Chinese boys, you need to sharpen your spoken English ability

pengstone

不管楼主的动机如何, 反正会促使我们进一步加强对口语的重视

robertchu

I, for one, strongly agree with vagabond.  She indeed points out a very serious common problem among Chinese in the US.  It’s also in accordance to my own observation that Chinese girls in general speak better English.

Although I've lived in the US for quite a few years now and am comfortable in dealing with the English language both on the written side and on the oral side (I have published many technical articles and frequently teach technical classes to American audience), I'm still not satisfied with my oral English.  It probably is the weakest aspect in my overall English ability.  Despite my continued attempts, I found it rather difficult to reduce accent.

So, although vagabond’s wording is a little too strong, she is certainly making a valid point.  So, please take it as nothing else but a piece of friendly and valuable advice.

ruiyu25

Let's be fair to tens of thousands Chinese students in US. To some extent, I agree with the vagabond that oral English is one of weak points of Chinese.  However, I think vagabond is exaggerating a bit on this common weak point.  From my personal experience and observation, I find that Chinese students are improving significantly compared with their counterparts decades ago.  I am working in a US company with 6000 employees. In our company's research & development organization, there are more than 200 Chinese scientists and associates.  Most of them (99.5/100) communicate English clearly and convincingly.  Their presentions at the department meetings or even at the company meetings often win the compliments from their American colleagues for the clear and precise communication styles although their accent is hard to be avoided.  In sum, my point is that although our oral English may not be as fluent as Indians, we are definitely improving.

Begood

真搞笑,楼主这么差的英文,居然也有勇气跳出来指责别人?

比如说"To the contrary",比如说"It is they.....",最有趣的是这句"I wonder why not go back to China as a well-respected professor of a top University, although his wife doesn't wish to?"错的真不是一般的离谱.其他语法错误实在太多了,也懒得一一指出了.

中国学生口语确实要提高,不过象您这样的,恐怕先要提高的是写英语的能力,而不是说英语的能力.

ruiyu25

Forgot to mention in my post that all Japaneses and Koreans I have worked with have worse spoken English skills than Chinese.

vagabond

>>Let's be fair to tens of thousands of Chinese students in US. To some extent, I agree with the vagabond that oral English is one of weak points of Chinese.  However, I think vagabond is exaggerating a bit on this common weak point(weakness).  From my personal experience and observation, I find that Chinese students are improving significantly, compared with their counterparts decades ago.  I am working in a US company with (of) 6000 employees. In our company's research & development organization, there are more than 200 Chinese scientists and associates.  Most of them (99.5/100) communicate English clearly and convincingly.  Their presentions at the department meetings or even at the company meetings often win the compliments from their American colleagues for the clear and precise communication styles although their accent is hard to be avoided.  In sum, my point is that although our oral English may not be as fluent as Indians, we are definitely improving. <<

>>Forgot to mention in my post that all Japaneses and Koreans I have worked with have worse spoken English skills than Chinese.<<

No offense. Just want to show how you have improved your English-writing ability. How many times have you ever used the word "presentation" in your paperwork during years of US career plus academic pursuit? How can Americans understand you if you “clearly and convincingly” keep using similar words in your own special way?

Sometimes, Americans can tolerate your errors, but such a tolerance does not mean "(99.5/100) communicate English clearly and convincingly." To my knowledge, there are more than 10 times such errors as grammatical ones when Chinese are chatting with others in US, let alone their bizarre accents and pronunciations.

My two cents: "An appropriate self-judgment is the first step toward success, especially for an MBA student."

Here I just said in my above posting, "Chinese girls speak a decent English", not a good English.

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-11-7 17:04:19编辑过]

snow_mountain

以下是引用pengstone在2004-11-7 11:26:00的发言：
不管楼主的动机如何, 反正会促使我们进一步加强对口语的重视

同意。  饶是学了这么多年的英文， 还常常觉得说英语是件uncomfortable 的事情。

vagabond

>>真搞笑,楼主这么差的英文,居然也有勇气跳出来指责别人?<<

>>比如说"To the contrary",<<
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22To+the+contrary%22&btnG=Search+News

>>比如说"It is they.....",<<
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22it+is+they+who%22

If you didn't even know the sentence construction of "It is ... who ...", you may still have a long, long way to go. Go TOEFL first, because TOEFL can teach you grammatical 123.

An old Chinese saying is just a case in point: "A full cup is much more stable than a half cup."

In fact, what some Chinese boys are saying in this thread is making girls look down upon them, perhaps explaining why some Chinese boys in US can’t get a wife here for many years. Rarely can I see a Chinese boy marry an American girl. Why?

It seems that a few boys can’t even face Indians in English ability. What a pity!

>>最有趣的是这句"I wonder why not go back to China as a well-respected professor of a top University, although his wife doesn't wish to?"错的真不是一般的离谱.其他语法错误实在太多了,也懒得一一指出了.<<
I suppose my posting here should not conform to the strict formality of Standard Written English.

>>中国学生口语确实要提高,不过象您这样的,恐怕先要提高的是写英语的能力,而不是说英语的能力.<<
Want to know if you have taken a real GMAT test or not.

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-11-7 16:29:23编辑过]

Begood

说你搞笑,你还要证明给大家看...呵呵... Google能证明什么呢?Internet上的错误用法多了去了,你要是觉得google得到的就是正确的,那倒也怪不得你的英文这么糟.

BTW, I didn't socre high in GMAT, I just socred over 700.  I didn't go to very good business school, I just went to TOP 20.  Maybe you socred higher in GMAT and went to better school, but your written English sucks anyway.

ruiyu25

Vagabond, I do think this is OFFENSE. I do make mistakes in my writing, but you probably make as many as mistakes as I do just as Begood mentions in his post. My English skills are far from perfect, but I am improving compared with myself a few years ago. I still have a lot to learn, so do you.  I do use "presentiations" quite often, so do my American colleagues and classmates. I bet you haved used this word at the similar frequency. You don't know me, but how do you know that I keep using similar words in my own special way? Don't you think you are too arbitrary?

I just expressed my own opinions toward your post. I think my expressions are appropriate and my attitude is polite. Why throw your ball at me? Because I am the female and try to be nice to you?

I do think you should think about your behavior.