Mandarin and English language - The Tug of War

Walt Whitman, the great American poet and essayist said, "Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, range of time and is both free and compacted composition of all". Most of us strongly agree with this statement. We have an equally strong statement for Mandarin as well. Learning is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily. This is a famous inspiring Chinese proverb. The ratio of students for Chinese to English language enrollment is 4:1 in. Currently over 37 cities across China offer TOEFL program. The tug of war as to which language dominates the hemisphere is still an unanswered question. Some key points denote the difference:-

• Origin and popularity
• Myth and Reality
• Difference in Phonology
• Difference in Grammar and Flexibility
  
  
  

Origin and popularity: The English word "Mandarin" is derived from Sanskrit language which means minister. Originally, ministers were the officials in charge of the Chinese empire. English has originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects. It is a West Germanic language.

Mandarin is the official language in China. In 2012, there were 60 sovereign states and 28 non-sovereign entities where English was an official language. As of now, about 340 million people are native English speakers. Around 510 million people consider English as their second language. Mandarin is spoken by 1.3 billion people across the globe. According to The Chinese Education ministry, more than 50 million people overseas are now learning Mandarin.

Myth and Reality :- To most of the native English speakers, Mandarin would appear like "Ching, ming, tang, ling, chang", accompanied by weird images of brush strokes and broken lines that makes no sense. How to write Chinese is not tedious task though Mandarin includes laboriously writing hundreds of different characters repeatedly. Mandarin does not have letters but follows logographic system for writing the language. According to the logographic systems, symbols themselves represent words. Hence the learning process is cumbersome. However, the first step to learn English begins with the reading process.

Difference in Phonology :- Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages. Mandarin is a tone language. It uses high or low pitch to distinguish the word meaning. In English, high or low pitch denotes expressions and emotions. English uses more of vowels to denote difference in the words for eg. full/fool, eat/it, sheep/ship etc. Mandarin learners find it difficult to pronounce certain words especially L and R, I and N etc.

Difference in Grammar and Flexibility :- Mandarin language does not include articles like a, an and the. Hence, the Mandarin language learners find it difficult in grasping English language. English is a flexible language. It has been influenced from Latin and other romantic languages hence it can be moulded despite of being a Germanic language. Mandarin, on the other hand follow strict sets of rules and regulations with very few exceptions. Therefore modifying the sentence structure is tedious.

Despite being two most dominating language across the globe, there is still a tug of war between the two. There are various premier online Chinese language school in the world for eg. echineselearning.com. Special classes are designed for learning Chinese naturally and not memorizing it. This e-Learning facility is available at elcstudio.com and verbalplanet.com. Each language has its own complexity and none of the language is entirely simple or complex. Languages have their own importance and redeeming qualities.

 

Slum-children in Dharavi, Mumbai learn English Alphabets

Last summer, I traveled to Mumbai in India for a couple of months, and I was troubled by the children who beg for money. Do I give them money or food or neither? If I give money, exploitative adults may take it. My family regularly contributes to Indian charities, but that is small relief in these miserable plight.

Your desire to help a child in distress is commendable, whichever of those options you choose. But I chose a different road to make those children self-reliable. Those Children were illiterate so I thought of teaching them the English Language. The challenge was to begin from the base that is teaching them alphabets.

I love exposing young children to letters! It is so fun to see them find letters in their environment and connect letters they know in their name. As we all know, letters and letters sounds are the foundation to our English language so identifying letters and the sounds they make is very important.

To say if only I can say my School was under a tree in Dharavi, the slum in Mumbai. Dharavi is the largest slum in Asia and one of the largest slums in the world. Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire” was shot as well in this slum. The railway station was very close to the area. During teaching, we used to get the train sound.

Most of the children who came to learn the English language were basically child labor- factory-workers and rag-pickers. To make alphabet learning not a struggle but fun I got some activities. The activities included Letter Picture Cards, Large letters (for creating letter art), Letter Poem, Letter Snack and Sensory Ideas, Letter Book, Dot paint letters, Letter Flipbook, Letter Hunt, Letter Puzzles, Letter Lacing, Letter Size Up, Letter Writing, Letter Match-Up and Letter Sort.

The children found learning English alphabets extremely interesting. These children were amazing learners. They are great fun to be with. Given the opportunity, they too can experience an incredible India and participate in the exercise of nation building. Education can transform them from dependents to driving forces. In the words of H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and I quote “Education is a vehicle for transformation or metamorphosis of the self and an aid to the growth of economy.”