Comments on: 50 million learning a foreign language in China http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/2008/04/01/learn-foreign-language-china/ Musings about language, culture, travel and other random observations Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:57:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: hamad http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/2008/04/01/learn-foreign-language-china/comment-page-1/#comment-12 hamad Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:21:44 +0000 http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/?p=4#comment-12 its oft-mentioned that china has hundreds of millions of english speakers that, in aggregate, are greater than the population of the USA. however, on my recent trip to guangzhou in guangdong province, I would never have though so since it was quite an effort to find someone that could even say yes, no and ok or to get hand directions to a place. where are all these speakers of english in China? are they being measured accurately and what is their level of english proficiency? english, in agreement with some of your other posts, is one of the harder languages to learn given its somewhat convoluted grammatical structure that is highly unintuitive in many cases but it has become the lingua franca (oh the irony) of the business world and increasingly the wider world. you have an interesting blog. keep it up. its oft-mentioned that china has hundreds of millions of english speakers that, in aggregate, are greater than the population of the USA. however, on my recent trip to guangzhou in guangdong province, I would never have though so since it was quite an effort to find someone that could even say yes, no and ok or to get hand directions to a place. where are all these speakers of english in China? are they being measured accurately and what is their level of english proficiency?

english, in agreement with some of your other posts, is one of the harder languages to learn given its somewhat convoluted grammatical structure that is highly unintuitive in many cases but it has become the lingua franca (oh the irony) of the business world and increasingly the wider world.

you have an interesting blog. keep it up.

]]> By: kenleong http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/2008/04/01/learn-foreign-language-china/comment-page-1/#comment-8 kenleong Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:01:45 +0000 http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/?p=4#comment-8 Richard you could very well be right. My source is a 10-day old official Chinese government press release. Perhaps they have only counted the people who are studying foreign languages at college (university) level. I suppose many would be studying informally and would hence fall through the cracks. In any case, given the passion that the Chinese have for education, before long we would see the majority of Chinese people learning a foreign language. Richard you could very well be right. My source is a 10-day old official Chinese government press release. Perhaps they have only counted the people who are studying foreign languages at college (university) level. I suppose many would be studying informally and would hence fall through the cracks. In any case, given the passion that the Chinese have for education, before long we would see the majority of Chinese people learning a foreign language.

]]> By: Richard McLaughlin http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/2008/04/01/learn-foreign-language-china/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Richard McLaughlin Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:25:27 +0000 http://blog.euroasia.co.nz/?p=4#comment-7 Ken, I differ with your 50 million student number. I have read as high as 250 million. At Asia Times Online they state "According to Graddol's research, an estimated 176.7 million Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the formal education sector." (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI15Df01.html) Thgis article is 2 years old, and I think that the number has increased with the coming Olympics. Cheers Ken, I differ with your 50 million student number. I have read as high as 250 million. At Asia Times Online they state “According to Graddol’s research, an estimated 176.7 million Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the formal education sector.” (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI15Df01.html) Thgis article is 2 years old, and I think that the number has increased with the coming Olympics.

Cheers

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