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Chinglish and China English

Jiang Yajun

English Today / Volume 11 / Issue 01 / January 1995, pp 51 - 56

DOI: 10.1017/S0266078400008105, Published online: 17 October 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0266078400008105

How to cite this article:

Jiang Yajun (1995). Chinglish and China English. English Today, 11, pp 51-56 doi:10.1017/
S0266078400008105

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Chinglish
Two articles, both from the People's Republic of
China, submitted in response to Duncan Forbes's
controversial article 'Singlish' in ET34 (Apr 93).

Chinglish and dynamic nature of the same phenomenon.

Judged by the general rules of English, Ching-
lish is 'foreign', ill-formed or even erroneous,
China English and not 'comfortably intelligible' (Abercrom-
bie, 1963) in the most part. It is an unavoidable
yet necessary stage on the way to learning Eng-
lish as a second or foreign language, and the
JIANG YAJUN speaker may (or may not, if he ceases to
improve it) get there.
THE ARTICLE 'Singlish', in which Duncan On the other hand 'China English' is an Eng-
Forbes describes the background and nature of lish, a member of the big family of world Eng-
the English spoken by Singapore Chinese stu- lishes or, more exactly, a member of the
dents, interested me greatly, not only because I 'expanding circle', to use Kachru's term (1991),
always read with great pleasure the reports but with Chinese characteristics:
and discussions on world Englishes, but also
o a near-native yet Chinese accent
because I myself am a Chinese English teacher
o words which are basic only to Chinese
and teach English in China.
because of its history, environment and politics
I had thought I would discover the similari-
o dead or old-fashioned forms or pronuncia-
ties between a cat and a tiger - to coin a phrase
tions resulting from Chinese approaches to lan-
in the Chinglish way - between Singlish and
guage learning (e.g. a concentration on inten-
Chinese English, or Chinglish or Qinglish as it
sive leading as a basis for language study, a
is usually named here, because both native
preoccupation with the careful, often painstak-
speakers have the same mother tongue, the
ing examination of grammatical structure and
Chinese language or, more exactly, Putonghua
a corresponding lack of attention to more com-
(the standard Chinese language). But I failed,
municative skills, the use of translation as both
for reasons about which I am still wondering.
a teaching and a learning strategy, etc., and
This paper, however, is aimed at describing the
background and the general nature of Ching-
lish. But before doing that, I'd like to draw a
distinction between 'Chinglish' and 'China Eng- JIANG YAJUN was educated atXi'an University of
lish', a term I name 'English with Chinese char- Foreign Languages, China, where he took his BA in
acteristics'. English Language and Literature, and at Central
Chinglish, as the blend itself suggests, is China Teachers' University, where he took his MA in
somewhat a pidgin, or an 'interlanguage', a General Linguistics. Now a lecturer, he is a member
of the English Department of Weinan Teachers'
term used by Selinker (1972) to emphasize the College, and is currently teaching English
structurally and phonologically intermediate Linguistics, Integrated Reading and Interpretation.
status of a learner's language system between His chief interests are in World Englishes, English
mother tongue and target language, or linguistics, general linguistics, translation and ELT,
'approximative system', a term Nemser (1971) and he is now working on 'Chinglish and China
prefers to emphasize the transitional and English', a project assisted by his college.

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materials or teaching aids commonly used in The voiced IQI and the voiceless /9/ are two
China) difficult sounds for Chinese learners, just as
o a linguistic mixture of British and American Forbes reported, because Chinese does not
English in both spoken and written forms. So have these two sounds. But unlike Singapore
China English is a 'nativization' of the norma- students, Chinese learners usually replace
tive English used by Chinese people mainly in them by the voiced Izl and the voiceless /s/
China, for international and intranational pur- respectively, rather than drop them. They say
poses. It is self-justifying as an English. 'srough' and 'moser' instead of through and
Now, Chinglish. The following findings, mother. Consider: His father and mother went
though added to by my own teaching experi- through thick and thin.
ence, are based largely on a speaking check-up Forbes says the phoneme kl emerges in
conducted among the first- and second-year Singlish as /]/. This is the case with natives of
students in the English Department, Weinan Shanghai (see Kwei, 1981: 96-97), but in
Teachers' College, China. many other areas in China people do not dis-
Forbes has said that 'the average Singapore tinguish between IM and /n/, the lateral and the
Chinese student tends to ignore all inflections'. alveolar nasal. That is to say, in their dialects
This is not the case with Chinese students. They these two sounds are not two phonemes, but
now and then ignore some inflections, namely - allophones of one phoneme. The transfer of
s plural, -s present third-person singular, -d past this feature to 'their English' creates confusion
tense, and -d past participle, but they seldom between word pairs like nightAight or napAap.
speak without -s possessive, -ing present par- Consider: The carpenter is well paid for his
ticiple, -er comparative, and -est superlative. labour (pronounced 'neighbour').
This is mainly because the Chinese language is Another common Singlish characteristic
a 'root-isolating language', incapable of inflec- Forbes reveals in his paper also features in
tion or formal variation while 'English has pre- Chinglish: that is, Chinese students also 'often
cious little grammar' (Palmer, 1971: 12). The speak in a way that seems over-precise to peo-
Chinese language has its own ways, though not ple in southern England, who do not give full
the English kinds, to express some grammatical value to short vowels, reduce them to the uni-
categories, such as noun possessive, compara- versal schwa /a/.' They tend to ignore what lin-
tive and superlative. This explains why Chinese guists call 'gradation' and have no Sveak forms'
students often make mistakes such as: of words such as as, of, for, and, will, etc.
Christophersen (1973) describes the English-
'He study English everyday.' man's reaction to this as 'a host who sees an
'I buy two pen yesterday.' uninvited guest making free with his posses-
However, none of them have problems in say- sions.' For example, they employ the same /aend/
ing 'I/you/they/we study English every day.' sound in 'Not Tom or I but Tom and I' and Tom
In Singlish pronunciation, Svords are and I have been appointed', and the same /io-J
stripped of final consonants', Mr. Forbes or /fo:7 in 'What is it for' and 'This is for you'.
observes. But for Chinese students just the One of the noticeable features of Chinglish is
opposite is the case. They sometimes add a final that Chinese students tend to ignore the lin-
l<sl to the words ending with consonants. guistic phenomenon described as 'shifting
Another case which is opposite to Forbes' is that stress'. In English, a number of words, espe-
Chinese students have the same trouble with cially compounds, may have a shift in stress
word pairs such as ship/sheep and full/fool as when they are used before nouns. But Chinese
Italians and Pakistanis. They prolong the short students always use the stress used when the
vowels and make them the corresponding long word is said by itself. They have no problems in
ones. This is because, as I see it, the long/short saying 'left-handed' and 'Chinese', but when
contrast is not a distinctive feature and makes coming to 'A left-handed pitcher does not
no difference in meaning in Putonghua. always bat left-handed' and "The soldiers are
Another example is the standard joke about a Chinese in the Chinese army*, they do not shift
Chinese student being asked at a dinner table: the positions of primary stresses in 'left-handed
Would you care for some more? 'No, thanks. I'm pitcher' and 'Chinese army". Another problem
fool,' he said. The host's surprise and the guest's with stress which puzzles listeners is that they
embarrassment on discovering his language have difficulties in employing the right stress
error are not hard to imagine. patterns in compound nouns and modified

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nouns, distinguished by stress. It is hard to tell is becoming more 'common', a word whose
in a Chinese classroom whether a student is Chinese equivalent can also mean 'popular'.
talking about his 'girlfriend' or 'girl friend', or a 'Her Chinese was so good that I was shocked'
'high chair", the special kind for children, or (They mean 'surprised') is another example.
'high chair1, a chair which is high. Thus, when in Once a student of mine told me: The broad-
China you hear 'I'm a Japanese teacher1, ask casting station often broadcasts music the audi-
whether he or she is a Japanese. Or, when a ence dibbles'. We all know that the English
'dancing girl' is mentioned, if necessary make word 'broadcast' came from the field of farming.
sure whether this is a profession. The Chinese dianbo may mean either 'to ask a
For Chinese speakers, there are various prob- broadcasting or TV station to broadcast a cer-
lems with pitches and terminals, of which the tain programme' or 'to dibble'.
'individual question word' is a common one. In this paper I have discussed some of the
When employing a question word to request, problems of Chinglish, which have apparently
they tend to use the 'fading terminal', all the almost escaped the attention of western lin-
time and for all purposes. You say 'Jane has a guists so far. This is only a preliminary report,
new English teacher', and they may rightly ask and a good deal of work remains to be done. By
\vho?' (3 11) when they want to know further the way, is there any Chinglish in this paper?
information about the teacher. The problem is
that they use the same intonation contour while
•
References
they want 'Jane' repeated. Try the sentence 'I
want to work in China' and ask them to say the Abercrombie, D. 1963. Problems and Principles in
Language Study, 2nd edition. London: Longman.
two different Svheres' distinguished by intona- Crook, D. 1988. "Language Lapses Seen and Heard in
tion contour. 1987." English Language Learning 197: 32-36.
That is Chinglish phonology. But what about Forbes, D. 1991, "Singlish". English Today 34:18-21.
the lexis? The problems which puzzle listeners Kachru, B. B. 1991. "World Englishes: approaches,
in this field are mainly due to 'word-for-word' issues and resources". Language Teaching, Vol 25:
1-14.
translation. 'Your body is very healthy' and Kwei, T. K. 1991. Applied Phonology of American
'your hearing ability is good' are two old exam- English. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Education
ples. Another one is 'a dancing party" when 'a Press.
dance' is really meant. Another, worse sort of Nemser, W. 1971. "Approximative System of Foreign-
Chinglish use of words arises from translation- language Learners." International Review of Applied
centred Chinese teaching and learning strategy. Linguistics, 9, 213-27.
Misuse of the word 'popular' is a common mis- Palmer, F. R. 1971. Grammar. Harmondsworth:
take, as in 'Aids is becoming a more popular Penguin Books.
Selinker, L. 1972. "Interlanguage." International
illness these days'. Here they mean, of course, it Review of Applied Linguistics 10: 209-32.

English each province or even in each district-named

College of Education. I am a Chinese woman
teacher who has taught English for many years
in China in such kind of college - Shandong College of

DONG LI DONG LI is an
associate professor
who teaches in the
IN CHINA today all the students of the univer- English Department
sities, college, middle schools and some of the of Shandong College
primary schools learn English. That is to say, of Education. After
graduation she went
China is not only the country with the largest
abroad twice, first to
population in the world, but also has the Zambia, then to
greatest number of students who learn English Guyana, working as
in the world. In order to improve the profes- an interpreter for
sional knowledge of the middle-school teach- Chinese foreign-aid
ers, there are many special training bases in teams.

English Today 41, Vol. 11, No. 1 (January 1995). Copyright © 1995 Cambridge University Press 53

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Education. My task is to promote the English Chinese-speaker to close a word widi a conso-
level of middle-school teachers in Shandong nant, or two and three consonants. His instinct
province. Through advanced study the is not to do it. So it sounds more natural to him
advanced learners can get the certificates of to say "be" rather than "beat".
qualified teachers. In Chinese there are no voiced 18/ as in 'this',
Recently I have read an article on Singapore unvoiced / 0 / as in 'thing' and voiced hi as in
entitled 'Singlish' by Duncan Forbes. His article Very1. Chinese students always say Izl, Is/, and
tells us how Chinese speakers in Singapore Av/ instead of/S/, IB/, and hi. As we know, China
learn English and the difference between the is a very large country. The pronunciations are
two languages. As a Chinese teacher of English quite different in different places. The northern
and an interpreter, I would like dwell on these people can hardly understand what the south-
points from my own experience. ern people say though both of them use the
same national language. In some areas people
can't distinguish /// and Is/, hi and l\l. So when
The status of English they attempt 'she' IfvJ, they always say Isij 'see'.
Thirty years ago, when I was a student in the When they say 'people' /'pi:pl/, they just pro-
English Department of Shandong Teachers' nounce / 'pi:py/.
University, English was not used extensively in In order to get a direct sense of pronuncia-
China. Only a few of the universities, colleges, tion many English beginners write Chinese
and middle schools taught English. At that time words under the English words to indicate the
most of the students studied Russian as their English pronunciation. Under 'Good morning',
foreign language. Even in bookstores you could for example, they write [see panel] pro-
hardly buy English dictionaries and books. nounced go de mau niang, of which the English
Later, since 1980, the Chinese reform and open- meaning is something like 'the dog gets the
ing policy has made English widely used. Many cat's mother". Under the word 'bag' they write
students and intellectuals wanted to go abroad [see panel], which is pronounced 'bai ge'. It's
for advanced study. They had to pass the EPT English meaning is something like *white
Examination. In order to pass the judgement on pigeon'. Some even write Chinese words
the title of a technical or professional post many under the English words of a whole English
people must pass the examination of a foreign text. Learning English like this they get poor
language. As a result, many English short-term pronunciation. When they read the English
training classes have sprung up. Moreover, the text, you may well think they read Chinese.
policy of Inviting Foreign Investment has They can't get rid of the Chinese dialect when
attracted many foreign businessmen to China. they speak English.
In addition, Chinese scenic spots and historical As Duncan Forbes has mentioned in his arti-
sites have drawn many foreign visitors. Thus cle: 'English has often been called a stress-timed
English tends to be the lingua franca in conver- language, which means tliat there is a sort of
sations among peoples not sharing the same beat or rhythm of the stressed syllables and all
language. In broadcasting certain times have the unstressed ones that come between them
been allocated to teaching English, with later have to be squeezed into the allotted time. The
English teaching programmes on television. In ubiquitous schwa is used wherever appropriate
cities there are English corners for English as, for example, the weak form Ida/ and hvl of
enthusiasts to talk the language freely, activi- the and of.' It's really difficult for many Chinese-
ties which they themselves have organized speakers to fit weak syllables of English like
spontaneously. automatic rifle-fire, giving each one a more or
less equal charge to speed it on its way. Conse-
quently, there is little or no contrast between
Pronunciation stressed and unstressed syllables.
Unlike English, the Chinese language is syllabic, Since in the simple or compound vowels of
reiving on tonal variations to increase the Chinese syllables there is no distinction
inventory of sounds available for vocabulary. between long and short, when Chinese speak-
One-syllable words, with rare exceptions, are ers pronounce English vowels, no matter
left open with the vowel sound following the whether they are long or short, they pronounce
consonant to achieve completion. It sounds, them with the same length. So they do not make
maybe you think, unnatural therefore to a I'vJ, IwJ, loj, h'J, and la:/ long enough. At the

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 In order to get a direct senje of pronunciation many
English beginners write Chinese words under the English
words to indicate the English pronunciation . "Good morning"
for example, they write" ^J ^ ^jjtffL " prononnced "go
de mau niang" which the English meaning is like 'the dog
gets cat's mother ' . The word 'bag1 they write £(3>£& "
under the English word which is pronounced "bai ge ". It's
English meaning is like'white pigeon • . Some even write
Chinese words under the English words of a whole English
"text. Learning English like this they got poor pronunciation.
When they read the English text, you may properbly think
"they read Chinese. They can't get rid of the Chinese dialect
When speak English.

same time, they do not pronounce l\l, hi, hi, Inl, above different English verbs can be translated
ItJ, /ae/ and Id short enough. into one Chinese verb ke in these phrases.
Similarly, one English word can express
many Chinese words in some other phrases.
Syntax Examples are: apiece of paper, apiece of bread,
When we Chinese ask general questions, we apiece of cake, apiece of cloth, apiece of news, a
simply add a word pronounced Ana:/ at the end piece of chalk, apiece of advice, apiece of music,
of declarative sentences. They don't have any- a piece of information, and a piece of furniture.
thing like the auxiliary verb do. So when the The word piece in the above phrases can be
Chinese speakers speak English, they simply translated into ten different Chinese words.
drop the do, saying You like her?', for example, As for the verb to be, when used as a link-verb
and to emphasize the fact that it really is a ques- we must say: The cup is on the table, The students
tion, they add yes, resulting in "You like her, are at school, The story is very interesting, and It
yes?' is sunny today.
In English, to answer the general and dis- This is a source of common errors for begin-
junctive questions one usually answers "yes' or ners. In order to solve such problems teachers
'no' according to the fact. But in Chinese one must ask the students to do a lot of exercises.
answers according to the questions. To Through repeated practice the students learn
'Doesn't he want to go?', for example, the that the link-verb be can't be omitted when
answers are Yes, he doesn't', or 'No, he does'. speaking English.
These responses are influenced by the syntax
of Chinese.
Vocabulary and idiom
Both in English and Chinese, one word may
have different meanings. But one English word Different countries have different idiomatic
is not exactly equal to one Chinese word. For expressions which can't be explained. As a lan-
instance, the Chinese word [see panel] pro- guage learner, the only way is to learn them by
nounced ke means 'to open' in English. It can be heart and use them according to their mean-
used in many phrases which are quite different ings. It's hard to explain why rain cats and dogs
in English, but the same in Chinese. The exam- indicates heavy rain; why last night can't be
ples are as follows: to open the door, to hold a replaced by yesterday night. In Chinese, the
meeting, to drive a car, to turn on the light, to pronunciation /ma: Jsn/ means immediately.
operate a machine, to make a road, to pilot a These two Chinese words mean on the horse
plane, to fire with a rifle, to make fun of, to work back. So one day, one of my foreign friends
late into the night, and to give a course. All the who was learning Chinese asked me: 'Why

CHINGLISH 55

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 don't we use AJa: Jaen/ instead of/ma: Jaen/? (the The word propaganda is defined in the
pronunciation for /tja: Jsen/ means on the bus). Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Cur-
The bus can run faster than the horse.' rent English as follows: 'publicity that is
When a Chinese person speaks English, the intended to spread ideas or information which
first thing he thinks of is to find the English will persuade or convince people.' But when
words he knows to express his meaning as soon you say: There has been so much propaganda
as possible. Certainly the familiar words always against smoking that many people have given
come out first. So when a young Chinese- it up' to Guyanese, they are very surprised.
speaker says 'My father fetch me to school,' the They think the word propaganda means
word fetch is more familiar to him than the 'spreading a rumour'. Similarly, when we
word take though maybe he knows that using Chinese say There are many bare-foot doctors
fetch is not right. His basic need is to say some- in China', foreign friends would amazedly ask,
thing quickly. 'Why don't these doctors wear shoes?' In China
One day, one of my colleagues was ill while bare-foot doctors indicates the doctors who
in Zambia. He had loose bowels and rested in work in the countryside.
the dormitory. But when a Zambian friend So far I have mentioned the status of Eng-
asked: 'Why Mr. Wang is absent today?', one of lish, pronunciation, syntax, and vocabulary
our Chinese mechanical engineers whose and idiom. But for Chinese students learning
English was poor replied: 'He is ill. His trans- English is more difficult than other knowledge.
mission system is too smooth.' The Zambian In China today teachers are trying their best to
friends burst into laughter. They knew what the find a better method of teaching English. Stu-
Chinese engineer meant because we had dents are also trying their best to find a better
worked together for more than a year. We knew way of learning English. We need more help.
each other very well. The Zambian friends Readers and learners in China need more help.
understood Chinese English. The engineer used We hope that more advanced English books
his professional English to explain what he will be introduced to China. ED
meant though his English vocabulary was poor.

-(CROSSWORLp)-
/ED 40 CrossworLd answer ED 39 CrossworLd winners
The winners of The Cambridge Thesaurus of
American English, edited by William D. Lutz, the
prize for our July 1994 crossword, are:
Juliet Bending, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Fiona Cowan, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England
Laurie Donaldson, London, England
N. Hardiman, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Michael B. Rutman, Pfaffikon, Switzerland

56 ENGLISH TODAY 41 January 1995

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