Is Learning Chinese while Teaching English Possible?

Language Learning Chinese
81

[quote=“Hellstorm”]I don’t know for sure, and if you say it, it probably is possible (I don’t have any knowledge in this matter, so I’ll just trust you :wink: ), but I find it extremely hard to “get” the correct pronounciation, when I just hear the word (especially with tones).
Of course, the teacher has to speak really clearly, but I think it is still hard. When I hear a word and then try to copy the sound, I guess I will most likely not speak it correctly. I may be missing a certain sound, may not get the tone right, etc.
Instead, if I have some written form (=Pinyin, not Hanzi), I can check the word and see “ah, here is an e. It sounds a little bit different as I’m used to, but I still have to speak it”. If I only hear the sound, I may miss it. Even more so with tones. “Which tone did he just pronounce…? Maybe the 2nd? Maybe the 3rd? It all sounds the same to me…”. Instead, if seeing it written “Ah, I have to get the 3rd tone correctly. Damn, not yet 100% correct… have to try again”.[/quote]

We actually have a few more weapons in the arsenal for teaching tones than just “listen and repeat”. The teacher speaking clearly and slowly, and emphasizing the tones, helps a lot. The use of tonal spelling in Romanization (not written charaters) helps – TOP features three separate and simultaneous means of marking tones, so one of them is likely to stick. I also advocate “directional gestures” which encompass the semantic meaning and the tonal contour of the new item. It is not just all about hearing tones in speech – if your teacher does nothing more than that, s/he is not really thinking deeply about how to get someone from a non-tonal language to notice and use tones.

See, it’s about thinking about the challenges students face and coming up with something different, instead of hiding behind the “Chinese is such a difficult language” thing, or behind 5,000 glorious years of pedagogical history. :wink:

82

[quote]
A 6 year is so different from an adult. I really don’t think that you can compare it.

Same brain. Same biology. The basics are the same.[/quote]
I don’t quite follow. Are you saying that children learn in the same way and at the same speed, using the same language acquisition mechanisms as adults?

83

[quote=“Hellstorm”]Ok, let’s say that everybody, who learns a foreign language in class will also learn the written language.

I won’t say anything about e.g. blue collar workers who just pick up the foreign language, but isn’t usually their pronounciation not as good as it could be? It may not be that bad, but I have the opinion that people who learn a foreign language while also being able to write it, seem to have a better pronounciation.

(this is just assumption to a large part by me, because I’m not really in contact with those foreigners).[/quote]

I think here by pronunciation you mean a particular pronunciation. I have a particular Australian accent. It’s not what most people think of when they think “Australian” and to the uninitiated, I’m often confused for another nationality (including sometimes by other Australians who have led a more insular life). I have met immigrants who have a much stronger stereotypical Australian accent than mine. They sound more Australian than I do. There’s definitely such a thing as incorrect pronunciation, but there’s also a set of “incorrect” pronunciations that are rooted in class, and of course, blue collar immigrants are more likely to be exposed to those accents and pick them up, and so be considered to have poor pronunciation by people from the middle and upper classes who get to define what the “correct” or “standard” accent is or should be. There are times when I have trouble understanding really heavy native English speaking accents from native speakers, including other Australians, yet evidently they don’t have problems understanding each other. I’m sure if you took someone from the upper echelons of the Beijing elite and threw them out here in rural Taidong where I live they’d do a double take also.

Further to this, I am reminded of something that happened a few years ago. I was a judge at a speech contest for students from Taoyuan County. There was a girl who spoke really well (and also gave quite a unique speech). Afterwards, when we three judges (one of whom was a colleague who had been born in the Philippines, but had lived in Queensland, Australia and had a REALLY strong Australian accent, and one of whom was Taiwanese) discussed the speeches, the Taiwanese judge said that girl’s accent was really bad. I told her no, it was just obvious that she’d actually lived in the Antipodes, but the judge insisted that the girl’s accent was “wrong” (I didn’t press her as to whether my accent, or that of my colleague, was wrong), and so she didn’t even come third, which was a real travesty in my opinion because her English was really good, and she gave a speech that wasn’t a stock standard memorised and predictably safe speech. I later went up to the girl and spoke to her and told her this. It turned out that she’d been an exchange student in New Zealand. To my way of thinking, that she’d lived there for a relatively short time and acquired a local accent, despite years of American English in Taiwan, actually showed that she had acquired English better in one sense.

84

No. Join social groups that involve LISTENING. Not speaking. You acquire a language by hearing correctly spoken, meaningful language that you can understand. Not by painfully attempting to output the language before your brain has acquired enough structure and vocabulary to do so automatically.

This is the same reason why pairwork is such an inefficient way to help people learn languages. Let’s take two learners and make them limp through a dialogue or exercise relying on a diagram or prompt from a textbook. Neither of them is fluent. Neither of them has mastered whatever point is being emphasized. This may possibly be comprehensible input – assuming everyone knows what the sentences mean – but it’s not high quality input. It is not what we want the brain to grab and say “This is how Chinese works!” (or whatever language is being taught.)

High quality input means the teacher speaking the very best language s/he can, in a natural way, to students, but doing so v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y at first (I mean VERY slowly) with enormous gaps between elements, so students can process the language, and sheltering vocabulary so that everything is understandable to the student at all times.[/quote]

I am curious. What level of learner do you have in mind for this advice? It is one thing to suggest this approach to a beginner. However, I think a lot of the advice Twoton and others are giving is intended for at least intermediate-level individuals who have been living in a Chinese-speaking place for some time already. There is a point at which such people who- if they’ve made any efforts- having been exposed to the structures for some years already, should be making more efforts to improve their spoken skills through more real-world interactions.

85

[quote=“Hellstorm”][quote=“ironlady”]
Yeah. My Chinese classes. And any class taught by a competent CI-based instructor. Since we’re teaching adults, many will display the written form next to the native language form, but it’s not necessary. I’ve taught Chinese without even using Pinyin, in fact. No one seemed to have any problem with it; they were able to understand and respond in about the same amount of time as when I teach with the Pinyin and English forms displayed (but no characters). (I had to give up that particular class because of illness, but it would have been nice to see how things progressed after the first month or so, just for the sake of science.)[/quote]

I don’t know for sure, and if you say it, it probably is possible (I don’t have any knowledge in this matter, so I’ll just trust you :wink: ), but I find it extremely hard to “get” the correct pronounciation, when I just hear the word (especially with tones).
Of course, the teacher has to speak really clearly, but I think it is still hard. When I hear a word and then try to copy the sound, I guess I will most likely not speak it correctly. I may be missing a certain sound, may not get the tone right, etc.
Instead, if I have some written form (=Pinyin, not Hanzi), I can check the word and see “ah, here is an e. It sounds a little bit different as I’m used to, but I still have to speak it”. If I only hear the sound, I may miss it. Even more so with tones. “Which tone did he just pronounce…? Maybe the 2nd? Maybe the 3rd? It all sounds the same to me…”. Instead, if seeing it written “Ah, I have to get the 3rd tone correctly. Damn, not yet 100% correct… have to try again”.

I have this problem with Japanese. Sometimes, the pitch accent is necessary to distinguish between certain words (e.g. 橋 and 箸, hashi), but it is not shown in the writing. I have an electronic dictionary which can play the sound files according to the word, so I can hear a difference, but I have no idea, how to actually pronounce it, because I cannot analyse the structure in my head.

And I think, this may actually be the same when I want to learn a language without at least having some form of written representation.

I also tried to listen to this “Taiwanese 101” textbook CD. I just couldn’t grasp what they were saying. No idea at all. If I would have checked the written form, I could at least see “Ah, here should be a difference between aspirated and not aspirated sound… Let’s especially look for that the next time I hear the word.”

I am actually quite in favour teaching Chinese without Hanzi. To be honest, I am trying to shift to that learning method for myself now, because I find Hanzi way too easy. I can read and understand the text, but I fail utterly if I only see the reading (or hear the word), without the Hanzi. So I think I may not have yet acquired the word, and the Hanzi are hindering my progress in this way.
So I just try to learn vocabulary now with only Pinyin, and just learn the Hanzi by the way, when reading a text or something like that.

[quote=“ironlady”]
You mean “Everyone who attends traditionally-taught classes…”, right?

You can’t LEARN vocabulary very easily without writing it down, because you’re thinking of memorizing it, and you are (traditionally) most frequently tested on your grasp of literacy involving new vocabulary – “read it”, “write it down” – rather than your ability to understand and use it orally. You can, however, ACQUIRE vocabulary very easily without ever writing anything down. Acquired vocabulary is in the brain long-term, can be accessed automatically, and “sticks”. Learned vocabulary is typically forgotten after the immediate need (usually a quiz, could also be something like an interpreting job :smiley: ) is past, unless there is occasion to use it repeatedly (which gets it acquired, not just learned).[/quote]

  1. Well yes, of course. To be honest I have a hard time imagining something else. Of course, changing the method used in class a little is something I can imagine, but I have a hard time imagining something completely different.
  2. Well, by learning I mean “really able to use it”. If I cannot use this word in a sentence, I didn’t learn it correctly. I am no language instructor, but I think to learn vocabulary you need to maybe learn it in simple tabular form, then use it in written form (writing texts etc) and use it in conversation. If you do that often enough, you have learned it. Just being able to write it down in a vocabulary test is not really something I would call “learned” in a language context.

[quote=“ironlady”]
Same brain. Same biology. The basics are the same. We simply “tweak” things to take advantage of maturity (when it’s available :aiyo: ) and experience, when teaching adults. We need to do that because of the much greater demands placed on adult learners from all aspects of their lives, which cuts into the language acquisition time.

People have acquired languages throughout the lifespan for thousands of years. It’s only comparatively recently when interference from literacy proponents (intelligentsia controlling language?) and well-meaning language classes has made it “difficult” for people to do this.[/quote]

Doesn’t a child learn much faster than an adult?

Well, but life has changed, right? If you learned a language 1000 years ago, it would have been pretty likely that you had to live in a different region and you had no access to your own native language anymore - no other speakers, no written material etc. I would guess that if you get thrown into a Indian village without any access to English language media and other English people, you would pretty fast learn the language there.
And isn’t the language used in rural contexts often a little bit more “simple”? (not in terms of grammar etc., but just vocabulary… you may not need special vocabulary which you all need to know nowadays).

But I am no linguist and no teacher, so I guess everything I say here is pretty much incorrect :wink: So please feel free to correct me :slight_smile:[/quote]

Your learning style seems similar to mine. When I hear new words, (mandarin) I will literally forget them in 5 seconds. BUT when I have the written words in the form of pinyin and hanzi, my brain has an easier time holding on to them. But like you said, this hinders the process of audio-oral aquisition. If I can hear Chinese as easy as I can English, then I know I have “aquired” it. I too find that reading Chinese is way easier than trying to listen to it. In fact, whenever my Taiwanese friends have the TV on, I find myself glued to the mandarin subtitles, trying to decifer what they are talking about (It often works). Another theory I have is that here in Taiwan, the Mandarin they speak is well … Not how we learn from the tapes that come with textbooks, (i.e. beijing accent). So they often leave of the “h” if we were to pinyinize their speach. So I’m sure you all know “zhe shi shenme?” in Taiwan becomes “zi si semne?” When I point this out to my Taiwanese friends, they deny it :wink:

My other theory is that hanzi are all so distinct. The words however, all sound the same. Have you ever thought about how many homonymns there are in Chinese compaired with english? Not sure on the exact number, but I know there are considerably more homonymns in Chinese.

I’m no linguist, just someone who is trying to learn a new language so of course my experience is personal and not scientific. However, the comprehensive input method does seem convincing. I like the idea of being spoken to in 95% Chinese I understand and 5% new words. That seems like it would really help everything “sink” in, rather than watching TV programs where I am lucky if I understand 10% of what they are saying, without the hanzi subtitles.

86

a nice write up on learning chinese

pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html

However, if you just learn to speak it and understand it, you won half the battle . Better to be able to read and write of course but … still.

And some people are getting heavy into learning mandarin in the west:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4617646.stm

87

[quote=“TwoTon”][quote]
A 6 year is so different from an adult. I really don’t think that you can compare it.

Same brain. Same biology. The basics are the same.[/quote]
I don’t quite follow. Are you saying that children learn in the same way and at the same speed, using the same language acquisition mechanisms as adults?[/quote]

I’m saying all brains acquire language in the same way. Obviously children vs adults, and indeed even individual vs. individual, “learn” (actually, acquire) at a different pace and in different ways. The environmental and experiential factors, in particular, are very different. As teachers, our job is to exploit these and make them advantages, while working to optimize the very limited amount of class time that is typically available.

88

No. Join social groups that involve LISTENING. Not speaking. You acquire a language by hearing correctly spoken, meaningful language that you can understand. Not by painfully attempting to output the language before your brain has acquired enough structure and vocabulary to do so automatically.

This is the same reason why pairwork is such an inefficient way to help people learn languages. Let’s take two learners and make them limp through a dialogue or exercise relying on a diagram or prompt from a textbook. Neither of them is fluent. Neither of them has mastered whatever point is being emphasized. This may possibly be comprehensible input – assuming everyone knows what the sentences mean – but it’s not high quality input. It is not what we want the brain to grab and say “This is how Chinese works!” (or whatever language is being taught.)

High quality input means the teacher speaking the very best language s/he can, in a natural way, to students, but doing so v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y at first (I mean VERY slowly) with enormous gaps between elements, so students can process the language, and sheltering vocabulary so that everything is understandable to the student at all times.[/quote]

I am curious. What level of learner do you have in mind for this advice? It is one thing to suggest this approach to a beginner. However, I think a lot of the advice Twoton and others are giving is intended for at least intermediate-level individuals who have been living in a Chinese-speaking place for some time already. There is a point at which such people who- if they’ve made any efforts- having been exposed to the structures for some years already, should be making more efforts to improve their spoken skills through more real-world interactions.[/quote]

There’s nothing wrong with interaction when you’re at the level where you can interact. It’s fun and it’s motivating. Most importantly, it allows you to get more input – ask for repetitions, ask speakers to slow down, clarify and expand conversations, get more and related language. But the acquisition comes from listening, not from your output.

89

[quote=“danbinggui”]
My other theory is that hanzi are all so distinct. The words however, all sound the same. Have you ever thought about how many homonymns there are in Chinese compaired with english? Not sure on the exact number, but I know there are considerably more homonymns in Chinese.[/quote]

Sorry, that’s another myth. If you look at a dictionary arranged by Pinyin and tones without regard to characters, so that you’re only seeing the “spoken” language rather than characters, you’ll soon find that there are very, very few homophones in Chinese in terms of words (not individual syllables). (Lanbridge publishes a dictionary like this in Taiwan if you want to have a look in some bookstore.) Language is about words, not characters. Characters are literacy.

When I first started learning Chinese, I found it easier to deal with characters than spoken language as well. Of course, I suspect that was because I wasn’t getting enough unpredictable repetition on the oral language items, since I was being taught in a very traditional way. Since I was a good test-taker and studied a lot, I could memorize the characters and do well on quizzes.

If you have enough repetition on new items so that they are acquired, they will “pop out” at you like the word “laowai” across a crowded restaurant. :smiley:

90

Thank you, Terry.

[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“TwoTon”][quote]
A 6 year is so different from an adult. I really don’t think that you can compare it.

Same brain. Same biology. The basics are the same.[/quote]
I don’t quite follow. Are you saying that children learn in the same way and at the same speed, using the same language acquisition mechanisms as adults?[/quote]

I’m saying all brains acquire language in the same way. Obviously children vs adults, and indeed even individual vs. individual, “learn” (actually, acquire) at a different pace and in different ways. The environmental and experiential factors, in particular, are very different. As teachers, our job is to exploit these and make them advantages, while working to optimize the very limited amount of class time that is typically available.[/quote]

91

[quote=“ironlady”]
There’s nothing wrong with interaction when you’re at the level where you can interact. It’s fun and it’s motivating. Most importantly, it allows you to get more input – ask for repetitions, ask speakers to slow down, clarify and expand conversations, get more and related language. But the acquisition comes from listening, not from your output.[/quote]

I’m not disputing that it may be useful. Of course, it could be, just like it would be useful for me to take a pronunciation class to improve my phonics and tonal accuracy-- and I’m no beginner. I am certainly not going to argue about the leaves being on trees with you. On the other hand, I believe what Twoton and others have been saying is valid advice for some of the mid-to-longer-term residents and spouses. Some of us have very good listening and literacy already, but what we really need is to take the next step and make Chinese something we live and not just study. It is a poignant point and one that many a resident, whose Chinese is above basic-level, should consider.

92

If you’re talking “study”, you are talking about “learning”, not “acquisition”.

The question of how to get someone from the basics of Chinese to an advanced level is not one that has been considered much by anyone in the field. I think this is because the money is with beginners. For every hundred bright-eyed beginners in Chinese 101, maybe two will make it even to a fourth-year Chinese university level - which is not very high in terms of functional abilities. And this is still mostly learning, not acquisition – lots of the “look upward while thinking about how to arrange those words while speaking” and “remember which tone it is then use your hand to help you shape it” stuff.

I know I sound like a broken record most of the time, but we need Western – or at least non-traditional-thinking – teachers to get involved in this. We need people to assume that students CAN become proficient in Chinese, that there IS a better way to do this, a systematic and brain-friendly way, and that some of the traditional accepted wisdom about what is “crucial” is now changing.

Essentially, we need to burn PAVC in reality and in effigy. :raspberry:

93

If you’re talking “study”, you are talking about “learning”, not “acquisition”.

The question of how to get someone from the basics of Chinese to an advanced level is not one that has been considered much by anyone in the field. I think this is because the money is with beginners. For every hundred bright-eyed beginners in Chinese 101, maybe two will make it even to a fourth-year Chinese university level - which is not very high in terms of functional abilities. And this is still mostly learning, not acquisition – lots of the “look upward while thinking about how to arrange those words while speaking” and “remember which tone it is then use your hand to help you shape it” stuff.

I know I sound like a broken record most of the time, but we need Western – or at least non-traditional-thinking – teachers to get involved in this. We need people to assume that students CAN become proficient in Chinese, that there IS a better way to do this, a systematic and brain-friendly way, and that some of the traditional accepted wisdom about what is “crucial” is now changing.

Essentially, we need to burn PAVC in reality and in effigy. :raspberry:[/quote]

It is not only Chinese. Better learning methods need to be used to help students learn English as well. One advantage to input is that people will be able to learn more naturally language. Instead of learning. 我做功课。 You will know 我寫功课。

94

[quote=“ironlady”]

If you’re talking “study”, you are talking about “learning”, not “acquisition”. [/quote]

Semantics. I’m talking about people who have lived in Chinese-speaking environments for years. However it is that they’ve gained their abilities, they have them. And the advice of some of the posters here is to start using these skills in more practical situations and to join clubs and participate in broader activities in order to get the practice and conversational opportunities they desire. Are they wrong to suggest this? In what way? Exactly when do you reach a level in a language when you can step out of classroom situations and start using the living language, especially if you happen to live in a country where that language is the official language?

You’re doing it again. Confusing beginner-level students in university programs with long-term residents of a Chinese speaking place.

[quote=“ironlady”]I know I sound like a broken record most of the time, but we need Western – or at least non-traditional-thinking – teachers to get involved in this. We need people to assume that students CAN become proficient in Chinese, that there IS a better way to do this, a systematic and brain-friendly way, and that some of the traditional accepted wisdom about what is “crucial” is now changing.

Essentially, we need to burn PAVC in reality and in effigy. :raspberry:[/quote]

You do sound like a broken record, largely because you keep repeating the same rhetoric and self-promotion, regardless of the direction of the discussion. In fact, I’m not really sure why you quoted my post in yours because you haven’t really dealt with anything I said in it, other than to argue over a single term.

95

[quote=“Toasty”][quote=“ironlady”]

If you’re talking “study”, you are talking about “learning”, not “acquisition”. [/quote]

Semantics. [/quote]
Yes, if you don’t understand the difference between “learning” a language and “acquiring” a language. It makes a tremendous difference.

[quote=“Toasty”]
You’re doing it again. Confusing beginner-level students in university programs with long-term residents of a Chinese speaking place. [/quote]

No, people who have only a novice level of Chinese as a second/foreign language are beginners, no matter where they are or how old they are. Most of the folks who deplore their lack of achievement in Chinese over the years in Taiwan are still beginners, and have relied on learning patterns and memorizing vocabulary to get to where they are. Even those who have “hung out” and “picked up” Chinese are not advanced speakers or they wouldn’t be asking how to become advanced speakers. Being a long-term resident is no guarantee of anything – if it were, the whole question of how to take people from a basic level to the advanced level wouldn’t be a problem. It would begin and end at a travel agency.

Because until you grasp the difference between learning and acquisition, I can’t say anything that is going to mean anything to you. Perhaps you should start a new thread limited only to those who think traditionally about Chinese teaching, so as to avoid what you regard as self-promotion or rhetoric.

96

[quote=“Hellstorm”][quote=“Amasashi”]

When you learned your native language, you first learned how to listen and speak BEFORE how to read and write. An illiterate 6-year-old can run circles around you despite all your years of Chinese classes.
[/quote]

Actually, is there any foreign language where one learns to listen/speak BEFORE learning to read/write?
Everybody learns to read and write English, French, Japanese etc. at the same time while learning to listen/speak.
How do you actually want to learn vocabulary without having a way to write down vocabulary lists?

A 6 year is so different from an adult. I really don’t think that you can compare it.[/quote]

I need to go with this quote by Amasashi here. I have a friend who is fluent in Russian, worked in Moscow doing very important work regarding spoken and written language. We will leave it there because Wikileaks might be on the spy if I go any further. I have a second friend who translated oral and written in Libya for over a decade, working on that crazy-haired Gaddafi’s junk. These are guys I trust when asking about how to learn a language because they are effective at what they do. Listening and speaking until you gain a good handle on the language, then worry about the reading and writing.

97

[quote=“ironlady”]

Yes, if you don’t understand the difference between “learning” a language and “acquiring” a language. It makes a tremendous difference.[/quote]

You mean if I accepted the definition you assign to it.

[quote=“Toasty”]

No, people who have only a novice level of Chinese as a second/foreign language are beginners, no matter where they are or how old they are.[/quote]

And I am not, nor are many of the posters here. Nor are the intended recipients of the advice given in this thread.

Proof? Evidence? It certainly isn’t the case in my situation. People who are asking how to become “advanced” speakers are people who have lived in a Chinese-speaking place and used the language for years. In fact, according to the way that learners are assessed, they likely already qualify as “advanced.” They are looking for more meaningful interactions and ways to use the language outside of controlled situations. For those people, yes, joining a club and participating in the community in new situations is solid advice. No, being a long-term resident is no guarantee of anything. On the other hand, if someone is reasonably diligent, has reason to learn (relatives etc) and uses the language frequently, then it stands to reason that after a time they will have different needs than someone enrolling in a beginner course, here or especially in the west. You wrongly assume you know the level of all foreign Chinese language learners in Taiwan and you wrongly assume you know what is best for all of them. From the way you talk, nobody ever learned Chinese before you and nobody will ever be able to without your methods.

You know what; I am not arguing your jargon term. What I am arguing, and you are avoiding, is the way you are refuting and poo-pooing on the practical advice given in this thread with regards to how foreign residents can increase their conversational practice opportunities. I think the advice is solid and is something some who have been using the language for beyond a certain amount of time really ought to consider. You, seemingly, want to dismiss it out of hand and assert that, because of the meaning of “acquire” vs “learn,” everyone is a beginner (who isn’t you of course) and ought to pay you for classes.

98

I think philosophically, you have to become Chinese, at least in your mind. Because many Chinese start out without being able to speak a Chinese language, if they have grown up abroad and are 3rd generation. But because philosophically they think that because they are Chinese, they can and will do it. Im half Chinese and I think that helped me to learn the language because I simply knew I could and I simply will.

The will to embrace it is needed . And the plain fact is that you CAN, even if you are not ethnically Chinese. You just simply have to tell yourself you CAN and simply WILL do it because you CAN. And in truth you CAN.

99

Indeed. “I’ll try” means “I’ll fail”. Remember “Red Cap”, the female Special Forces team member in the US TV series “The Unit”? Asked where she acquired her almost native-level French, she answers “If the French can learn it, I can.” Sure, sounds like hubris, but why not shoot for the stars? I’m currently writing a book in English, but English isn’t my native language. However, I’ve been around English long enough (albeit mostly in non-English speaking countries) that I believe I can do it with the help of a patient editor. In fact, I’ve even found a couple of interested publishers.

Joseph Conrad is my idol when it comes to learning languages: “Born of Polish parents, he is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and then always with a marked Polish accent).” (Wikipedia). While I’m not attempting to create a tome that will be revered by scholars and loathed by students for generations to come - my book is just a collection of (more or less) amusing anecdotes - why the hell shouldn’t I succeed within the limited scope of my ambitions? If Conrad could fine-tune his English abilities through nothing but reading and re-reading his moldy little book collection and hanging with his British navy buddies, I can achieve an acceptable level with the help of all the amazing online tools that are around today.

Same for Chinese. After 22 years of Life on The Rock and 12 years of co-raising a family with whom I only communicate in Chinese (yes, that includes the kids. Don’t ask - it’s complicated :whistle:), the only reason why I still read Chinese newspapers like a dyslexic baboon on Quaaludes is my world-class laziness. Had I kept keepin’ on instead of eventually slacking off, I wouldn’t be the semi-illiterate bastard that I am today.

Pep talk over. Back to the salt mines, everyone!

100

Joseph Conrad. What a tripper. How about Richard Burton? He was another of those old school freaky linguists.