An assistant professor in North Carolina sent an email to her students ‘encouraging’ them to speak English in school. It seems to be targeting and racially discriminating Chinese speaking students who were described as being loud. It also appears to have a threatening remark that there will be unintended consequences for speaking your own language in the building.
IMO, the intention is good but probably how she did it is not write. Sending email to all her first and second year students on something that can be spin out racially discriminating or preventing international students to speak their own language is not the brightest idea. It’s probably easier to just approach to Chinese speaking crowd and tell them nicely to lower down their voices and encourage them to speak more English.
That being said, I think I will feel horrible if I was asked I can’t speak in my own comfortable language. On the other hand, I also understand that if you are someone who are not accustomed to hearing multiple language - that you will be concerned of what ‘these international folks’ are talking about. - But then again, it’s none of their business.
Classes are different. In this situation, it was a private conversation held in a building. If you are in a professional meeting or school classes, I think you should be conversing in a language understandable to everyone.
We were asked to use Chinese even outside of class in order to improve. Regardless of the fact that those Chinese students were allegedly very loud ( looks like there’s no proof of that), I find no problem in asking people to use English in a private University in an English speaking country.
So two students were having a private conversation “in the student lounge/study areas”. IMO, they can use any fucking language they want and shouldn’t have to make sure “everyone on the floor could understand.” Maybe they were discussing personal matters and didn’t want everyone around to know.
and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand.
The problem this sort of incident is creating is university lecturers/professors are becoming increasingly loathe to get involved with students beyond the bare minimum level.
I think it’s a shame, but I suppose it’s the way things are going.
Well, speaking Spanish in public areas will cause not so kind stares and bad service overall. In the best case scenario.
I do undertsnad where the instructor is coming from. It is frustrating that the Asian students tend to stick together like a flock and that leads to less English abilities due to lack of practice. If the otehr instructors hear them talking in Chinese only, they will doubt their language abilities and that will lead to lesser internship opportunities, for instance, because in spite of their good grades, people do not trust they udnwertsnad enough. And trust me, they are right: sometimes they come out of college with the same or worse level of English they came in.
That the school is now going bu hao isu is mostly PC talk. Anyways, the kids wil go back to China and will not need English anymore - in their minds and thoughts.
It used to amaze me how Taiwanese students can come back from years of study in North America still unable to hold basic conversations in English. It would certainly behoove them to get out of their Mandarin comfort zone and improve their English while they’ve overseas, but schools can’t really force them to, can they?
It’s the same thing as how a child is sent to cram school and learn English, you can’t force the kid to speak and converse English in his/her free time.
