Among the frantic preparations China made to prepare for the Olympics was to “teach” English to hundreds of volunteers who would serve as hosts or guides. I don’t have final word on how successfully Chinese learned, but  my experiences and observations in China force me to be skeptical. Learning English isn’t easy for anyone (some Americans never have), but it is especially so for Chinese.

You may have noticed the teams in the opening ceremony did not parade alphabetically because Chinese simply has no alphabet, only symbols. Absent a pronounceable alphabet with distinct vowels and consonants, it is almost as if their tongues cannot get around many English sounds.

We visited a Cloisonne (French word) factory outside Beijing and watched exquisite vases being produced. In the factory’s show room we also looked at rice paper prints with single Chinese symbols (not words). I asked a clerk the meaning of one, and I heard him say “come.” I asked if this might be also rendered as “welcome.” No. I demonstrated with a beckoning motion, which he didn’t recognize. I asked another who answered, “tranquility.” Recalling the difficulty Chinese experience in pronouncing an English letter L, I recognized the clerk was trying to say “calm.” I had been prepared by the guide’s talking about his little boy and “girr.”

More is communicated by tonal quality than lexicography. Their sound “ma,” for instance, has four meanings depending upon intonation. An extreme example, which one friend delighted in laying on me, is this sentence: “Ma ma ma ma.” Each employs a distinct (to him) tone and is roughly translated, “Why [did] Mother curse ]the] horse?”

I needed to insert a verb and a definite article into the translation because Chinese has no verb tenses or articles.

The linguistic differences between English and Chinese are severe enough, but infinitely more serious is the difference in cultural thought forms. The Chinese are incapable of saying some things commonly heard from Americans, because the Chinese think differently and, so, speak differently. (Sometimes, I suspect, they are better off for it.)

English is difficult for Chinese to learn, but it is also difficult for them to teach, and this, too, is consequent to differences of cultures. Several with whom I spoke complained English is taught indifferently. Students listen to the teacher lecture about English and write notes in Chinese. They don’t ask questions, because this would be impolite, as if what the teacher said wasn’t sufficient. When the class hour is over, the students file out—without ever getting to use English. The teacher’s job is done when he or she has taught English, not when the students have learned it.

Nonetheless, we benefited from Chinese being eager to talk with us in order to practice what English they know.

While traveling from Shanghai to Suzhou, I noticed this sign on the train’s washroom: “Beware of squeeze. No occupation while stabilized.” From the tight quarters, I understood this to mean: Narrow entrance. Do not use while the train is standing still.

I found this at the public computer I used in a hotel business center:

Official Notice

You must read carefully and act according to the following provisions before your net-play:

1. Comply with the safety rules on the computer information system of China. The rules strictly forbid releasing and linking the unhealthy messages for politics, religion and salacity, which will be prejudicial to China’s national security.

2. Observe the convention, Pay attention to the morality for net play and maintain the public order of the network space together.

3. Undertake the legal liability of civil or criminal suit caused by your bad actions directly or indirectly.

When I  visit a country new to me, I look for Spam (not bothering in Israel or Islamic countries). I found some in a Hong Kong grocery with this curious label: “Do not be fooled by the simplicity of this recipe. Yes, it is easy to make, but the flavor is complicated and exotic. Like something that fills your senses and pulls at your heart strings and then flies away, wanting to be chased. And you will chase it. Yes, you will.”

I guess it took a trip to China to give me new perspective on language.