Dealing with English language attrition whilst living in Taiwan?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Hello,

Having lived in Taiwan for nearly five years now with a good majority of that time spent cooped up by myself learning Chinese or teaching rudimentary English to little brats, I have noticed that my ability to communicate in English is not as good as it once was.

For instance, yesterday it took me over 30 min to compose a simple email consisting of around 20 lines. In my university days I would have been able to fire off an email like that in 1/5 of the time.

I am also finding it awkward to express myself in spoken English when speaking to my family on Skype. Sometimes I can see that they think my expressions and inability to express myself as a native English speaker is a bit strange.

My best guesstimate is that because I have very little interaction with native English speakers and spend most of my days listening to and reading Chinese or Chinglish it has caused my English to deteriorate. But how can I fix this?

There is a massive selection of English books at the Main Library in Kaohsiung which I should make more use of. However, finding native English speakers is a little bit trickier. I’m not really a bar person, and most of the meet-ups I’ve been to–granted, not many-have had more Taiwanese people in attendance than native English speakers.

So, what do you think I can do?

Travel back to the UK more often? (Expensive)
Leave my wife and marry an English lass? (Difficult, I like my wife)
Head down to the bars more often? (Challenging, I don’t know anything about American sports)

Thanks

(Time taken to write this post: 35min)

2

I think it usually goes the other way with Westerners in Taiwan. :wink:

Seriously, though, you have several options. I had this same problem a few years back. Participate in more forums that have nothing to do with Taiwan. Have a hobby? Find a relative forum somewhere on the Web and go chatting away in it. I guarantee it will be refreshing to see how native speakers and non-Taiwanese non-natives use the English language. “Oh yeah, I totally forgot about semicolons!” It helps to submit your English to the scrutiny of people who deal with it everyday; they are less forgiving than the Taiwanese.

Write a lot. Keep a blog, and make many revisions to the same articles over time. Each time, you’ll see something that can be smoothed out.

Read novels, especially classic ones and comedic ones. The more creative the author is with language, the deeper the impression and inspiration it will leave in your mind.

Whatever you’re doing in Chinese, do it in English, too. Sometimes it’s amazing just to compare how totally different a news story on something like “Pilot turned off wrong gauge before deadly Taipei crash” can be.

And, I guess, pray?

3

Join a club? Maybe the American Club? Inter nations? Hiking Club? Look on meetup.com for groups you might be able to join. Find a degree program taught in mostly in English at a local university.

4

[quote=“Milkybar_Kid”]Hello,

Having lived in Taiwan for nearly five years now with a good majority of that time spent cooped up by myself learning Chinese or teaching rudimentary English to little brats, I have noticed that my ability to communicate in English is not as good as it once was.

For instance, yesterday it took me over 30 min to compose a simple email consisting of around 20 lines. In my university days I would have been able to fire off an email like that in 1/5 of the time.

I am also finding it awkward to express myself in spoken English when speaking to my family on Skype. Sometimes I can see that they think my expressions and inability to express myself as a native English speaker is a bit strange.

My best guesstimate is that because I have very little interaction with native English speakers and spend most of my days listening to and reading Chinese or Chinglish it has caused my English to deteriorate. But how can I fix this?

There is a massive selection of English books at the Main Library in Kaohsiung which I should make more use of. However, finding native English speakers is a little bit trickier. I’m not really a bar person, and most of the meet-ups I’ve been to–granted, not many-have had more Taiwanese people in attendance than native English speakers.

So, what do you think I can do?

Travel back to the UK more often? (Expensive)
Leave my wife and marry an English lass? (Difficult, I like my wife)
Head down to the bars more often? (Challenging, I don’t know anything about American sports)

Thanks

(Time taken to write this post: 35min)[/quote]

I feel I deal with the same issue, but maybe somewhat less since having kids. I speak to my kids only in English, and with the older one (she’s eleven), the topics are getting increasingly complex (religion, philosophy, interpersonal relations with kids at her school, etc.). I probably fumble the most when I talk to someone from my hometown or college and we’re using words like we used to back in the day. The “dudes,” “fu*&,” and other words don’t flow like they used to!But maybe this is something all middle-aged dudes face. Word out.

5

Actually that’s one of things that I feel self-conscious about when I go back to Canada: my casual/slang usage is probably frozen in amber from the 1990s, and I’m using words and pop culture references that no one’s used since the turn of the millennium. It’s not so much that I’ve forgotten it, but that the language has moved on and I haven’t. “D’oh!” “Hello, Newman.”

Plus the problem many of us face when we visit our home countries: we say something’s “too mafan”, and then our friends look at us funny.

To the OP: podcasts? Reading? I listen to plenty of podcasts from NPR, BBC, Slate, and so on. I feel like I haven’t lost much in the more formal registers, although admittedly I don’t get much chance to speak English at that level; I do feel odd when trying to function in more casual registers. My brother, who’s only two years younger than me, can use “sick” (in a positive sense?) and not sound ridiculous. I sure can’t. But heck, maybe that word’s ten years out of date now.

6

[quote=“lostinasia”]Plus the problem many of us face when we visit our home countries: we say something’s “too mafan”, and then our friends look at us funny./quote]

Ha! I haven’t done anything like that yet.

7

get some laowai friends?

8

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]
Seriously, though, you have several options. I had this same problem a few years back. Participate in more forums that have nothing to do with Taiwan. Have a hobby? Find a relative forum somewhere on the Web and go chatting away in it. I guarantee it will be refreshing to see how native speakers and non-Taiwanese non-natives use the English language. “Oh yeah, I totally forgot about semicolons!” It helps to submit your English to the scrutiny of people who deal with it everyday; they are less forgiving than the Taiwanese.

Write a lot. Keep a blog, and make many revisions to the same articles over time. Each time, you’ll see something that can be smoothed out.

Read novels, especially classic ones and comedic ones. The more creative the author is with language, the deeper the impression and inspiration it will leave in your mind.

Whatever you’re doing in Chinese, do it in English, too. Sometimes it’s amazing just to compare how totally different a news story on something like “Pilot turned off wrong gauge before deadly Taipei crash” can be.

And, I guess, pray?[/quote]

I sometimes have issues getting some phrases out, but not to the point where I have trouble putting together e-mails and posts. I still have a lot of exposure to English since all documentation in my office is…English.

However, here’s some tips that may help:

I highly recommend getting into a hobby or re-visiting an old hobby. If there’s no club or following for your hobby, make one! I moved back a year ago and realized that there were a lot of tennis players and cyclists in these forums, but no one made the effort to organize. I made LINE groups for both, an FB group for the tennis group and now my closest friends in Taiwan are the people in those groups. Most of them are native English speakers.

I also recommend watching a tv series or movies, ignore the Chinese subtitles.

9

Ha… this sounds to me… my Spanish and my English are both getting fucked up…

10

Hi there, do you mind sending me the details of the tennis and cycling group? Are you based in Taipei?

11

Have you considered studying, New Total English? Start at upper Int and then crack on to advanced…

BBC iplayer radio is good. Plenty of wordy English stuff on there. I’m sorry I haven’t a clue is always good for a laugh, or Just a Minute.

12

Yep. It is even harder to keep sharp on a non-English language.

13

OP, I wouldn’t worry about it too much seeing that you used the word attrition. :wink:

14

Hi there, do you mind sending me the details of the tennis and cycling group? Are you based in Taipei?[/quote]

PM’d you

15

After 15 years here in Amerikah, my mandarin is not as good as it was when I left Taiwan. There are rare occasions i get to practice. But what I do is watch some mandarin speaking shows and that helps keep me in the loop.

I think listening to podcasts are a great idea. There are things to view, listen to, watch movies in English.

But yes ideally its important to TALK, not just to listen. Make some online friends around the globe that you can yak with.

Find another english speaker in the same dilemma and make a friend. Hang out once a week.

Easier said then done though.

16

Are you the 阿兜仔不教美語 guy from YouTube?

17

Hi there, do you mind sending me the details of the tennis and cycling group? Are you based in Taipei?[/quote]

Sorry, I’m based right at the opposite end - Kaohsiung.

18

Are you the 阿兜仔不教美語 guy from YouTube?[/quote]
I guess not (I have a youtube channel but there’s another Jesus, who I know, with a very popular channel).

19

Are you the 阿兜仔不教美語 guy from YouTube?[/quote]
I guess not[/quote]

Wait, so, you’re not sure if you are or are not that guy? How are you not sure?

20

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]
Wait, so, you’re not sure if you are or are not that guy? How are you not sure?[/quote]
Easy: he wrote something in Chinese, and I can’t read a word of it. May be it’s something to do with me! :stuck_out_tongue: