. They threw sentences to one another in order to score. It went on for a while before the smoke was cleared.

The guy from Europe retreated first. He felt defeated because he couldn’t pronounce several vowels as clear as the NBC News anchor Brian Williams does. That left two gals in dog fighting for the championship. For a while, I couldn’t tell who was talking; they both sounded the same to me.

I guess it’s a draw.

Memories of Chinese New Year

2007-02-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

For those who celebrate lunar New Year, I’d like to wish you a most delightful one in the year of the pig!

Chinese New Year doesn’t always fall on a Sunday like it does this year. This makes it hard for us “Overseas Chinese”, as we are called by folks in China, to celebrate this holiday. Somehow I always sense a tone of pity in this name, because they think we are missing out a lot on this special holiday. And they are right. I miss everything about it.

I miss the aroma of food. Having abundant food on New Years Eve is an auspicious sign of a prosperous year ahead. And fish is a must-have. I still remember the smell of deep fried fish traveled all the way from our kitchen, to every room in our family; up the staircase, to the neighbor’s home; out the window, to the narrow alley of about 20 households. With skyscrapers emerging overnight in every city in China nowadays like bamboo shoots thriving in spring, I wonder whether I could still smell the delicious food on every street I stroll on.

I miss the deafening firecrackers and and the laughter of children. For kids, this is their happiest moment of the year. Before the dinner table was cleaned on New Year’s Eve, they rushed out to watch firecrackers and fireworks. If you walk in the small alley of our street, the sound of firecrackers would make you wonder for a second that you were on a battle field instead of a busy city.

The children went to bed with a stuffed belly, red envelopes with "good luck money"(红包，pronounced as Hong Bao) carefully tucked under the pillow. Exhausted, after all the eating, jumping and laughing, they quickly fell asleep before the next round of firecrackers lit up at midnight.

Most of all I miss my family and relatives in China.

No matter where I am in the vast overseas, they will always be as close as ever in my heart.

More On Native Speakers

2007-02-12T00:34:00.000-05:00

I was in an English practicing Skypecast yesterday. A guy popped his head in, figuratively speaking, for a second. He turned his back on us the minute he found out none of us in the chat room were native speakers.

Although he treated us like thin air that barely existed, I don’t blame him so much. It reminded me of a scene at the famous Shanghai People’s Park English Corner, when I visited there last summer. Situated in downtown Shanghai, this free English club went way back decades ago. In fact, I almost believe the Chinese phrase “English Corner” was coined after this particular club.

When I got out of the subway that day, it started to drizzle. I went in the park anyway. There was a little sheltered area already packed with lots of people. I quickly walked towards there, passing many more standing in the open area.

After chatting with a few friendly faces, I saw a Chinese ushered an Anglo-Saxon looking guy to the place. People quickly swarmed around them. Several guys who were talking to me got a bit uneasy, itching to get over there and join the native speaker too. Soon there were maybe 30 people around the new comer. The eager learners who were at the outermost circle could barely hear anything. Nevertheless, the intent look on their faces made me wonder whether they would worship the native speaker more than the Pope himself.

Soon thunder rolled in. The rain came pouring down. Thunderstorm is almost a daily sight on summer afternoons in Shanghai. People obviously came prepared with umbrellas. They continued to stand in the rain, their umbrellas dripping, listening to the foreigner in awe. No one was fazed by the little obstacle called rain.

My friend Lingual Bee posted an interesting blog last week suggesting that talking to native speakers may not be the best way to practice a new language. If you can get a native speaker who speaks slowly to you and does not make you nervous, who is also willing to dedicate sufficient practice time with you, I’d say by all means go for it. Otherwise, you are probably better off talking to some other language learners who are at an equivalent level as you.

Granted, I've been in some bad skypecasts, because of inexperienced hosts, rude participants, boring topics … the least of which is lack of native speakers. Personally I felt sorry for that guy who left our chat room. Without a single native speaker, we participants from Japan, Turkey, Estonia and Brazil, had an educational session and no less fun.

Who’s Accent Is More Funny?

2007-02-06T03:05:00.000-05:00

I’m not a football fan. But I don’t miss the Supper Bowl game—the American Football League Championship—either. It’s the biggest sport event in the U.S; probably the biggest social event too. Not watching it is like to serve no turkey at the Thanksgiving dinner. To me, turkey may taste like a mummy’s cloth, and football may resemble a battalion battle—leaving hamlet on but spear out—more than a modern sport. Missing either, however, is to miss an ingredient of the American culture.

I was well seated in the couch when Indianapolis Colts kicked off the ball on Sunday night. Rooting for neither Colts nor Bears, I didn’t get pumped up much like the fans in the stadium. I glued my eyes on the TV screen anyway, particularly during the commercial breaks.

For the lukewarm fans like me, that’s when the action starts—the 30-second Super Bowl ads are running. The major players usually are beer producers, car manufacturers, and dotcoms who have other’s money to burn. In the past, some Supper Bowl ads were more memorable and entertaining than the touch-downs during the game.

This year, all the car ads suck (Ford wasn’t especially desperate), but all the beer were entertaining. In particular, the one made by Budweiser got me rolled on the floor each time it was played. Carlos Mencia, the comedian of South American decent, acted as an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher to a group of immigrants. You can watch it from Youtube:

In the past Super Bowl ads, Budweiser used to have a giant frog sitting in a pond, uttering “Bud, erh”. It’s very funny. Now, we know frog’s accent is nowhere near as funny as that of our immigrants.

The Benefits of a Virtual Chat Room

2007-01-28T22:41:00.000-05:00

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,” said Darcy, “of conversing easily with those I have never seen before.”

- Pride and Prejudice

If an English gentleman like Mr. Darcy found it painful to converse with a stranger, there is little wonder why non-native English speakers are nervous and intimidated when being put in the same room next to a fast-talking Yankee.

There is one kind of people who is ready to greet any Mexican he met in Spanish, even though “Hola!” and “Adios!” are the only two words in his Spanish vocabulary.

And there is the other kind, who can not muster all his strength to utter one word in anther language, even though he can read and write very well in that language.

Then, there are a lot of us in the middle. Longing to try, but cannot seem to find the right opportunity; wanting to learn, but don’t have enough hours in a day; hoping to improve, but fear of mistakes…

I started to use Skype to practice spoken language a few months ago. At almost the same time, I discovered Skypecasts, live conversations among multiple users. In these months, I have done things I couldn’t have imagined before. I talk to people from many different countries, in all walks of life, with all kinds of interesting experience to share.

In a world where Hollywood movies, American pop songs, blogging and podcasting are abundant, sometimes even overwhelming, the last fortress in language learning for a lot of people is the spoken aspect of it.

Luckily, innovative technology wowed us again by bringing spoken language learning into our living room. Equipped with free Skype software and a cheap but decent headset, anybody is well on their way to practice spoken language with another person or a group of people in the world.

Relieved of the awkwardness to be in the same physical room, even Mr. Darcy might be able to hold a conversation with his new lady acquaintances in the chat room.

Posted by Spread Your Wings

The Advantage of Talking to Other Non-Native Speakers

2007-01-25T11:29:00.000-05:00

I’ve hosted Practice English Skypecast (group conversations via Skype) many times in the past a few months. Most of the time, the participants were non-native speakers talking to one another. Occasionally, a few native speakers—mainly from the U.S. and U.K.—came along.

Here is the question: if you want to practice your spoken English, are you better off to talk to an American or Brit, or talk to your fellow non-native speakers, who usually have all sorts of funny accents?

Sounds like a no-brainer question, right? During a conversation, understanding what other said in standard English would keep your two ears busy enough, who has the third ear to deal with accent?

Well, here is a surprising finding based on my hosting experience of Skypecast: more than likely, you will benefit the most by talking to your fellow non-native speakers because of one major gain: self-confidence.

When you talk to someone whose fluency level is slightly above or bellow yours, you has an instant sympathetic audience. You are going through the same struggle, and you are equally eager to learn. Thus, you are less concern about fear of making mistakes, but much more willing to speak out.

When your mind is relaxed, your tongue and ears work surprisingly better. You will be amazed by how much you understand each other without a third ear. That’s how you get instant gratification. That’s how you build up your confidence. And that’s what makes the difference.

Talking to a native speaker would bring the similar benefit only after your fluency level is fairly advanced. Before reaching that point, you could be listening to a fasting talking American bashing his president for 30 minutes non-stop without a chance—or courage—to utter a single word to him.

Why not listen to BBC News then?

Ring! Ring! Who’s calling?

2007-01-16T00:44:00.000-05:00

It’s nine o’clock in the evening. The phone is ringing…

No, it’s not the phone. It comes from my computer.

I walk over and look at my screen. I don’t know this person.

I change my status to “Not Available” and walk away.

If you have used Skype or any other VOIP (Voice-Over-IP) or Instant Messaging software that supports voice calling (e.g. Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger), you are probably familiar with the scene above.

A couple of months ago I signed up on one of the language exchange websites. Ten minutes later, someone named Juan was calling me on Skype. I was taken aback.

I knew he found me on the language website I just visited. However, up till that moment, my Internet activities were limited to browsing web pages and reading web-based emails. Occasionally I would text chat with a friend. A real friend that is, someone I know in person. I’ve never visited any Internet chat room, let alone speak to a complete stranger one-on-one over the Internet.

I panicked. What should I do? My instinct was to hide immediately. Shall I log off? Or change my status to Invisible? It was too late. My finger already clicked the mouse mechanically without instructions from my brain. I hit the Answer button!

Juan’s “Hello! Hello!” resonated on the speakers. It was deafening.

“Come on, you’re a grown up women.” I told myself. I quickly pulled myself together and skimmed his profile. “Country: Venezuella." "This guy is not even in the same country. What am I afraid of?”

The next thing I know I was immersed in a pleasant conversation with this nice young man. His English is very good, albeit slightly accented. We started with some light topics like traveling to various parts of the world, learning English, Spanish and Chinese. Then we jumped to politics, talked about their famous president, or infamous, depending on which side you take, the upcoming election in their country and mid term election in the US. Half an hour passed before we wrapped up our conversation and said goodbye.

If you were like me, who had never talked to a stranger on the Internet but would like to practice a spoken language, I hope my story will encourage you to be a little adventurous.

For me, learning to speak a foreign language has never been the same since that first time I stepped out of my comfort zone and picked up Juan's call.

Posted by Open Your Wings

It's Easier to Build a Car from a Scratch

2007-01-10T00:25:00.000-05:00

The North America Auto Show is on full swing in Detroit this week. The New York Times reporter Ezra Dyer went to the Cobo Center to check out the fancy metals and exotic models--the car, that is.

He was not surprised to find a few cars on display were from China. Everyone knew they were coming; after all, it's supposed to be the automobile's turn after toy, shoes, and DVD players had flooded the market. But Dyer was shocked by how Changfeng was presenting itself and the products it manufactured. He wrote a blog--yes, The New York Times blogs too--entitled Amid the Loud Bugle Calls, the Worker are Awakened.

While watching the Changfeng Motors “Image Propaganda Film,” Dyer learned that the company's pickups “have the pure blood of high brands”, that its cars equip with the "auto sofas", that its "workers are awakened amid the loud bugle calls" before they rushed to work. In the end, it concludes metophorically that “dragons are taking off and cheetahs are leaping forward.”

If your native language is Chinese, as mines is, you understand perfectly what these "propaganda" is trying to convey--sounding half sleek, half cliché in Chinese; if yours is not, well, it's sort of complicated to explain the type of the action that dragons and cheetahs take.

But it's not hard to see, for us Chinese, that to build a car from scratch is much easier; to speak a proper English, however, is really not our cup of tea.

A Hairdresser's Wisdom

2007-01-03T02:13:00.000-05:00

I go to see Ada every a month or so for a haircut. A friend referred this Vietnamese hair salon to me. The first time I went, I expected to see a petite Vietnamese woman with a reserved manner, commonly seen in Asian. I didn’t know where I got that stereotype. The moment I stepped in her shop, however, I knew my stereotype be damned.

Ada is in her early 50s, about six feet tall, looks fat by American standard and obese by Asian standard, her hands are built like man’s. She greeted me loudly in English—“Honey, how are you!”—with a wide smile. I later learned she calls every customer of hers “Honey”, occasionally short for “Hon”.

During the next 30 minutes, she never stopped talking—mixing English and Chinese—while her hands were busy of fixing my hair. She talked almost as loud as she greeted, and she rarely needed my help to keep going. She laughed often too.

But her hands were nimble as if they belong to a petite Asian woman. In the end, she handed me a mirror and asked how I liked new me.

I became her regular customer from that day.

In each of my subsequent visits, Ada filled me in her life story bit by bit, all while the hair razor was humming along: born in a wealthy Chinese family in Saigon; came to America by boat when the war was over; raised a daughter alone in the U.S. while husband being held in a Vietcong’s prison cell; worked at various hair salons before opened her own.

Not an uncommon life story of many Vietnamese who settled in the U.S.

But Ada’s talent isn’t limited to her nimble fingers. She has a nimble tongue too. Over the period of a year, I’d overheard enough chats she had with her customers of various ethnical background, almost all in each respective native languages.
She told me her native languages were Vietnamese and a Chinese dialect called Chao Shan, spoken in the certain area of southern China. As far as I could tell, she speaks a perfect Mandarin and Cantonese. She may speak Laos and Cambodian too, but I couldn’t be sure. Her English, which she speaks most of the time, is accented and not always grammatically correct, but I seldom saw her American customers misunderstood her.

Having only a scant formal education at school (unluckily), she nonetheless picked up all these languages by herself. I told her once I admired her multilingual skills, and asked how she did it. “It’s like haircutting,” she answered in English, “the more you do it, the better you get”.

For her wisdom, I tipped more than usual that day.

Editorial: Why Taiwan Students' English Skills Are Embarrassingly Poor

2006-12-28T03:04:00.000-05:00

The China Post, an English newspaper in Taiwan, has recently published an editorial with the title Why Taiwan students' English skills are embarrassingly poor. Given that the Chinese culture usually equals admitting weakness to losing face, the editor who penned the piece is embarrassingly blunt. Or maybe he is not so face-conscious only when hiding behind English. If he says it in Chinese, I bet he would be at least stuttered a bit, if not red-faced at the same time.

The potential reason for such blunder, according to the editor, is “the backward teaching methods used in the island's schools,” and that “students are required to memorize words and grammatical rules but are given few opportunities to practice using the language in real-life situations.”

“Backward” is the typical Chinese understatement. Memorization as the norm of learning practice goes all the way back to one of those dynasties thousands of years ago. It may go on for another a few thousands of years.

The editor doesn’t have much sympathy to those poor students. He does, however, feel the pain of the island’s central bank head, pointing out that “if the Taiwanese were better at English, the island would not have to import so many English learning materials, resulting in a considerable saving on foreign exchange.”

I wondered what “English learning materials” would drag down the island’s hard-to-earn foreign exchange considerably.

Could they be Hollywood movies?

Nah, unlikely. If they were, the students’ English skill would be so embarrassingly poor.

Merry Chritmas in Shanghai

2006-12-25T03:41:00.000-05:00

Right around the Christmas a couple of years ago, I went to Shanghai on a business trip. In the hotel that I stayed, a giant Christmas tree—one of the highest I’d ever seen—stood in the center of the grand lobby, sprinkled with the lights and decorations in a perfect order, and the melody of Jingle Bell filled in the air cheerfully.

Just 20 something hours ago, I saw a nearly identical one at the airport’s concourse before my departure of the States. I pinched myself a few times just to make sure. It confirmed that the Boeing 767 I boarded had indeed landed in Pudong, Shanghai. Looking up of the tree at the lobby, I couldn’t tell the difference from the one I passed by at the airport in the U.S., except, maybe, that I’d seen the dollar signs were among the colorful decorations. It could just be my jet lag causing delusion.

My delusion soon turned to disorientation. During the week-long staying in the city dubbed by many as Oriental Paris, I’d seen more Christmas trees and lights in hotels, at department stores, and on streets than I did in the decade of living in the U.S. combined. That’s a shocker to me. I wondered since when the Jesus’s birthday was celebrated in China as it was like the birthday of the Party, with the red scene so prominent all over the places.

Only that the portrait of Chairman Mao was replaced by the cardboard of a beard old man, and that the slogan “Long Live the Party!” was replaced by “Merry Christmas!”. Many Chinese had never seen an image of Santa Clause before, but all had seen the portrait of Karl Marx, who also had a signature long beard. Some of them probably had thought it was Marx, who dressed like a clown—the red-color coat with the white rim, the cone shape hat with a red ball dangled on the side, and the stuffed bag thrown on the back.

When I checked out the hotel, the female clerk, dressed in a red coat and wearing a red hat, smiled at me and said in English: “Merry Christmas!”

Karl Marx was probably rolling over in grave and tearing his long beard.

If You Think You Can

2006-12-15T02:16:00.000-05:00

Henry Ford, the pioneer in mass manufacturing of automobile in the early 20th century, had been known for being demanding of his engineers to take on unthinkable challenges. His motto was: whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right in both.

The first time I heard it, I thought it’s a brilliant insight—the Model T of the motivational wisdom. I instantly took it to the heart and applied to my life. Ever since, I’ve placed anything I wanted to achieve into either “I think I can” camp or “I think I can’t” one. As Ford said it, I’m right in both.

Given my modest talent and aversion of hard work, I’m not that surprised by what show up in my “I Can’t” camp: climb Mount Everest; play soccer in the World Cup; direct a tear-jerking movie; write a best-selling novel; and resist of overeating beef stew and lamb chop.

My modest talent and aversion of hard work, however, haven’t stopped me from thinking of many things that I can do. And I’ve actually done a few. As long as I don’t always aim for the moon, then lack of talent and being a bit slack aren’t always a deal breaker either. And that’s when the self-belief comes in and makes a crucial difference.

For instance, you can acquire a second language, with or without a talent or hard work, if you think you can. I knew it’s true from my experience of studying English. The self-belief at one time was the psychological breakthrough that I desperately needed. Once I’d passed that point, everything else started to make sense and fell into place.

Before you get to that point, however, you need to let passion keep you going and let patience carry you on.

Little Linguists

2006-12-10T01:06:00.000-05:00

I am often amazed at those linguists who can speak multiple languages fluently. I believe inherently they possess some special talents . In talking to a teacher who teaches elementary school Spanish in US, I was led to believe there are many little linguists living among us.

In her experience, children who come from a family where a second language is spoken are quicker at learning a third language. Interesting observation, probably with no scientific research whatsoever to back it up, but somehow I am not surprised.

How do kids learn a second language anyways, or better yet, a third or fourth language?

Take the ABC (American Born Chinese) children for example. To them, learning a new language is the equivalent of playing it by ear. They do that every day. And they do it boldly and fearlessly.

These children are not born bilingual. In fact they speak Chinese almost exclusively in the very first couple of years of their lives, under the care of their Chinese-speaking family.

They have great anxiety on their first day to day care centers because they don't speak English. That doesn’t last long. Before the day is over, these kids can already follow the basic directions like “go potty”, “wash your hands” or “lunch time”.

Once these kids start Kindergarten and begin to read and write in English, their English takes leaps and bounds. Along the way, they also pick up Spanish with ease, or French, or any other second language that is taught in the school. And best of all, they still converse with their parents and grandparents in Chinese.

Because they learn by listening to others, they sometimes make blunt mistakes. A typical example I enjoy retelling my friends is the phrase “Qi Ma”, pronounced as Chi Ma. In Chinese it can have two distinct meanings: a) Ride a horse or b) At least. The two phrases are written differently but they sound exactly the same. Therefore when a Chinese boy was told he has to “Qi Ma” (at least) swim for 10 feet, he would wonder curiously and loudly why he has to ride a horse in the swimming pool!

We think it is cute and laugh at his mistake. And what is his response? He laughs it off too, without a second thought. He will never, ever, think about digging a hole on the ground and makes it a hideout, as I am sure the thought would cross the mind of some adult language learners if they made such a laughable mistake.

Therefore, despite these little mishaps, these children continue to thrive. They grow up to be at least bilingual if not multi-lingual.

This is one of the few reasons that I really want to be a child again.

The Hollywood Lessons (8)

2006-12-05T01:42:00.000-05:00

Usually, I decide on whether to see a particular movie base on the story it tells; sometimes, on the actor it features; and rarely, on the director under whom it was made. In those rare occasions, Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen are in a short list.

As a non-native English speaker, I found the plots of Hichcock’s movies are complicated, but the dialogues are usually much easier to follow. He was master of letting the camera move the story, not the dialogues by the charming actors like Cary Grant or Grace Kelly. Charming actors simply aren’t talkative. Thus, watching Hickcock’s movies would give you a wild ride due to the suspense, but less likely to learn much of colorful English.

The Woody Allen’s movies, however, are almost exactly the opposite. Most of the time, it’s a love story, but not the high-class, romantic sort. So there is not much plot to begin with and less drama to play up. Then, almost every leading male role in his movies is played none other than by Allen himself. Let’s just say he’s not Cary Grant. And the usual leading female role, such as Diane Keaton or Mia Farrow, is no hot babe by the Hollywood standard.

Lucky for any English learner, Woody Allen’s masterful scenes for long monologue, self-analytical voice over, and loose and spontaneous quarrels between couples make the movie-going a perfect learning experience. Take two of his most famed movies, Annie Hall and Manhattan, as an example.

In each setting, Allen gets himself in a strange relationship with one unconventional type of a woman or another. He’s the one who’s usually insecure, sarcastic, and quarrelsome. So most of the time, he’s either talk back and forth with the woman—dialogues are often funny and witty, or think out aloud of his mind on the things ranging from religion to world politics.

Because he talks so fast and spontaneous, because his topics are so wide ranged, and because his style is often mockery or self-pity, it’s a great challenge for a non-native speaker to understand his movies. Or even if understanding his words literally, I would still have a hard time to appreciate his wit and ridicule. It takes some knowledge of psychology, world affairs, and ideology to grasp his seemingly random monologue.

For that, I usually judge the English proficiency level of a non-native speaker not by her degree or standard test score, but by whether she could follow Woody Allen’s movies with an ease and laugh with a spontaneity.

Can I Help You With Anything, Sir?

2006-11-28T03:07:00.000-05:00

I was flying Northwest Airlines last week. While the Airbus was cruising above the clouds, my mind drifted to the past. The vivid picture of my first encounter with Northwest surfaced.

Before I boarded a Northwest flight destined for Los Angels, California over a decade ago, I’d never taken a flight in my whole life. Prior to that day, I always thought only stewardess, foreigner, or government official were allowed to fly. When a stewardess—a tall blond—greeted me “Welcome onboard” at the gate, I quickly glanced at my back to see if anyone dressed like a party cadre behind me. There were four.

Once onboard, I did my best to act like a veteran traveler: opening the overhead cabin, throwing the carryon bag in, sitting down and buckling the belt on—all done by a quick study of other passengers doing it. I was satisfied with my composure of handling seatbelt, which was tricky to tighten properly.

Once settled, I heard a flight attendant announcing one thing and another in a quick succession. Her voice was pleasant. But it had little soothing effect on me; I barely understood what she said. Hearing “Los Angels” a few times was a big relief to me. I made sure it’s not Laos.

The Boeing 747 climbed to the clouds all right.

My maiden flight had been uneventful, until the flight attendant handed me an earphone. It took me a while to figure out what it was for, but I tried hard not to show. I soon became fond of an array of buttons on the seat’s armrest, surfing music channels with the earphone on.

While I settled in the “light rock”, my hand, however, was busy of exploring other buttons. I was about half sleep when the blond stewardess, who greeted me at boarding, approached me. She bent over and said: “Sir, can I help you with anything?” I took off the earphone and stared at her. She repeated with the widest smile I’d ever seen.

“No, nothing.” I told her, ending my first in flight English dialogue. She kept her smile and walked away. I was back to the light rock. Two songs later, the blond remerged on my side. I snapped off the earphone, hearing the same “Sir, may I help you on anything?” from her. I was trying to figure out what’s the difference between Can I and May I. My grammar failed me. So I answered: “No, nothing. Thanks.”

Her smile froze a little bit. Bending her head over near my face, she whispered to me: “If not, sir, please don’t push that button again. It would turn on the Attention Needed light.”

As she turned off the light overhead, I knew I could no longer pretend to be a veteran traveler anymore for the rest of my flight.

Music in English

2006-11-23T02:16:00.000-05:00

If you would like to improve your listening skills and spoken English, and if you also love music, indulge yourself in American pop songs. They complement Hollywood movies well, as they too can serve as a great language learning tool and are as effective.

John Denver’s "Take Me Home, Country Roads” was perhaps the first American song I was exposed to. In the early 80’s, China just opened its door to the West. Country songs were among the first ones to arrive, along with the artists who sang them.

Growing up in the city, I was drawn to the vivid image painted by the song. Winding country roads, by Shenandoah River, on Blue Ridge Mountain ... The tune was easy for sing-along too. The song struck a chord close to heart with its nostalgic lyrics:

“Country Road, take me home.

To the place, I belong …”

Unlike nowadays when you can easily find the exact lyrics of any song on the Internet, I had to listen intently to the song over and over. I did my best to discern every word behind its beautiful melody.

Then in the late 80’s, the air of Chinese college campuses, and beyond, was filled with American songs. They were played on radios all the time. On TV we watched pop singers like Madonna and Michael Jackson perform. Let’s just say I was appalled. Our visual senses had been accustomed to the restrained Chinese performers for years. All of a sudden that wall was tumbling down.

Back then my favorite singer had to be Whitney Houston. The pop diva’s vocal brought about powerful emotions in her audience. Although not being able to lip-sync to her songs, due to the often unusual high notes, I diligently listened to and wrote down the lyrics of her songs. My listening comprehension was taken to the next level with this experience.

Fair enough to say it is through the American songs that I finally found the rhythm and music in the English language.

Arnold On Milton

2006-11-18T12:23:00.000-05:00

I’ve often seen Hollywood stars promoting movies; I’ve sometimes seen economists promoting theories and ideas; but I've rarely seen a star promoting an economist. And particularly delighted to my ears, he’s talking in a charming accented English.

The success story of an immigrant, the virtues of free market and private enterprise, and the commanding of English by a non-native speaker—it has all the baits that I eagerly to bite. Here is the gem:

Milton Friedman: A Short Man, A Giant Figure

2006-11-18T02:28:00.000-05:00

The economist, Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman died yesterday in California at age of 94.

The first time I heard Friedman’s name was when was in the mid 80s. He traveled to Beijing and met then China’s Premier Zhao Ziyang. He found a receptive ear from a veteran communist leader, who defied the hardliners of the Party in the economic policies. In the brief period of time, China seemed to move toward a free market economy, and even possible democracy that curbs the absolute power of the government.

That power turned out to be absolutely absolute. It sent the tanks to the Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 and squashed any talk of democracy. Zhao disappeared from the public, so did Friedman from the China’s media.

I only learned a lot about Dr. Friedman after I came to the U.S. The more I read his books and articles, the more I grew admiring the man. For many years, he challenged conventional wisdom of economic and public policy. Most of the time, he was a dissident and stood alone. Eventually, the conventional wisdom collapsed.

Dr. Friedman was a short man, stood less than 5 feet 3, but he’s a giant of the economic thoughts. In early 80s, he was the brainpower and public intellectual, along the politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who turned the tide to favor the small government conservatism in the U.S. and Britain.

Upon hearing Dr. Friedman’s death, I dug out in YouTube the PBS’s ten-episode TV series, Free To Choose, which was based on his same-titled book. Revisiting the clips of the series, I thought that a witty, self-assured, and determined giant was still alive.

Here are the links to Free To Choose at YouTube:

Free To Choose: 1 of 10

For the rest of nine episodes, click the this link.

It Can’t Be All Because of Kim Jong-Il In the North

2006-11-15T01:06:00.000-05:00

South Korea got me really curious because of this census data.

According to the latest census from the Institute of International Education (IIE), the students from India, China, South Korea, and Japan lead the international student enrollments in American colleges and universities during the academic year of 2005/6, making up for 42% of the total.

Being the number three after India and China doesn’t tell the whole story. South Korea is the only country that sent in more students, close to 60 thousands, comparing to that of last academic year, jumping over 10%, whereas China stayed flat, and India and Japan both had a drop.

Here is an even more intriguing fact: if we take consideration of the population of these four countries—China, 1.3 billions; India, 1.1 billions; Japan, 127 million, and South Korea, 49 millions, then, in per capita basis, South Korea has about three times more students studying in the U.S. than that of Japan, 17 times more of India, and 25 times more of China.

Can anyone offer an insight of South Korean students flocking to the U.S.? Kim Jong-Il stubbornness to set off nuclear bomb in the north alone won’t explain this, I presumed. Something is going on in that part of the peninsula.

Some Are More Minor Than Others

2006-11-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

Slang can be utterly confusing for non-native speakers, as I’ve experienced many times over, mainly because the meaning of slang can be miles apart from what you infer literally. In this regard, slang has a twin sibling; it’s called political talking.

Take Affirmative Action as an example. Simple words, literally. But the first time I heard it, I had a least clue what the phrase does mean. So I looked up in the dictionary. Here is the definition from Webster:

affirmative action, an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women; also: a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons.

A plain and straightforward explanation. Once I understood it, I was happy to know such “active effort” even existed. The joy didn’t last long. About the same time I realized “big cheese” wasn’t cheese, it was clear to me that “minority groups” was a fuzzy math on what counts as “minority”.

Daniel Golden, a Wall Street Journal reporter, wrote a series of articles about Affirmative Action and other preference practices in the America’s top universities (which won him the Pulitzer Award in 2004). On today’s Journal, his latest report focuses on how Asians being treated in the admission game at the elite schools. Here is an excerpt:

“The study, by the Center for Equal Opportunity, in Virginia, found that Asian applicants admitted to the University of Michigan in 2005 had a median SAT score of 1400 on the 400-1600 scale then in use. That was 50 points higher than the median score of white students who were accepted, 140 points higher than that of Hispanics and 240 points higher than that of blacks.”

One way to interpret the study is that, in the eyes of the University of Michigan’s admission staffs, the Asian, about 4.5% of the total population, is …a majority—more so than the White; by holding a higher standard against Asians, the University is reducing their “educational opportunities” in order to increase the opportunities for the Black and the Hispanic, each making up of about 12% of the total population.

To paraphrase George Orwell’s “all animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others”, all non-White groups are minorities; but some minorities are more minor than others.”

On Tuesday, the Michigan voters disagree with many elite academia and politicians, and favored the ban of such racial preference policy by a large margin. The common people may not be smarter than elites, but they always have common sense.

The president of the University of Michigan vowed to file a law suit to challenge the ban, arguing that “diversity” is vital to make the University a success.

She has a point. Since we all agree “diversity” is a good thing, why limits Affirmative Action to the undergraduate admission; why not extends it to Michigan’s football team, a top ranking college football teams in the nation. It has about 100 players in the team. A quick glance at the team’s roster will tell you that blacks are over represented and Asians are no where to be seen.

Can we bring in a couple of Asians—four to be exact, proportional to the general population, or thirteen, to the study body—and put them in the position like, let’s say, linebackers?

Ohio State’s fans would be the only people I know who like to see such diversity with a glee.

The Gaffe That Cost Republican’s Control of the Senate

2006-11-09T00:31:00.000-05:00

I’d been watching the TV coverage of the midterm election last night and today. After all the voting was done, and as the results began to trickle in, the politicians came out on the stage to give their last speech of the campaign. Usually, the politicians are great public speakers. But their last speeches were all predictably dull, as if coming from the same script.

All the winners, in between cheering and applauding, said that “The people had spoken”, adding “loudly and decisively” if the margin exceeds two-digit, then thanking everyone on the scene (hugging and kissing), not on the scene (pointing to a TV camera)—including his or her dogs and cats (silently), and claiming it’s the people who won.

All the losers, grinning or even teary, graciously congratulated the opponents for their “hard-fought” but “deserved” victory, attributing it to “the great campaign my opponent had run”, also not to forget thanking everyone on and off the scene (minus hugging, kissing, and smiling), and finally, stressing that the most important thing in life is to “spend more time with the family”.

On the House side, by the late night yesterday, “the people had spoken” louder to the Democrats, and more Republicans would “spend more time with the family”. On the Senate side, however, until this moment, the balance is still hinged on the final result of the Virginia’s race between the Republican George Allen and the Democrat Jim Webb. The margin is razor thin, but slightly in favor of Webb.

If Allen loses, then the Democrat will take control of the Senate too—by one seat. The political pundits all pointed to Allen’s one gaffe during the campaign that sank him. If that’s the case, it would be remembered forever that it’s a “mocaca”, not Saddam Hussein, who tilted the balance of the power in the U.S. Senate.

Here is that famous gaffe posted at YouTube:

It’s Easier to Act Kongfu than to Speak English

2006-11-06T10:48:00.000-05:00

Rush Hour 3 is stuck in the traffic and won’t come out any time soon, all because the star Jackie Chan featured in the movie has a hard time to do the dialogues in English. He complained in this interview:

“To me, action scenes are so easy, but dialogue scenes drive me crazy. The directors and produces want me to speak everything perfectly. Sometimes when a word is in the past tense or plural, I get confused. It is hard to remember lengthy dialogue and still sound natural. I have to say my lines over and over again until I get it right. I want to ask them 'Can I speak Jackie Chan English?”

Suggestion to Chan: go to the fund raising events of the California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and spend some private moments with him. Ask him for the tips. If you are generous enough with your purse, and Arnold pays back with equally generous advices, then you hit two birds with one stone; not only that you’ll get on the fast lane with your Rush Hour’s English dialogues, but also that, if you harbor a political ambition, you might be elected to be the next head of Hong Kong.

But don’t rush.

The Hollywood Lessons (7)

2006-11-03T01:02:00.000-05:00

Long before the episode of Tom Cruise jumping up and down the couch of Oprah’s, crying “I’m in love! I’m in love”, he had once paced back and forth in a room, shouting “Show me the money! Show me the money!” on the phone.

On both occasions he was hysterical. The former was real Cruise lashing out in a live TV; the latter was his acting of a sport agent, Jerry Maguire, in the same-titled movie. And “show-me-the-money” became one of my favorite movie moments.

When I first saw the movie ten years ago, the timing was perfect. I’d lived in the U.S. for a few years. My spoken English was adequate to handle the routine conversations at work. But I could feel I was caught awkwardly somewhere between the two cultures. Jerry Maguire was the movie that unwinds me.

As a language learner, I could pick up plenty from the dynamic dialogues between Maguire and his sole client, the football player Rod; from the emotional conversations between Maguire and his girlfriend, later the wife, Dorothy; and from the funny chats between Maguire and Dorothy’s cute boy Ray.

But for me, the movie was much more than learning a new phrase or two. It’s about better understanding of American culture: the national obsession with the professional football, the yearning for true love and loyalty, and the drive to succeed in one’s chosen career.

Sport obsession and love bug aren’t unique to American culture; the Europeans might be wedded to football—sorry, soccer—and sucking to romance even more than the Americans. But one aspect of the American culture, as told by Jerry Maguire’s story, struck me hard: that it tolerates a failure, gives man a second chance, and applauds the comeback kid. That’s almost like a fairy tale to me.

In the movie, Dorothy told Jerry: “I just want to be inspired.” In the darkness, inspired I was.