As You Like It
The Future of the English Language
This work examines the implications of current trends in the English Language for policy agendas. Run in association with Cambridge Assessment, and ESOL Examinations at the University of Cambridge, it will identify not only areas in which policy makers will have to change to meet the challenges posed by the emergence of variants of English - Englishes - but also how government and others can work with providers to take advantage of the many opportunites that 'Englishes' present...
English in China
at 2:16pm on Monday, 11th September 2006
A recent article in the Chinese paper, the People's Daily, demonstrates just how global English is. It mentions a Russian, teaching English in the training department of a premier Chinese hotel.
That's pretty much the reality of global English and it's something to which the UK will have to accommodate. Examples of Chinglish are easy to come by. However, no matter how humorous the misunderstandings may on occasion be, we mustn't let them distract from this reality.
First, 'Chinglish' can come across as being patronising. In China, as all over the world, skills in English are far in advance of the UK's skills in foreign languages.
Second, the Chinese government is actively tightening up on 'Chinglish', seeking cut down the number of misunderstandings and losses in translation.
This raises a couple of points that we're investigating in this project:
That's pretty much the reality of global English and it's something to which the UK will have to accommodate. Examples of Chinglish are easy to come by. However, no matter how humorous the misunderstandings may on occasion be, we mustn't let them distract from this reality.
First, 'Chinglish' can come across as being patronising. In China, as all over the world, skills in English are far in advance of the UK's skills in foreign languages.
Second, the Chinese government is actively tightening up on 'Chinglish', seeking cut down the number of misunderstandings and losses in translation.
This raises a couple of points that we're investigating in this project:
- The need to develop our capacities in other languages.
- The need to accommodate the different Englishes that are emerging as speakers of other langauges learn it in their own terms
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