Download Chinglish

A: Ho Cheuk Fai
F. D. B. W. A. Szeto Ho Secondary School
10th December, 2015
Morning Assembly by 5A
Chinglish
B: Choi Wai Ting
C: Lee Tsz Wing
D: Lo Wai Lam
C:
Hey, you three doing what? Chatting? Chatting what?
A:
Oh! Why are you talking like this?
C:
Are there any problems? Newspaper reports said some candidates (考生) spoke this way as well
during the DSE speaking exam.
B:
Definitely there’re problems! This’s what we call ‘Chinglish’! It’s like a contagious (容易傳染
的) disease because nowadays, more and more students are using it in daily conversations and
even in formal situations like exams! Sadly, they are unaware (沒意識到) that this is a problem.
A:
Contagious disease – I like your metaphor (比喻)! But why do people use this ungrammatical
form of English? It seems to me that it’s because students lack language knowledge and
awareness. Since they don’t understand how the English language works, they invent patterns
and words themselves. Sometimes they try to fit English words into Chinese sentence patterns,
resulting in a weird (怪異的) hybrid (合體) of the two languages.
C:
Oh really? Then I should avoid talking that way, right? Because that can jeopardize (危害) my
exam grades!
D:
Of course! Since Chinglish is ungrammatical, it can seriously impede communication.
C:
D:
What do you mean by ‘impede communication’?
Well, if you use Chinglish, people may not be able to understand what exactly you mean. In oral
exams, you will probably (很可能) get a very low score in the ‘Language’ domain. If the
problem is so serious that no one can understand you, your ‘Content’ score will also be affected.
B:
Yes, you’re totally right! Also, later on when you work, if you fail to get your meaning across
accurately (準確地) and effectively (有效地), you’re disadvantaging yourself! Eloquent (口齒伶
俐的) people are bound to have a higher chance to succeed in any kind of work.
C:
I see your points. Then do you have any suggestions about how we can get rid of (擺脫)
Chinglish and reach a higher level of proficiency in English?
A:
I think we need to increase the amount of language input. I mean we should read more and listen
more, and while we are reading or listening, we need to pay attention to how people actually use
the language to convey intended meaning. In other words, we should learn from models.
D:
Yes, this’s exactly what English teachers have always been talking about. Also, I recently read an
article about English learning, and it says acquiring a language is a ‘time-consuming’ process,
because it takes a considerable amount of practice to internalize (內化) language skills and
knowledge. There’re simply no shortcuts (捷徑).
C:
Thanks for the suggestions! Now I understand that Chinglish is a real problem and we should
work hard to learn English to become proficient users of it.
Useful phrases
Examples
It seems to me that…
It seems to me that (=I think that) learning English is like learning how to ride
a bicycle – practice is the key to success.
be bound to do sth.
You are bound to make mistakes if you pay no attention to grammatical rules.
get rid of sth.
Extensive reading can help you to get rid of Chinglish and ungrammatical
constructions.