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Showing posts from February, 2019

Is the "English only policy" good?

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In the United States, only a few states have actually passed “English only” educational laws, including California, Florida and Iowa etc. Many people still call on stopping providing bilingual education programs in the U.S. education system. As we discussed this topic a little in class, although English-only education is not that strict in higher education like colleges. I think this is a important aspect of learning and it has both positive and negative affects and here are some of my views. Positive sides: Language is not just a tool of communication, it’s the soul of a nation. Everyone want their nation to be united and cohesive, and the language is a necessary bond to make it easier.     Learning English is important for immigrations and foreigners to fit in U.S. society, and the English-only policy will push those people out of their comfort zone, which is staying with their own culture group. For those people, bilingual education affect their ability and willingness to lea

The power of English and Mandarin

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In last a few decades, China has grew rapidly, many people believe it is one of the most considerable force nowadays. Like what Jeffrey(2011) says in his book, English Today : “A report in China Daily (2004), for example, suggests that: there may even come a day when learning Chinese, like present day English, becomes compulsory for business, politics and cultural exchanges – a trend that has become increasingly plausible as more foreign students enroll in Chinese courses and China as a nation takes a more prominent role on the international stage.” You can see that how everyone is closely relating the role of China and the use of Chinese. First of all, I want to have a say that China’s development and rapid growth is relied largely on overuse non-renewable resources and at a cost, the environment pollution and destruction are super high. Honestly I don’t know how long the positive situation will last and whether it’s the right way for us to get stronger because drawbacks are alre

What "standardized" really means and can a language be "standardized"?

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As we talked about language standardization and globalization in class, I would like to continue discussing on this topic.  I expressed myself as a  language standardizer in a previous discussion.  Of course  standardization is super duper necessary, b ut can any kind of language be truly standardized? My initiate answer was: “No.”   From: http://www.uniglobecarefreetravel.com Like what I said in class, China is a huge country which has thirty-two provinces and almost every province own a different dialect. Although we all live in the same country and speak so-called “Chinese”, it still gives us a headache to talk with others who come from different area, especially the difference in language between the north and south.  Pick myself as a example, I come from Beijing city, which is in the north part of China. I was born in Beijing and grew up there, my dad, however, was born in Hunan province in south. So I had no idea what Hunan dialect is when the first time I visited there