If you google “what are the difficulties for Chinese in learning English”, there will be just a bunch of articles talking about something surface, like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. Today, I want to explore this question a bit deeper, showing you the true reasons why English learning is so hard for Chinese.
(This article will only cover those Chinese who are learning English)
We all know that Chinese is learning “deaf English” because most of those English learners in China just can’t properly use English for their daily communication, which always makes people misunderstand that Chinese don’t know the English language at all.
Here is a common situation
Assuming you’re in China and now want to know how to go to the nearest bus station, you go find a Chinese for help. But the person you’ve found can’t express the answer clearly in English. Now you may have the impression that Chinese people are not very good at English.
However, what you may not know is that the person you just talked to may have scored A in his/her last examination, may keep reciting 500 English words every day, may just finished reading of Harry-Porter novel in English, may listen to BBC news audios every morning, etc.
To be clear, English learners in China are not that bad at reading or writing, English. Instead, they might possess one of the strongest grammar and vocabulary foundations compared to people from other countries, because passing English examines is still the most important criteria for evaluating a person’s English skill.
To successfully pass those authoritative English tests, which are more focusing on testing people’s grammar and vocabulary knowledge, you have to put a lot of effort into learning various grammar points in detail and keep reciting English words every day for improving your vocabulary reserve.
Now you still think the person’s English is not good? I don’t think so.
But why Chinese people are still hard to get rid of “deaf English”? Certainly, there are so many difficulties that can cause this situation, but I believe the following points are the most critical.
1. The traditional teaching system in China
As we all know, from primary school to college in China, a complete system of English teaching has been built for a very, very long time.
Most Chinese people first got in touch with English learning when they were in primary school, so when I talk about a college graduated student, you should know that this kid already has been learning English for around 15 years.
How come a 15-years English learner can’t even chat with foreigners?
This is mainly because of the broken system of English teaching in China, which attached importance to grammar and vocabulary and aim to teach students how to pass various exams but how to use it for their daily communication.
During the learning process, Chinese people were spending enormous time reciting words and grammar points for dealing with various unpractical English exams and neglecting the importance of speaking.
This is why you always see Chinese people who know a lot of high-level English words and complex grammar but can’t put a single word out of their mouths.
Critical problems in the current teaching system
Although, in recent years, the reforming has been gradually starting. A new standard English course is being used, which is adopting the international system.
This has somewhat changed the old style of teaching, helping students develop the ability to use English in their daily life by focusing on arousing their interest and encouraging their participation.
However, the reform is not perfect and some critical problems are still existing.
For one thing, public college English teaching still aims at developing students’ reading ability and doesn’t emphasize enough the communication skills in English such as listening and speaking.
What’s important is that a college education perhaps is the final crucial step for most students before they get into their career life, so if there is still no proper guide for students to know what the true importance is regarding language study, it’s going to be a big problem.
For another, evaluation and test systems need to be improved since most English exams in China are not including the English spoken part. For example, CET Band 4 and CET Band 6 are the two most popular test in China because most employers consider these two certifications the proof of your English skill.
However, there are still large amounts of students who have passed CET4, or even 6, can’t speak and write well in English since teachers and students pay so much attention to preparing for CET that they neglect to cultivate the students’ communication skills.
They probably know how to pass these tests, but they don’t digest what they have learned.
2. Lack of opportunities for Chinese to practice
Of course, not 100 percent of Chinese people don’t realize the oral English issue. There is a certain amount of people who want to improve their English communication skill like speaking and listening, but they are still struggling.
Why? Because they don’t have any other way to practice without the opportunity to speak in English often.
We all understand how important it is to have a person to help practice your speaking English, making you be more willing to open your mouths and use English as a communication tool. But this is an extreme challenge for most Chinese people.
Although I agree that there are increasing interactions with foreigners in China, the situation is only applied to those Tier1 cities like Beijing, Shanghai, etc.
More English learners in China are living in Tier2, or even Tier3, cities which are less developed and less internationalized, making it so hard to find a proper atmosphere for practicing oral English.
Surely you can go attend those private English language institutes, like Wallstreet English and EF. There are foreign teachers teaching you English and you can freely communicate with them.
However, it also will cost you tens of thousands yuan for merely one year course and I don’t think it’s an affordable option for everyone. From the pricing, I think you also can somewhat know how valuable it is to have an English-speaking environment in China.
A Potential solution is rising
As the internet and technology are developing fast in China, lots of live-streaming courses are appearing in the market. They are offering real-time English online courses taught by native English speakers so people can directly talk to those foreign teachers through the internet.
This could be a solution. I can feel that the Live-streaming English education business is blossoming in China nowadays and lots of people, especially young kids, have tried this way.
But still, there is a big difference between talking with people through the screen and in person. No need to mention that there are certain requirements for the hardware aspect, like network speed and communication equipment.
It’s still a premature solution for now but I believe it will get better in the no near future.
3. The nature of Chinese people
The nature of Chinese people is partly to blame for causing the difficulty to have a great English-speaking atmosphere, which is being afraid of making mistakes.
Perhaps because of traditional Chinese education, many people seem to believe that making mistakes correlates with stupidity and incompetence.
Chinese mindset is that any kind of failure is not allowed, so people are often not willing to show the process until it has a good result. Whereas, with the western mindset, failure is more of an open possibility and something to overcome.
The culture of “Face” value
I think it has to do largely with the Chinese emphasis on the “face” value of things, where one must look appealing and successful on the outside, no matter how much of a mess you are behind the sense.
As a consequence of this, it’s hard for the Chinese to ever consider failure as an ordinary part of life since a failure would cause one to significantly “lose face”. The ultimate consequence of this probably is that the Chinese are less encouraged to take risks, even though there is a good chance to succeed.
I’ve heard one of my friends said that he hates speaking up English in public because he feels that other people around will laugh at him once he makes any mistake and may think he is stupid. Even though my friend is dying to improve his spoken English, his fears and his insecurities are holding him back.
The example I gave is just a common one. Just think about it, if many other English learners are having this same type of fear and worry, how is it possible to build up a positive English learning environment?
The unwell-educated population in China
Some people might ask “Is there any people who are really going to laugh at your mistakes?”
Unfortunately, there is. Maybe it’s not common in those developed countries, but because the overall quality of the population in China is still very low and lots of people are not well-educated, there are so many ignorant people.
Personal speaking, I don’t think that they are intentional and trying to discourage anyone, maybe it’s just because of the primitive mindset that makes them unconsciously behave like this. But their behaviors are really affecting.
Now, combining all those factors I’ve mentioned, it might be more understandable for you why Chinese people are so bad at oral English and so hard to improve it.
Conclusion: Is English hard to learn for Chinese?
Probably yes. Even though English is often considered the easiest language in the world, Chinese people are still struggling on learning it, not because of their intelligence, but because of the way they learn which is not something that can be changed instantly.
The overall situation in China is so complicated, including the teaching, the people, the policy, the environment, etc.
The current Chinese education system is still emphasizing academic scores and doesn’t appreciate students who have their own interests. The whole society is also following this standard, the higher score you get, the better education you get.
If you’re getting high scores in those major courses like Chinese, maths, English, you’re considered an excellent student. If you’re good at what you’re really interested in like programming, playing instruments, playing sports, people might discourage you and make you go pursuit the scores of those major courses.
It is the same in the English study. If you’re spending time practicing oral English to better communicate with people, your parents or even your teachers may stop you and ask you to put more effort into grammar and vocabulary since good oral English can’t get you a high score on English tests, which might affect your future education.
Therefore, the Chinese, at a certain point, are helpless. They don’t choose the wrong way to learn but have to.
