Like the majority of people working in an organisation which employs people from around the world, I am used to conversing with people who have a strong accent when speaking English or make incessant grammar errors - 'feedbacks' is used so often it is almost being adopted in English itself. Unlike the character on 'The Fast Show' I do not pick up every error and I make an effort to comprehend the accent. This is because I am grateful that the person is speaking to me in English and not expecting me to know Thai, Turkish or even Spanish in order to have a conversation with them. This is a price British people have to pay for being so poor at learning foreign languages and indeed having a schooling system which increasingly does not even teach them. The 13-year old boy who lives in my house stopped learning any foreign languages at the end of Year 8 (12-13 year old class), having done French just for two years. He is an intelligent child going to a school of 1200 pupils but there is so little language teaching that it is a minority subject. Reports show a steady fall in language learning in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31921979 with fewer pupils taking even European languages let alone Asian ones.
Now, I am constantly meeting Chinese people. I have no idea how many Chinese are currently visiting or working in the UK. The bulk of the ones I run across are students. However, of course, because of the UK have had a colony in Hong Kong, there are people with Chinese heritage, predominantly Cantonese rather than Mandarin speakers and generally thoroughly integrated into British society. I am not discussing Chinese assimilated in the past, but people from mainland China who are in the UK. Now I spent 18 months learning Mandarin.
I was poor at the writing but pretty good at the language to the extent that I could say where I came from, talk about my family, ask directions and order a complex meal. I honed my accent by using CDs and copying dialogue in movies. Thus, I would expect that I would speak Chinese with an English accent and probably sound quite a bit like the Chinese equivalent of those people I speak to regularly from a range of countries, who have a strong accent and make errors. However, every time I try please or thank you or excuse me, I get a blank expression from Chinese visitors as if rather than attempting their language I have gone into Ukrainian or Somali.
I used the common Chinese phrase 'shi bu shi' [pronounced 'shur boo shur'] it is a phrase attached to the end of a sentence to make it a question 'yes or no?'. Mandarin word order does not change, it is subject-verb-object all the time, so you need question suffixes to show you are asking a question rather than through moving the verb around as often happens in English. The quote was relevant to the setting but the Chinese man turned to me and said - 'what is that, something in English?'. He did not recognise it as a basic phrase from his own language.
I know that the Chinese are a proud people who value their culture. I know that they row with the Taiwanese over who speaks and writes 'proper' Chinese. However, I have yet to meet a Chinese person who is willing to put in the effort to comprehend other nationalities speaking their language in the way that English speakers often do on a daily basis. This runs contrary to the schemes to introduce Mandarin to schools and to open up Confucius Centres to promote the teaching of Mandarin.
If the efforts of people who have taken time to learn the language are simply dismissed then there is no incentive to learn let alone develop skills in the language. It seems I will never even reach a workable level in my lifetime. I know there is all this argument about the fact that an outsider can never be fluent, but I am not looking for fluency, I am looking to work at the level many people use English when speaking to me. It may not be perfect, but we can function.
Why does this matter? Well, the Chinese population is only 25% of the global population so they are going to meet a lot of people who speak something else. China has a public relations problem. It is both noted as being one of the only remaining Communist dictatorships yet is also operating as a neo-colonial power particularly in Africa and Central Asia. To be so frosty to those trying to speak the language is to put even more distance between the country and those others it has to deal with.
I do wonder if there is a delight in the exceptionality of the use of any Chinese language in a Western context and that Chinese visitors like the fact that their hosts cannot comprehend what they are saying. It seems that they worry that if they give a centimetre of recognition that someone else even knows a bit of their language, they will have lost that privileged position. It is like the Russian nobility speaking French when the servants were around. I have also noted a similar phenomenon with Afrikaans and Flemish speakers. They get very upset when you reflect back some of the details of their language to them. It is as if you have broken the 'code' they are using and thus are suspicious.
I have no idea whether Chinese visitors will change their attitudes. However, I am sure their government, given the money it has put into promoting Mandarin skills in the West, would wish that they were not so dismissive of the efforts of other countries to speak their language and at least be as accommodating as many British are when people speak to us regularly in 'bad' English.
Showing posts with label languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label languages. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
Monday, 5 March 2012
When Knowing A Foreign Language Is Something To Be Ashamed Of
I think I have been rather beaten to this posting by Will Hutton writing in ‘The Guardian’: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/05/will-hutton-learn-foreign-languages However, I guess there is no harm in me adding my perspective too. As with Hutton, my thoughts were triggered by the fact that the two leading men aiming to be nominated to be the Republican candidate for the coming US Presidential elections, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were attacking each other on the simple basis of whether they spoke French or not. As the BBC noted last month, they probably both do: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16583813 Romney spent 30 months in Bordeaux and Paris as a Mormon missionary in the 1960s whilst Gingrich wrote a PhD on Belgian educational policy in the Congo 1945-60 and cites a number of French-language texts in the bibliography; he might not be able to speak French but we have to assume that he reads it. I guess Gingrich is also ‘Dr. Newt Gingrich’ something else he is keeping quiet. Gingrich has produced an advertisement which refers to Romney’s ability to speak French. The reason for such an attack comes from what Republican politicians associate with Europe – the euro and all its difficulties; a strong welfare budget and an unwillingness to engage in futile military conflicts. Like most Britons they do not seem to associate Britain with Europe.
It seems incredible that there is more to gain politically from disguising that you have intellectual skills and that the grasp of a foreign language is something to use as an insult to your opponent or at least something which you feel the electorate should be dubious about. However, it is probably worth noting that both former President George Bush Jr. (2001-9) and his father’s Vice-President Dan Quayle (1989-93) both demonstrated difficulties with English and yet seemed sufficiently popular. In Britain, Nick Clegg when he became deputy prime minister was viewed suspiciously by Conservatives less for his political views and more for the fact that his wife is Spanish, his mother Dutch, his father half-Russian and he speaks Dutch, French, German and Spanish; his children are English-Spanish bilingual. In a continental politician such abilities would be commended or at worst seen as normal. However, in the UK, as in the USA, learning can be seen as an electoral liability which is why I never saw reference to Dr. Gordon Brown or Dr. Mo Mowlem even though that was in fact the case.
This is in sharp contrast to countries like Germany or many states in the Arab World.
This is in sharp contrast to countries like Germany or many states in the Arab World.
Ironically Clegg is very much like the nobility and royal families of Europe of the 19th century. Queen Victoria (actual first name Alexandrina), born to a German family, married to a German prince, had children who married into the different royal families of Europe including those of Germany and Russia. Victoria spoke German with her children and presumably her husband too. At the time upper class people across Europe spoke French to the extent that you often cannot find copies of treaties Britain was party to actually in English (I have looked) as French was spoken so widely among the civil service and I imagine the entire diplomatic corps. Of course, there has always been one rule for the rich and another for the rest. Whilst the wealthy of the UK including many members of the Conservative Party may look in disdain at our European neighbours let alone nationalities further afield and voice this attitude, this does not actually stop them from taking expensive holidays in exotic countries and mixing with the 'right sort' of foreigner; wealth is a language all of its own.
I do not know when the attitude shifted, but to me it seems it came during the First World War as Britain looked on both its opponents and its allies with disdain and focused on things that looked 'unBritish'; even the royal family was compelled to drop the surname Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in favour of Windsor. Throughout the 20th century foreigners seem to have lost the sense of being worthy rivals to being people who should at best be patronised and at worst attacked. Perhaps it was the fact that Sir Anthony Eden, foreign secretary (1935-8; 1940-5; 1951-5) and prime minister (1955-7) did not reveal that he had a degree in Farsi (spoken in Iran) and Arabic and could speak reasonably good French in the documentary film, 'Le Chagrin et la Pitié' (1969) though he switches to English towards the end. I always note that Eden could have understood the broadcasts in Arabic by his great antagonist Egyptian leader Colonel Nasser without a translator. The fact that Eden had this knowledge yet it was effectively concealed probably shows the stage that knowing a foreign language in Britain was no longer seen as beneficial but suspicious.
I do not know when the attitude shifted, but to me it seems it came during the First World War as Britain looked on both its opponents and its allies with disdain and focused on things that looked 'unBritish'; even the royal family was compelled to drop the surname Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in favour of Windsor. Throughout the 20th century foreigners seem to have lost the sense of being worthy rivals to being people who should at best be patronised and at worst attacked. Perhaps it was the fact that Sir Anthony Eden, foreign secretary (1935-8; 1940-5; 1951-5) and prime minister (1955-7) did not reveal that he had a degree in Farsi (spoken in Iran) and Arabic and could speak reasonably good French in the documentary film, 'Le Chagrin et la Pitié' (1969) though he switches to English towards the end. I always note that Eden could have understood the broadcasts in Arabic by his great antagonist Egyptian leader Colonel Nasser without a translator. The fact that Eden had this knowledge yet it was effectively concealed probably shows the stage that knowing a foreign language in Britain was no longer seen as beneficial but suspicious.
I would argue that the criticism of people for having language skills is part of a broader anti-intellectualism that has been common in the UK since the 1970s and probably quite a bit longer. It is interesting that the website of the ‘Daily Mail’ has now just overtaken the ‘New York Times’ as the most often accessed English-language news site. The ‘Daily Mail’ is clearly nationalistic, anti-European Integration and generally right-wing. It tends to focus on glamour rather than intellectual issues and presents solutions to most of the world’s problems as based on getting foreigners to listen to British common sense. Hutton takes a more specific focus in his seeking for an answer.
Hutton notes that there has been a fall of 21% in students applying for university degree courses in non-European languages, exceeding the general fall of around 9% in all university applications, despite the fact that having such skills makes graduates highly employable. Part of the difficulty is the fall in the feed-through of students who speak any foreign languages, as only 43% of even GSCE level students study any language. At ‘A’ level in 2011 only just over 13,000 students took French down 5% from 2010; 7,600 took Spanish; 5,100 took German a fall of 7%; Chinese was taken by 3,100; Polish by 458 and Irish by 339. A key reason for not studying a language at university is that language degrees last 4 rather than 3 years so accruing more fees, though as with sandwich courses with industrial placements the fees may be reduced when the student is away from their home campus.
Hutton quotes translator Michael Hofmann who argues that only speaking one language traps you in a ‘cultural cage’ only able to perceive one position on issues. Consequently he sees an advantage in terms of getting employment not simply through being able to talk to people from a different country but because you develop a flexibility of mind which allows you to adapt to different circumstances even if that is shifting from one company to another simply within the UK. Hutton thinks that the lack of affinity for language learning stems from seeing foreigners as ‘invaders’, indeed some kind of benefit pillagers. Whilst we like the fact that English is so widely spoken in the world (but still by fewer people that Mandarin Chinese) we do not like the fact that it makes it easier for them to come to the UK to work or claim benefits. In addition, most British are not interested in going out to countries to assist in strengthening their economies to make even recession hit UK look less attractive. While we may not have shaken off the sense of imperial superiority we certainly have lost any sense of a patrician approach which once was an element of British colonialism.
Hutton feels the sense that foreigners are a threat is why those studying languages are so often ridiculed in the UK as if daring to learn the alien’s language makes you a source of suspicion, much as we see it doing in the USA. Putting in effort to learn a foreign language, apparently shows that you are focusing on the wrong priorities because you are putting at least some emphasis on a different culture from your own and somehow that wanting to know more about another culture suggests you lack pride in your own. As Hutton notes this cultural censuring of language learning runs counter to the best interests of those people choosing what subjects to study. I had a friend who learnt Korean. He seems to have been the first person ever to complete a Linguaphone course in that language as he noticed that tapes 3 and 4 in the set (this predated CDs let alone downloads) that he had bought were identical. The company had recorded tape 4 but had been dispatching the wrong one in its place. Anyway, he was so in demand that when travelling on public transport anyone in the UK or South Korea found he spoke Korean they would offer him a job. Anyone who speaks fluent English and can get a decent grasp of Mandarin or Arabic or Russian or even Portuguese is liable to be in high demand and yet young people cannot see that.
Weirdly the basic Chinese course from the Open University available on ITunesU is one of the top 3 downloaded courses but no-one seems to go beyond lesson one. Perhaps as I have argued before the British have no language ability: http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2007/05/british-and-foreign-languages.html so the fall in students taking them suggests that they have stopped trying to learn the languages and humiliating themselves. I have forgotten all the foreign languages I ever learnt and as it was only got 10% in my Chinese test after 18 months study. However, I am not going to ridicule anyone who learns a foreign language or see them suspiciously. It seems ironic that those who are so much more nationalistic than me are so hostile to language learning not realising that if you are ignorant of someone else's language and yet they know yours, it is you who is at a disadvantage.
Monday, 15 June 2009
10 Years On - Part 2 of Account of Cycling Northern France
One thing that comes back from reading these accounts is how often I got lost cycling and wasted so much time especially entering and leaving large towns. The other interesting phenomenon of this part of the trip was just how many cyclists I met in this area between Dunkerque and St. Omer. One time when I stopped to consult my map (partly for a rest) at a crossroads, in a matter of moments six cyclists coming from the different directions stopped to help me out. Farmers would shout out 'Bon Route!' from the fields as I passed. Cafe owners expected me to come back through there sometime in the future, though I found later that was because they thought I was Belgian rather than British. This area of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departements run up to the border with Belgium. In those days there were two currencies, the French Franc (worth about 10FF:£1) and the Belgian Franc (worth about 80BF:£1), so it would have been far harder simply to cross the border than it is these days with the Euro in both.
The Logis hotels and restaurants are an association of establishments with a high quality of food and reasonable prices. They were a little out of my price range in 1999 though came into it in subsequent years. I carried far too many guidebooks on this trip none of which I used and one of them listed the Logis outlets. I was pleased with myself in St. Omer where I startled some British schoolboys in a postcard shop by suddenly speaking to them in English and helping them out to buy their postcards. However, later in 'Le Seven' I was rather changrined when a party of three Midlands businessmen and their wives, seemingly stereotypical of the middle management of many British companies revealed very fluent French to the extent that they were joking in that language with the proprietor. It shook up my middle class, Home Counties assumptions.
Interesting is my fear that I would be unable to find anywhere to stay each evening. Given how early it was in the season and the price range that I was willing to consider I should have been more relaxed. However, it reminds me of how terrified I was of things going wrong in the 1990s and on this holiday often expected to have to sleep in a field. I cannot believe I actually quoted the very naff single 'Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)' by Australian director Baz Luhrmann (born 1962) though it did reach Number 1 in the UK charts in 1999. Niewlet is actually Nieurlet.
Tuesday 15th June 1999
Today I woke early and breakfasted at 08.00 and chatted with two Australians heading off to Brussels. I then dozed before setting off at 09.00. I took some photos around the town and found my way out of it, South along the canal, without problem. Coming up to Berques the diversion threw me out a bit and I had to navigate around the villages to get the right route.
There were a lot of serious racing cyclists out training who wished me luck or gave directions. I encountered my first hills and got a great view over the valley. I turned off the road outside St. Omer and had a light lunch in a village called Niewlet.
I got to St. Omer at 13.00 and feel a bit of a cheat as I was only cycling for a few hours. Tomorrow it is much farther to Arras. If it gets tough I may stop at Bruay or Béthune which are nearer. I came along the canal and around the centre seeing some British coaches, the first British vehicles I have seen since leaving Calais harbour and there were school parties in town. I followed the signs to the hotel district and was tempted to stop at a Logis, not one in Dad's book, but went on and found a room above a bar, single but very clean and cheap.
I showered, then wandered around the town. It is very typically French with old alleys and buildings. I spent much of the afternoon in the main square doing postcards and drinking Diet Coke. I looked around the cathedral then returned to my room and slept for two hours.
I just hope I can find a place as simply tomorrow, especially arriving later. As the Baz Luhrmann record says "do one thing every day which scares you". This holiday is up to scratch so far.
I returned to the same restaurant 'Le Seven' this evening and had fish soup to start then a huge bowl of mussels. I came home through very quiet streets and read and finished postcard writing.
Weather: Sunny and hot.
The Logis hotels and restaurants are an association of establishments with a high quality of food and reasonable prices. They were a little out of my price range in 1999 though came into it in subsequent years. I carried far too many guidebooks on this trip none of which I used and one of them listed the Logis outlets. I was pleased with myself in St. Omer where I startled some British schoolboys in a postcard shop by suddenly speaking to them in English and helping them out to buy their postcards. However, later in 'Le Seven' I was rather changrined when a party of three Midlands businessmen and their wives, seemingly stereotypical of the middle management of many British companies revealed very fluent French to the extent that they were joking in that language with the proprietor. It shook up my middle class, Home Counties assumptions.
Interesting is my fear that I would be unable to find anywhere to stay each evening. Given how early it was in the season and the price range that I was willing to consider I should have been more relaxed. However, it reminds me of how terrified I was of things going wrong in the 1990s and on this holiday often expected to have to sleep in a field. I cannot believe I actually quoted the very naff single 'Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)' by Australian director Baz Luhrmann (born 1962) though it did reach Number 1 in the UK charts in 1999. Niewlet is actually Nieurlet.
Tuesday 15th June 1999
Today I woke early and breakfasted at 08.00 and chatted with two Australians heading off to Brussels. I then dozed before setting off at 09.00. I took some photos around the town and found my way out of it, South along the canal, without problem. Coming up to Berques the diversion threw me out a bit and I had to navigate around the villages to get the right route.
There were a lot of serious racing cyclists out training who wished me luck or gave directions. I encountered my first hills and got a great view over the valley. I turned off the road outside St. Omer and had a light lunch in a village called Niewlet.
I got to St. Omer at 13.00 and feel a bit of a cheat as I was only cycling for a few hours. Tomorrow it is much farther to Arras. If it gets tough I may stop at Bruay or Béthune which are nearer. I came along the canal and around the centre seeing some British coaches, the first British vehicles I have seen since leaving Calais harbour and there were school parties in town. I followed the signs to the hotel district and was tempted to stop at a Logis, not one in Dad's book, but went on and found a room above a bar, single but very clean and cheap.
I showered, then wandered around the town. It is very typically French with old alleys and buildings. I spent much of the afternoon in the main square doing postcards and drinking Diet Coke. I looked around the cathedral then returned to my room and slept for two hours.
I just hope I can find a place as simply tomorrow, especially arriving later. As the Baz Luhrmann record says "do one thing every day which scares you". This holiday is up to scratch so far.
I returned to the same restaurant 'Le Seven' this evening and had fish soup to start then a huge bowl of mussels. I came home through very quiet streets and read and finished postcard writing.
Weather: Sunny and hot.
Old Lighthouse in Dunkerque, June 1999
Roadside Chapel on Route from Dunkerque to St. Omer, June 1999
Alleyway in St. Omer, June 1999
My mother particularly likes photos of alleyways so I had a tendency to take pictures like this wherever I went even though often they would end up as not particularly good photographs.
Church Spire in St. Omer, June 1999
Dutch-style Roof Facade in St. Omer, June 1999
Bas-relief on Palais de Justice in St. Omer, June 1999
Road over Bridge in St. Omer, June 1999
The reason for this photo is that I stayed in the bar which is the white building with the dark grey roof to the left-hand side of the road. Note the young cyclists in matching cycle helmets.
Views from my Bedroom Window in St. Omer, June 1999
Sunday, 14 June 2009
10 Years On - Part 1 of Account of Cycling Northern France
As I mentioned last August when I did '20 Years On' from my Inter-rail journey around West Germany and Austria, I have always been rather envious of those people who have blogs in which they recount their great travels and fill them with wonderful photographs of the places they have been. As anyone who has read this blog knows, my attempts to even go on a mundane holiday have generally ended in very troublesome failure. Now finding money short and my employment future uncertain it seems that as in the 1990s (when I had four weeks of holiday in nine years) trips will be a rarity for me. Given my bad luck, it might be sensible to leave it that way. However, I did feel that I could capture a little of the excitement of having a travelblog by digging out accounts of former holidays. I have kept a diary every day since 1st January 1978, so can dig out accounts of my trips and combine them with the numerous photographs I have taken over the years. What follows over the next few days is just that, reproducing my cycling trip which occurred on these days, 10 years ago.
All the written entries are from my diary of the time and the pictures have been scanned in from photographs I took on the journey. This was the first of three cycling trips I made around northern France 1999-2002 and even on these I ran into some problems, though they were generally pleasurable events that I look back on with affection. The trip was a real break from life living above a chip shop in East London. It was a tough time for me. I noted a few days after getting back from the trip that I sent in my 71st job application since the previous December, so, some things never change! It just takes a lot longer to complete the applications these days.
Some elements of the account bear elaboration. I only had half an A4 page in my diary for each day's events so I had to pick what I included originally. The 'ructions' at Dover Priory Station was when on a deserted platform I parked my bicycle, heavily laden with luggage in front of the disabled toilet, because I had been unable to make it stand up against a pillar when I popped into the gentlemen's toilet and a railway official shouted at me and the bicycle fell over to the ground disrupting the finely balanced panniers. He stormed off, but it upset me. Other incidents I do not mention in the account are dropping all my medicines trying to buy a ticket from the machine at Waterloo East station and being at the wrong end of the platform there, because the train had two guard's vans and I had been told to wait near the front of the train, but in fact it was the rear one that was in operation and I had to run the length of the platform wheeling my bicycle so that I did not miss the train.
The bar I stopped in on the way to Dunkerque was incredible. It certainly looked over 70 years old. The drinks were on a shelf, not refrigerated. There was just an elderly man standing at the bar and the elderly barmaid. The bar was full of old furniture including an ancient table football set. Riding into Dunkerque I found myself on a dual carriageway, which being on a bicycle I thought was illegal so I hauled my bicycle and luggage out of a cutting and up to the smaller road running parallel which a short way on simply merged with the dual carriageway. I was to do something similarly foolish in 2002 on the way to Pacy-sur-Eure. Staying at the youth hostel overnight I found myself without any water, the drinks machine had been switched off, the taps and shower had stopped working and being so thirsty I was forced to flush the toilet and drink water from the bowl.
Monday 14th June 1999
Today I woke early but did not get up until 07.00. After breakfast I went to Waterloo East, difficult to reach as you have to come through the main station. They only had ticket machines but fortunately I had the right notes. The train left at 09.33. I had to change guard's van at Ashford. I started reading 'Shōgun' on the train. Despite some ructions at Dover Priory station I got aboard the ferry with only problems with my front luggage.
The crossing was very smooth. We arrived in France at 14.30 local time. I got lost in Calais but eventually got on the way to Dunkerque by the back roads and passed through beautiful countryside in fine weather. I had a quick Orangina in a bar/petrol station out of the 1930s.
More difficulty when I got into Dunkerque, a sprawling port town. The maps did not reflect the complexities of the town. I found it difficult to find the way through the suburbs to the centre. Eventually I reached the the youth hostel overlooking the beach, it was very quiet.
I showered and set off to look for dinner. There are a range of places along the beach. It was great to promenade and eat overlooking the sea in sunshine eating at the "L'Orphie".
I have spoken quite a bit of French but people launch into complex responses then think me terse when I cannot reply, but there has been little recourse to English. I need to brush up more phrases. I surprised a German family at the hostel addressing them in German.
I am drinking Orangina non-stop for energy and refreshment. I may eat my way through my money, the meal contrasted with today's stress. Finding somewhere tomorrow may prove even worse. However, it is a surprise that I got here at all. I will just have to take each day as it comes.
Weather: Sunny and hot.
All the written entries are from my diary of the time and the pictures have been scanned in from photographs I took on the journey. This was the first of three cycling trips I made around northern France 1999-2002 and even on these I ran into some problems, though they were generally pleasurable events that I look back on with affection. The trip was a real break from life living above a chip shop in East London. It was a tough time for me. I noted a few days after getting back from the trip that I sent in my 71st job application since the previous December, so, some things never change! It just takes a lot longer to complete the applications these days.
Some elements of the account bear elaboration. I only had half an A4 page in my diary for each day's events so I had to pick what I included originally. The 'ructions' at Dover Priory Station was when on a deserted platform I parked my bicycle, heavily laden with luggage in front of the disabled toilet, because I had been unable to make it stand up against a pillar when I popped into the gentlemen's toilet and a railway official shouted at me and the bicycle fell over to the ground disrupting the finely balanced panniers. He stormed off, but it upset me. Other incidents I do not mention in the account are dropping all my medicines trying to buy a ticket from the machine at Waterloo East station and being at the wrong end of the platform there, because the train had two guard's vans and I had been told to wait near the front of the train, but in fact it was the rear one that was in operation and I had to run the length of the platform wheeling my bicycle so that I did not miss the train.
The bar I stopped in on the way to Dunkerque was incredible. It certainly looked over 70 years old. The drinks were on a shelf, not refrigerated. There was just an elderly man standing at the bar and the elderly barmaid. The bar was full of old furniture including an ancient table football set. Riding into Dunkerque I found myself on a dual carriageway, which being on a bicycle I thought was illegal so I hauled my bicycle and luggage out of a cutting and up to the smaller road running parallel which a short way on simply merged with the dual carriageway. I was to do something similarly foolish in 2002 on the way to Pacy-sur-Eure. Staying at the youth hostel overnight I found myself without any water, the drinks machine had been switched off, the taps and shower had stopped working and being so thirsty I was forced to flush the toilet and drink water from the bowl.
Monday 14th June 1999
Today I woke early but did not get up until 07.00. After breakfast I went to Waterloo East, difficult to reach as you have to come through the main station. They only had ticket machines but fortunately I had the right notes. The train left at 09.33. I had to change guard's van at Ashford. I started reading 'Shōgun' on the train. Despite some ructions at Dover Priory station I got aboard the ferry with only problems with my front luggage.
The crossing was very smooth. We arrived in France at 14.30 local time. I got lost in Calais but eventually got on the way to Dunkerque by the back roads and passed through beautiful countryside in fine weather. I had a quick Orangina in a bar/petrol station out of the 1930s.
More difficulty when I got into Dunkerque, a sprawling port town. The maps did not reflect the complexities of the town. I found it difficult to find the way through the suburbs to the centre. Eventually I reached the the youth hostel overlooking the beach, it was very quiet.
I showered and set off to look for dinner. There are a range of places along the beach. It was great to promenade and eat overlooking the sea in sunshine eating at the "L'Orphie".
I have spoken quite a bit of French but people launch into complex responses then think me terse when I cannot reply, but there has been little recourse to English. I need to brush up more phrases. I surprised a German family at the hostel addressing them in German.
I am drinking Orangina non-stop for energy and refreshment. I may eat my way through my money, the meal contrasted with today's stress. Finding somewhere tomorrow may prove even worse. However, it is a surprise that I got here at all. I will just have to take each day as it comes.
Weather: Sunny and hot.
View West along Dunkerque Beach, June 1999
Notice the 'Mole', the pier along which many British and French soldiers reached ships when escaping in 27th May -4th June 1940.
View East along Dunkerque Beach, June 1999
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
The British and Foreign Languages
Given that in the UK at any one time you are usually an hour or less flight time to a country which speaks a different language; in parts of Kent you can even see France, it seems odd that the UK has such a poor record in speaking languages. I can understand the difficulty if you live say somewhere in Nebraska or in Alice Springs, but leaving my house now I could be in a foreign country quicker than I could be in Scotland. London is actually closer to Prague than many Scottish islands and closer to Berlin than it is to the Shetland Islands. Yet, when travelling you find most British people have no grasp of a single other language. Contrast this to people you meet from the rest of Western Europe who generally have English in addition to their own language, and often have German or Russian or French too. Many Spanish speak Italian and vice versa; Finns are brought up speaking their own language and Swedish from the start. Of course a lot of British people or their parents or grandparents come from another country and speak languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Cantonese. However, even among such communities it is common within a couple of generations for people to lose knowledge of this kind. There are British people with language skills, but they are seen as eccentric. The British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden (1955-57) spoke fluent Arabic and Farsi at a time when the British were having difficulties with Egypt (Arabic speaking) and Iran (Farsi speaking), so he could have addressed these people in their own language, understood nationalist radio broadcasts, etc. Yet, he never revealed this ability publicly because he knew it would make him appear suspect in the eyes of the British population.
Why are the bulk of the British so poor at languages? Is it simply a fear of appearing 'suspect'? You see them failing to grasp things or even have a smattering of local languages and we are not talking about ones which are far away such as Arabic or Japanese, but ones that are in close proximity, such as French and German. Some (Anglo-Saxon) Americans can be as bad, but these days more and more of them can speak Spanish at least. Is the British problem that so many people speak English? Apparently 380 million people have it as their first language, and primarily because of US culture, it is dominant across the world in pop music and movies, and so it is usurprising that a fifth of the world's population (about 1.3 billion people) can speak English to some degree or another. So does this simply make us lazy? Is it a hangover of British imperialism? Whilst checking some facts for this post I came across blog entries asking why British school children should bother learning any foreign languages. If at most you have to wait until the fifth person comes along to get someone to speak to you in English, I guess that is a fair argument. However, it is one I will contest, if you give me a moment.
One reason why the British are so poor at languages is that they start late. If you begin before the age of 8, learning any foreign language you will find it far easier to develop that language or pick up another. However, until recently most British schools started no languages until a child turned 11. This has improved. However, if the parents speak no foreign language there is no support for the child's study at home in the way there is with things like English and Mathematics. If you go to a university as I have often done, you will find that many of the students who do well in languages have parents of different nationalities, I have encountered many with one French and one British parent or even one Chilean and one Norwegian in one woman's case. In the latter case she was operating in a third language, English. It is far rarer to find children of British-British parents with any foreign language skill. The situation has deteriorated since the government stopped making any languages compulsory once pupils turned 14; now they are backtracking furiously because recruitment on to language courses at higher levels, even GCSE (the examinations at 16 years old) which is very basic conversation level, were falling sharply.
So British people do not exposed to languages much at school. They do not seem to pick them up elsewhere either. This is despite the fact that the ownership by Britons of homes in France and Spain has reached high levels (250,000 houses in France are now owned by British people). I think this can be explained by the fact that the British form enclaves in which they eat, sleep and speak English. Talking with a British builder's merchant who now runs his business in Bordeaux, he said that there (which unlike regions such as Normandy or the Dordogne is not renowned for having lots of British) he never spoke French as all his customers were either British builders working in the region or British home owners. (As an aside when the British complain about immigrants in the UK they should remember that 1 in 10 of the British population now lives outside the UK; though still not learning the local language).
Another reason why British people do not grasp foreign languages is that there is a real snobbery. In the UK someone will ask you if you speak a language, if you say 'yes' they assume you can speak it perfectly and will get angry if you make any mistakes; even, as is common they know no foreign languages. It is all or nothing for the British in contrast to much of the world, who as someone recently noted, 'get by in bad English' when they do not have a common language. Yet another factor, certainly in contrast with neighbouring countries in Europe, you cannot pick up any foreign television channels in the UK. In contrast many Dutch, Belgians and French write in to programmes shown on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
Yet another reason I have had suggested to me is that 'all the intelligent British people have left the UK'. This argument goes along the lines that with migration to the empire in the 19th and early 20th century and to the Commonwealth and especially to the USA after the Second World War (the so-called 'Brain Drain') and now with middle and upper class people choosing to live abroad (saying which when in Milton Keynes you would encounter people who commuted from Caen in France because with budget airlines the combined flight and coach ride to reach the city was £16 (€23; US$32) compared to £36 (€52; US$72) for the train journey from London), the argument is that those with the intellectual ability to grasp foreign languages have left. They have been replaced by the people with 'get up and go' from South Asia and now Eastern Europe. Certainly, if you look at successful businesses in post-1945 Britain many have been founded by immigrants or first generation settlers.
Why does all of this matter? If the British in the UK are the dim leftovers who rarely travel abroad and when they do go only to British enclaves why do they need foreign languages? It is about more than the language, it is about the mentality and analysis that knowing another language provides. As I age my memory is deteriorating rapidly, so I have forgotten so much of what I learned when younger, but I have been having ago at learning Mandarin Chinese and I have found out interesting things about its sentence structure. Questions are sentences with a question word put at the end. In English we would say 'Are you hungry?' in Mandarin it would work out 'Hungry, are you?'; 'Is it raining?'; 'Raining, is it?' and so on. (Someone said to me today it is speaking like Yoda from the 'Star Wars' movies, and that is the case, because Yoda intentionally is supposed to be a sage and in the West we often see sages as being Oriental, hence such a sentence structure). Now, people say to me, 'Chinese people never ask any questions' and no I know why this appears to be the case. If I asked you 'Are you ready? Do you have any questions?' and you are Chinese you have to track down the actual question word and then make your own question sentence, bringing on board all your vocabulary, but getting it in the backward questioning way that us English speakers like. By the time you have done that the average English speaker has assumed you have no questions and have moved on.
So, my argument is, that until you begin to learn another language, you do not come to understand the other ways in which people of the world structure their thinking. Neither do you know how hard it is to get across what you want to say and the embarrassment of getting it wrong. Someone who bellows all the time in English is never going to appreciate such perspectives. It allows them to make sweeping judgements about other people's attitudes and so they see hostility rather than co-operation. Individuals do not notice that the best jobs are now going to educated people from continental Europe who speak two or three languages and British society, increasingly uneasy with dealing with the rest of the EU let alone markets in China and elsewhere, is shutting itself off from both intellectual and financial benefits.
Why are the bulk of the British so poor at languages? Is it simply a fear of appearing 'suspect'? You see them failing to grasp things or even have a smattering of local languages and we are not talking about ones which are far away such as Arabic or Japanese, but ones that are in close proximity, such as French and German. Some (Anglo-Saxon) Americans can be as bad, but these days more and more of them can speak Spanish at least. Is the British problem that so many people speak English? Apparently 380 million people have it as their first language, and primarily because of US culture, it is dominant across the world in pop music and movies, and so it is usurprising that a fifth of the world's population (about 1.3 billion people) can speak English to some degree or another. So does this simply make us lazy? Is it a hangover of British imperialism? Whilst checking some facts for this post I came across blog entries asking why British school children should bother learning any foreign languages. If at most you have to wait until the fifth person comes along to get someone to speak to you in English, I guess that is a fair argument. However, it is one I will contest, if you give me a moment.
One reason why the British are so poor at languages is that they start late. If you begin before the age of 8, learning any foreign language you will find it far easier to develop that language or pick up another. However, until recently most British schools started no languages until a child turned 11. This has improved. However, if the parents speak no foreign language there is no support for the child's study at home in the way there is with things like English and Mathematics. If you go to a university as I have often done, you will find that many of the students who do well in languages have parents of different nationalities, I have encountered many with one French and one British parent or even one Chilean and one Norwegian in one woman's case. In the latter case she was operating in a third language, English. It is far rarer to find children of British-British parents with any foreign language skill. The situation has deteriorated since the government stopped making any languages compulsory once pupils turned 14; now they are backtracking furiously because recruitment on to language courses at higher levels, even GCSE (the examinations at 16 years old) which is very basic conversation level, were falling sharply.
So British people do not exposed to languages much at school. They do not seem to pick them up elsewhere either. This is despite the fact that the ownership by Britons of homes in France and Spain has reached high levels (250,000 houses in France are now owned by British people). I think this can be explained by the fact that the British form enclaves in which they eat, sleep and speak English. Talking with a British builder's merchant who now runs his business in Bordeaux, he said that there (which unlike regions such as Normandy or the Dordogne is not renowned for having lots of British) he never spoke French as all his customers were either British builders working in the region or British home owners. (As an aside when the British complain about immigrants in the UK they should remember that 1 in 10 of the British population now lives outside the UK; though still not learning the local language).
Another reason why British people do not grasp foreign languages is that there is a real snobbery. In the UK someone will ask you if you speak a language, if you say 'yes' they assume you can speak it perfectly and will get angry if you make any mistakes; even, as is common they know no foreign languages. It is all or nothing for the British in contrast to much of the world, who as someone recently noted, 'get by in bad English' when they do not have a common language. Yet another factor, certainly in contrast with neighbouring countries in Europe, you cannot pick up any foreign television channels in the UK. In contrast many Dutch, Belgians and French write in to programmes shown on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
Yet another reason I have had suggested to me is that 'all the intelligent British people have left the UK'. This argument goes along the lines that with migration to the empire in the 19th and early 20th century and to the Commonwealth and especially to the USA after the Second World War (the so-called 'Brain Drain') and now with middle and upper class people choosing to live abroad (saying which when in Milton Keynes you would encounter people who commuted from Caen in France because with budget airlines the combined flight and coach ride to reach the city was £16 (€23; US$32) compared to £36 (€52; US$72) for the train journey from London), the argument is that those with the intellectual ability to grasp foreign languages have left. They have been replaced by the people with 'get up and go' from South Asia and now Eastern Europe. Certainly, if you look at successful businesses in post-1945 Britain many have been founded by immigrants or first generation settlers.
Why does all of this matter? If the British in the UK are the dim leftovers who rarely travel abroad and when they do go only to British enclaves why do they need foreign languages? It is about more than the language, it is about the mentality and analysis that knowing another language provides. As I age my memory is deteriorating rapidly, so I have forgotten so much of what I learned when younger, but I have been having ago at learning Mandarin Chinese and I have found out interesting things about its sentence structure. Questions are sentences with a question word put at the end. In English we would say 'Are you hungry?' in Mandarin it would work out 'Hungry, are you?'; 'Is it raining?'; 'Raining, is it?' and so on. (Someone said to me today it is speaking like Yoda from the 'Star Wars' movies, and that is the case, because Yoda intentionally is supposed to be a sage and in the West we often see sages as being Oriental, hence such a sentence structure). Now, people say to me, 'Chinese people never ask any questions' and no I know why this appears to be the case. If I asked you 'Are you ready? Do you have any questions?' and you are Chinese you have to track down the actual question word and then make your own question sentence, bringing on board all your vocabulary, but getting it in the backward questioning way that us English speakers like. By the time you have done that the average English speaker has assumed you have no questions and have moved on.
So, my argument is, that until you begin to learn another language, you do not come to understand the other ways in which people of the world structure their thinking. Neither do you know how hard it is to get across what you want to say and the embarrassment of getting it wrong. Someone who bellows all the time in English is never going to appreciate such perspectives. It allows them to make sweeping judgements about other people's attitudes and so they see hostility rather than co-operation. Individuals do not notice that the best jobs are now going to educated people from continental Europe who speak two or three languages and British society, increasingly uneasy with dealing with the rest of the EU let alone markets in China and elsewhere, is shutting itself off from both intellectual and financial benefits.
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