Before I discuss this issue, I must reinstate that the following arguments are only my personal opinions which are open to public discussions.

Many of my friends in China have been asking me what the benefits of learning English are. They argue English is not so popular in China and there are many hurdles lying ahead of them before they can master the usage of English and speak fluent English.

Before we go to the answers, we must understand the ultimate purpose of language. The main purpose of language, no matter it is Chinese, English, French or Russian, is a means used to communicate with each other and to make the other parties know your ideas and intentions.

Dated back to our Chinese history, commencing from

             Xia:   c.2200 - c.1750 BC
             Shan:  c.1750 - c.1040 BC
             Western Zhou:  c.1100 - 771 BC
             Eastern Zhou, The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States:  771 - 221 BC

China at that time had no centralized language because different warriars and political powers used their own languages

Then let us proceed to the Early Empire: 221 BC - AD 589.

It is within this period 221 BC to AD 589 that China had its first king who centralized the various different political powers to form a unit country - The Qin Chao. (from 221 - 206 BC)

Qin Shi Huang, the King of the centralized China, was taken as one of the tyrants of the old Chinese history,but there was one thing that we must not forget is his strong exercising of the centralization of the different languages used by so many warriars and polictical powers. Since then, China has possessed a common language used througout the whole China. It is called the national language of China formally used until the present moment.

After the centralization of the Chinese languages which had caused lots of problems in communications, everything seemed to be simpler and easier and much quicker to understand and solved. The main reason is due the a common language used all over China. Thus our Chinese civilization had advanced tremedously and our economy had been quickened and became more prosperous through such easy and centrolized language.

From the above brief discussion, we can understand how important a national language is. It is a means to let the Chinese coming from different provinces communicate through writings of the same language even though they speak with different accents.

English, like the Chinese national language, is the language commonly used by the old Great Britain centuries ago. In the 18th Century, Britan was a very powerful empire, especially its marrine army. It had colonized lots of countries in the Far East like Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

In 1842, Hong Kong was handed over by the corruptive Ching Chao after The First Opium War and signing of the Treaty of Nangking. Then in 1860, the northen part of Hong Kong, the Kowloon Penisular was leased to Great Britain for 999 years. All these were dreadfully tearing apart the hearts of the Chinese. The Treaty was so unfair that the Chinese's national prestigue was crumpled to nothing but shame.

It is until 1/7/1997 that the Hong Kong sovereignty is officially handed back to China to form a Special Admininstrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

During such long period of the ruling of the British power, English was taken as the language that every student must learn and study. (This policy also applied to Indina, Singapore and Malazia where you will find people there can write and speak pretty well English) In Hong Kong those students who achieved high grades in English subjects were taken as bright students who received better education and had the opportunties to selet better high schools. As a result, these types of students had much better chances to study at the University of Hong Kong, which was the only the university at that time.

When time goes on, English has become the second major laguage commonly used in Hong Kong besides Chinese. Starting from the Hong Kong Government, big enterprises to small business sectors, English was taken as one of the major weapons to pass an interview and secure a good post. The atmosphere of learning and studying English was so great that every parent felt proud if their sons and daughters had scored good results in English which was a must if their children wished to study at the Hong Kong University.

Some readers will feel uneasy (or perhaps angry) when I talk about the importance of Engish under the ruling of Britain after the signing of the shameful Treaty of Nangking. I feel uneasy as well. But it is also true that under such political and financial atmosphere that English was taken as one of the most important means to gain a rich life at that time.

Under centuries of hardworkings by blood and sweat, Hong Kong is now one of the famous financial and tourists centres in the world with English as the major means of communication.

The main reasons I talk so much about the development of the Chinese language and the popularity of English in Hong Kong are used to explain that language is very very important in our daily life, no matter it is Chinese or English. Both are used to commuicate to one another in formal and informal meetings, telephone talks, forums, emails, faxes, mobile phones and every sort of telegraphic commuication.

This means we should not look down upon any language, either English or Chinese, because it is of absolute essense of the survival of the present busy economic and financial world. To learn English or to study English does not mean we are smelling the ass of the Britons nor do we forget we are Chinese. Now China has become the world's leading financial power and has the potential to take over the USA as the ecnomic leader in the world. It is also true there are  strong tendencies of learning Mandarin all over the world. For example, there are public competitions in speaking and reading prose in Mandarin by the non-Chinese people in Austraia, the USA and Canada. This is a result of the tremendous economic and financial advancement of China in recent years with a surplus and monetary reserve in foreign currencies on top of the world. This is also the result of China which is the greatest importor of mineral resources because of its extensive infrastructures. Every body is looking at China and hoping to be a good friend with China, in business of course.

Some foreign business men have hired Chinese teachers to coach them to speak Mandarin and to write Chinese. The Prime Minister of Australia can speak very fluent Mandarin and he communitcated in Mandarin with the Chinese officials. But will these mean that these type of foreigners have forgotten their own countries' dignities in learning Chinese. No, definitely not. They simply take Chinese as a means to commicate so as to enhance the matters or issues to be solved easier and more efficiently.

So at this part, I just want to emphasize that we should not have biazed views that learning English is a betray of our loyalty to our mother country, China. On the contrary, learning English is a means to strenghen us to help our mother country to achieve even greater and prosperous wealth in the coming future.

In the next few chapters, I will talk briefly some basic ways of learning English and some discussions on the general common grammatical errors committed by people who take English as the second language.

To be continued.

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• 烟雨星痕 金币 +22 To learn English, revenue loss is greate 2009-4-13 21:05
• 烟雨星痕 原创 +1 To learn English, revenue loss is greate 2009-4-13 21:05

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