據(jù)調(diào)查表明 中國(guó)會(huì)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)人數(shù)多于印度

The FT doesn’t usually publish total nonsense, but there’s a story today which made me choke on my cup of tea.

According to a new study by the British Council, China is supposed to have more English speakers than India.

David Graddol, the author, puts the number of English speakers in India at five per cent, or 55 million, and says China is turning out 20 million new English speakers each year.

The FT says if this is true, India has lost one of its “clear economic advantages” over China and will find it harder to compete, given China has superior infrastructure and a more flexible supply of labour.深圳翻譯服務(wù)

Anyone who has been to both countries, however, can see that this survey is bogus. Barely anyone in China speaks English.

By contrast, almost every Indian has a basic English vocabulary. And the Indian middle class, the politicians, businessmen and intellectuals, are all fluent.

Students in China are forced to rote-learn English in school, sometimes for years, but it is a rare person who can actually speak the language. Even the foreign sales managers of export businesses, who depend on business from American and English companies, are often oddly tongue-tied.

It is easier to rub by in Beijing and Shanghai, which are both fairly touristy, but simple things, like taking a taxi, remain nearly impossible without a bit of Mandarin. And I always worry about the tourists who backpack around China. If they cannot speak Chinese, I imagine they have an intensely lonely, difficult and unpleasant time.

China, because of its size and its centuries of isolation, rivals the US and the UK as a nation of monoglots.

Unlike the US and the UK, however, China does have a grand ambition to transform itself, and mastering English is part of the plan. There is a great piece here, from the New Yorker, about the drills in English before the Olympics last year.

Meanwhile, my favourite story about learning English comes from Factory Girls, by Leslie Chang. At the “Assembly Line Learning Machines” school in Dongguan, one of China’s biggest factory cities, students paid 600 yuan (£52) a month to sit in front of oval metal machines. As the students look at the machines, they rotate a series of words past their eyes.深圳翻譯服務(wù)
Mrs Chang writes: “A column of words floated past me. CLEAN, RUDE, PIZZA, CREEP.”

She explains: “The guiding principle was that treating people like machines was the key to mastering English. After learning the alphabet and the phonetic sounds of the language, a student sat at a machine while columns of English words rotated past. The student read aloud each word and wrote it down without knowing what it meant, week after week, until he attained the highest speed. He then proceeded to another machine that showed Chinese definitions of words; next he advanced to short sentences. When a student achieved the top speed – able to write six hundred English sentences in one hour – he graduated to basic grammar. Only then did he learn the meaning of the words, phrases and sentences he had been repeating for months.”

She goes on to speak to the inventor, Mr Wu. “‘On the assembly line, people can sit and work for eight or ten hours without rest,’ he said. ‘If only we could learn that way, how good it would be!’”. Needless to say, Mr Wu didn’t prosper.

《金融時(shí)報(bào)》（FT）并不經(jīng)常發(fā)表一些無(wú)厘頭的文章，但今天一篇文章差點(diǎn)讓手里的茶把我噎死。

這篇文章說(shuō)，根據(jù)英國(guó)文化協(xié)會(huì)的一項(xiàng)新的研究，中國(guó)會(huì)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)的人數(shù)應(yīng)該已超過(guò)印度。深圳翻譯服務(wù)

這篇文章的作者大衛(wèi)·葛拉多爾（David Graddol）認(rèn)為印度懂英語(yǔ)的人數(shù)占總?cè)丝?%，而中國(guó)每年新增2000萬(wàn)懂英語(yǔ)的人。

《金融時(shí)報(bào)》認(rèn)為，如果英國(guó)文化協(xié)會(huì)的數(shù)字屬實(shí)的話，印度的一項(xiàng)“明顯經(jīng)濟(jì)優(yōu)勢(shì)”將被中國(guó)超越，印度與中國(guó)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)將更為艱難，尤其在中國(guó)擁有更好的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施及更具彈性的勞動(dòng)力供給的情況下。深圳翻譯服務(wù)

不過(guò)，去過(guò)中印兩國(guó)的人都知道，這項(xiàng)調(diào)查是假的。中國(guó)很少有人會(huì)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)。

反而，幾乎每個(gè)印度人都了解基本的英語(yǔ)詞匯。印度的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)，政治家，商人和知識(shí)分子英語(yǔ)都很流利。

中國(guó)學(xué)生在學(xué)校里被迫死記硬背英語(yǔ)單詞，有時(shí)一背就是數(shù)年。但事實(shí)上，很少有人真正會(huì)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)。即使依賴英美企業(yè)訂單的出口行業(yè)外貿(mào)經(jīng)理，英語(yǔ)都結(jié)結(jié)巴巴。深圳翻譯服務(wù)

很容易考察一下北京和上海，北京和上海均是旅游目的地。舉個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的例子，如果不懂點(diǎn)普通話的話，打的都成問(wèn)題。我經(jīng)常擔(dān)心那些在中國(guó)旅游的背包客。如果他們不會(huì)說(shuō)漢語(yǔ)，我猜測(cè)他們?cè)谥袊?guó)旅游時(shí)就會(huì)非常孤獨(dú)困難，旅游生活也會(huì)非常不爽。

中國(guó)，由于其幅員遼闊及幾個(gè)世紀(jì)的孤立，與美國(guó)和英國(guó)對(duì)抗，是個(gè)只說(shuō)一種語(yǔ)言的國(guó)家。深圳翻譯服務(wù)

不過(guò)，與美國(guó)和英國(guó)不同的是，中國(guó)有改變自己的博大雄心，掌握英語(yǔ)是其計(jì)劃的一部分。根據(jù)《紐約人》報(bào)道，去年奧運(yùn)會(huì)前，有大量的人學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)。
同時(shí)，我有一個(gè)中國(guó)人學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的精彩故事，故事源于張墀言（Leslie Chang）的書(shū)《工廠女工》。在中國(guó)東莞的“裝配線學(xué)習(xí)機(jī)器”學(xué)校，學(xué)生每月交600元錢(qián)，坐在一橢圓的機(jī)器前。盯著機(jī)器看，機(jī)器上會(huì)閃過(guò)一系列英語(yǔ)單詞。

張墀言寫(xiě)道：“一欄單詞從我眼前閃過(guò)。CLEAN, RUDE, PIZZA, CREEP.”深圳翻譯服務(wù)

她解釋說(shuō)：“把人當(dāng)機(jī)器對(duì)待的指導(dǎo)原則是掌握英語(yǔ)的關(guān)鍵。掌握了字母和音標(biāo)后，學(xué)生就坐在一臺(tái)能閃現(xiàn)英語(yǔ)單詞欄的機(jī)器前。學(xué)生在不理解單詞意思的情況下大聲朗讀并默寫(xiě)這些單詞，一周復(fù)一周，直到他們能快速的朗讀默寫(xiě)。之后，他們就開(kāi)始在另外一臺(tái)顯示單詞漢語(yǔ)注釋的機(jī)器前學(xué)習(xí)；之后再升級(jí)到閃現(xiàn)短句的機(jī)器。當(dāng)學(xué)生達(dá)到最高速度——能在一小時(shí)內(nèi)默寫(xiě)600個(gè)英語(yǔ)短句——就開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法，直至此時(shí)，才開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)他們反復(fù)學(xué)習(xí)了幾個(gè)月的單詞，詞組和句子的意思。”

她之后采訪了這種機(jī)器的發(fā)明人吳先生。“他說(shuō)，‘在產(chǎn)品裝配線前，工人可以在不休息的情況下連續(xù)工作八個(gè)小時(shí)，如果我們可以用這種方法學(xué)習(xí)，多好的一件事??！’”勿須說(shuō)，吳先生不會(huì)成功。

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