P.S. Spelled my name wrong the last time! Forgot the ‘g’.

I’ve seen your blog. I think you’re making a great commitment to learning Chinese - I admire it!

In saying that however some teachers manage to give their students a really good command of the language within this exam environment. In secondary school I had to study Latin, French, German and or course Irish. Of all of these languages French was taught the best and I was still able to use it when I went to France many years later. The worst taught of these languages was Irish and I think that is the standard across the board. Irish is taught at a very young age in schools, almost from the first day in fact and yet the level of Irish is very poor all round. The point is that if the system of teaching languages is not changed at all levels then it does not matter what age it is taught at, the results will be the same.

However I do believe if languages are introduced to children at a very young age in a suitable way then the situation will be much improved. I welcome the idea of teaching non-european languages in schools since people have depended too much on English being the lingua franca. I have had to attend conferences all over the world and I always try to learn a little of the local language before I go since it breaks down barriers so easily. I simple ‘thank you’ in the local tongue can have a surprising effect on the way people relate to you. Other people just assume everyone speaks English even outside the conference environment! I have seen terrible examples of this.

I was in China last summer for a conference and I went into register. There were over 2000 attendees there. I approached the registration desk manned by two Chinese students. I filled out the forms and they gave me the conference pack and I replied with a ‘xiexie’ and a ‘zaijian’. They were astounded by this and talked to each other about it. 2000 people registered and that was the first time they had heard that all day…very sad.

UK language education starts way to late. In Europe they do it much earlier. The Europeans also have proximity to several languages and much more compelling reasons to learn them.

Language education in the Anglo world is sorely lacking, the result of having English as a lingu franca. Not only do they need to reform their methods, but they need to do so in a way that makes sense in the globalized, web 2.0 era - no small task. I’m none too hopeful. (Could their be a future for Praxis Language???)

Ken Carroll

Science has shown that by around age 13, the human brain stops aquiring language like a sponge. In fact if you wait until after this age to begin a language, it will be extremely difficult to learn it without an accent. However, if you learn before this age (or thereabouts), you are much more likely to become a fluent, “native” speaker. (See Stephen Pinker’s book, “The Language Instinct” for the science).

Let’s start instruction at the age of 5 or 6 in primary school - that would basically solve our language acquisition issues. The institutional problem with this solution - at least here in the States - is that I think that precious few primary school teachers can speak a second language themselves…

Chip Brewer