Which variety is preferred by who, when, where and why within Taiwan?
My motivation for this question is recent discussions on the forum that deal with confusion between British and American usage.
Note: I don’t mean to pose a false dilemma and am open to discussion on other regional variations of English.
American English is standard in Taiwan, but it’s only a little harder for non-North Americans to find work. American English is what the kids learn at school and at almost all cram schools.
What a pity Taiwan wasn’t colonised by the Brits!
[quote=“almas john”]American English is standard in Taiwan, but it’s only a little harder for non-North Americans to find work. American English is what the kids learn at school and almost all cram schools.
[/quote]
That’s been my general impression, but from what I read around here, issues like in
[Class singular or plural
don’t seem to exactly be rare.
Are such situations exceptions where British English is preferred? Or, are the teachers themselves confused about the distinctions?
[quote=“ploor”]That’s been my general impression, but from what I read around here, issues like in
[Class singular or plural
don’t seem to exactly be rare.
Are such situations exceptions where British English is preferred? Or, are the teachers themselves confused about the distinctions?[/quote]
That’s a case of the test makers and teachers involved being inconsistent. In my opinion, in that case it’s totally a mistake by the school and the test writers.
Unfortunately, a number of native speaking teachers who come here are not really qualified to teach grammar. The local teachers know the rules better then the natives. But I have seen few local teachers who are actually good grammarians themselves. Some know some of the rules better then some of the foreigners and start thinking they know better than all of us who come here to teach.
[quote=“almas john”]What a pity Taiwan wasn’t colonised by the Brits![/quote]almas -
This is one of the most fascinating constructs I have seen on forumosa.
If this had been the case, British colonization and the eventual granting of Independence to the island,
the difference in the culture, educational system and political system could/would have been utterly amazing.
Pros & Cons - and of course this would negate the 'English teacher" sub-culture which has come about.
But so many more things would be different also.
Very fertile area for navel-gazing contemplation.