Overcoming the East Asian English language barrier

[R. A. Stegemann]

Trond,

Thank you for your suggestion about overcoming the language hurdle, but
once again East Asia is not Europe. I now own pocket dictionaries in
the Japanese-French and Japanese-German language pairs. I learned much
of what I know in Japanese through the German and French languages,
simply as a means to force Japanese to speak Japanese with me.

The assumption in East Asia is that, if you are Western in appearance,
you speak English. Either you are from the United States or Great
Britain and speak only English, or that you are from Europe and that
you have studied English as your first second language in school. Thus,
no matter what you tell an East Asian, he insists that you know
English, and speaks to you, as if you do.

In addition to the above strategy I would often ask Japanese who
insisted on speaking English with me, if they were not Korean and did
not know how to speak Japanese. In Hong Kong I ask Hong Kongers, if
they are not Japanese. By choosing racial look-alikes, who are
historical enemies, you incite your conversation partner's sense of
patriotism, and he begins "singing" to you in his native tongue. Of
course, then it is often so fast and with such vehemence that you
cannot keep up and have to beg him or her to slow down.

Of course, Hong Kongers are more willing to teach you Cantonese, than
are Japanese willing to teach you Japanese. This is something that I
have yet to understand entirely, but it probably has to do with Hong
Kong's having been a British colony. Institutionally speaking, I have
found Hong Kong to be every bit as much closed as Japan, if not more
so. Simply it is easier to set up business here, and much of what you
need is provided in English at no additional cost. As a result, Hong
Kong is often preferred by foreign enterprises operating in East Asia.

So as to keep on topic, it is the high level of artificial demand
imposed on the general publics of East Asia by their governments that
creates the language barrier that the English language taught in East
Asia is suppose to overcome, but cannot.

Hamo






On 29 Oct 2004, at 19:08, Trond Trosterud wrote:

>
> 29.10.2004 kello 02:03, hsmr at pacific.net.hk kirjoitti:
>
> >  Thus, as soon as it becomes known that one is foreign, and many
> times before, the selected mode of speech  by East Asians is English
> -- no matter the level of proficiency of the foreign speaker. This
> presents an enormous barrier for learning one's host language.
>
> A bit off the topic, but I can't resist:
>
> If addressed in English when asking your way in Cantonese, just reply
> in French (or Spanish...), and then ask (in Cantonese) whether they
> speak French etc., and tell them that you don't speak English. It
> works fine in Europe, I have practised it (with success) in several
> language communities.
>
> Trond.
>
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> Trond Trosterud                                        t +47 7764 4763
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