Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox runs The World's language desk. He reports and edits stories about the globalization of English, the bilingual brain, translation technology and more. He also hosts The World's podcast on language, The World in Words.

Are Chinese Kids Losing Their Language?

October 17, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment
A young girl paints Chinese calligraphy inside the Meijiang Convention Center in Tianjin, 2010 (Photo: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

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In China, authorities are worried that the technical ease of typing Chinese characters means that people are forgetting how to write them. As a result, they are urging schools to re-introduce mandatory calligraphy classes.

I’m learning Chinese, and so I have become accustomed to  keyboard technology that does much of work for me. If I want to type out  a sentence in Chinese, I switch my language preference in my word processing program from English to Chinese. Then I write the sentence in pinyin, the Latin alphabet version of Chinese. For each syllable, I am offered a variety of character options that correspond to a syllable or sound.  For example if I type wo, I can choose between  我 , 沃,  握 and several other characters.

I must, of course, be able to recognize the character: I need to know what it looks like in order to choose the right one. But I don’t need to learn or remember how to write it. The computer does that for me.

The trouble is, it’s not just Chinese learners like me who are using this character-inputting shortcut. Native Chinese speakers do it too. If they have access to a computer, they don’t need to write characters. Naturally, many people are forgetting how to write. Others don’t adequately learn characters in the first place. So calligraphy, the traditional practice of writing characters with the strokes of a brush, is back as a mandatory part of the curriculum for many Chinese school kids. Without this, educators fear that many Chinese will never be able to write in their own language.

Abroad, it’s a different story. Across the globe, there’s an explosion of Chinese-learning. The government in Beijing is playing its part. In the past seven years, China has opened almost 300 Confucius Institutes around the world. Still, you might not expect to find an institute in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. But there it is, offering Chinese language classes to (mainly) young Rwandans.

Rwanda does not have great stability in its language policies. Most Rwandans are native  Kinyarwanda speakers. But many also speak English and French. In the wake of the 1994 genocide, Rwanda switched its language of instruction from French to English (there are suspicions among some Rwandans that the French were complicit in the assassination of the Rwandan President, that led to the genocide).  Now some Rwandans are learning Chinese.   More on this in Mary Kay Magistad’s blog post.

Another example of the expansion of Chinese soft power: the government-run China Radio International is seeking out new audiences in the United States.

The latest place you can hear it: WILD, an AM station in Boston. For much of the last four decades, WILD broadcast soul music and talk shows hosted by people like Al Sharpton and Tom Joyner.

But In June 2011, the station began leasing its airtime to an English language service of China Radio International.

CRI’s programs offer a mix that Voice of America listeners might recognize: news, programs on Chinese culture and society, cheesy, retro pop music programing, and the occasional Chinese language lesson. Nothing especially controversial, and absolutely nothing cutting edge. The very softest of soft power.

Discussion

2 comments for “Are Chinese Kids Losing Their Language?”

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  • Juewell Green

    My name is Juewell Green. I am a nursing student attending Northern Virginia
    Community College in Virginia. 
    In my Intercultural Communications 229 class taught by Professor Tirpak,
    we were asked to listen to one of The World in Words pod cast, by Patrick Cox.  The title of the Pod cast I listened to is “Are
    Chinese Kids Losing their Language,” posted on 10/17/11. 

    What a Very interesting cast.  From my personal view, I assumed that the
    Chinese wanted all for themselves. You rarely hear them speak in languages
    other than their native.  I had no idea
    that the Chinese language is becoming desolate.   It has now gotten to the point where the
    Chinese are mandating their students to learn Chinese calligraphy, whereas
    before it was an option.  This is due to
    the current world of electronics. 
    Students are forgetting how to write and the meaning of the calligraphy
    symbols because they only have to memorize what they hear.  Chinese calligraphy characters “describe the
    meaning not the sound of the word,” says one of the speakers.  You can compare this to cursive hand writing
    in the United States.  Students now-a-days cannot write in cursive.

      I also found it
    interesting that the Chinese have reached out to the African country Rwanda.  As I listened to the pod cast, I learned that
    China and Rwanda are about to mark their 40th
    diplomatic relations anniversary. The Chinese government has come up with a
    program called the “Confucious Institute” in an attempt to teach people outside
    of China, about China from the
    Chinese viewpoint.  In Rwanda learning the Chinese language is welcomed
    and the Chinese are learning Rwanda’s
    native language “Kinyarwanda.”   Two
    reasons why many people are disinterested in learning the Chinese language are
    it’s a difficult language to learn, and the Chinese are learning the English
    language, almost as if it were their second native language.  With that said, many people wonder, what is
    the point of learning Chinese then? 

    I wish I had been interested in learning other languages. I
    took three years of Spanish and know maybe 4 sentences.  I wondered why China
    hasn’t offered the Confucious Institute type of learning here in the United States.  It turns out, in April 2001, the Chinese and US military
    jets crashed.  A Chinese pilot died and
    the US
    military jet was forced to make an emergency landing on Chinese soil.  The Chinese wanted an apology but did not
    feel that the one given by President Bush was meaningful.  The Chinese feel “Americans are too arrogant.”  I thought that was the reason the Chinese
    language and culture is not pushed here in the United States.

    I continue on with the pod cast “China Radio is broadcasting
    in Boston” and find out that as of June of this
    year, in Boston China is airing an hour show on
    Chinese culture.  It’s called “soft
    power.”  Some people do not believe this
    is an effective way to teach people Chinese. 
    It’s initiated by the Chinese government, which is seen as tough. 

    At the conclusion of the pod cast, some Chinese music was
    played.  If I had the time, I’d consider
    learning about the Chinese culture.  The
    music however, I am not a huge fan.

    Thank you!