设万维读者为首页 广告服务 技术服务 联系我们 关于万维
简体 繁体 手机版
分类广告
版主:纳川
万维读者网 > 天下论坛 > 帖子
My Two Cents on English Skills
送交者: 江灵飏 2021年05月10日09:37:50 于 [天下论坛] 发送悄悄话

We Americans often have a hard time following folks who do not speak English the way we do. The language barrier has more to do with English skills than accents. As a matter of fact, we are quite receptive to foreign accents. After all, America is supposed to be a melting pot, and in many ways it is. 

 

Everyday Joes and Janes use a ton of idioms and expressions in their daily communication. Idioms and expressions are shortcuts, if you will, to getting communication partners to understand each other better, faster. In other words, they hold the key to improving conversational English. 

 

Picture this. You run into yours truly, who looks more Caucasian than Han Chinese. During a subsequent pleasant exchange, you find that I have no problem catching up with your idiomatic Chinese (and I have a Chinese pseudonym/pen name). Won’t you feel good? I certainly will.

 

By the same token, if you manage to impress your American conversation partner (interlocutor) with your idiomatic English, I bet you will enjoy greater personal and professional successes. I know, you don’t spend all day hanging around the water cooler. But, small talks matter in social life. Gossips, sorry, small talks are fertile in idiomatic English. “My two cents” is an idiom/expression, by the way.

 

 

Just one more thing before wrapping it up, I personally don't like the term "Chinglish" very much. If I use this term, and I did, I mean well and I use it judiciously. Meanwhile, if someone says, "English is Latinish," I'll take it as a tribute to the Latin root of my language, no more and no less. Everything comes from somewhere. We'd better put languages in perspective.


---- Lingyang Jiang

0%(0)
0%(0)
标 题 (必选项):
内 容 (选填项):
实用资讯
回国机票$360起 | 商务舱省$200 | 全球最佳航空公司出炉:海航获五星
海外华人福利!在线看陈建斌《三叉戟》热血归回 豪情筑梦 高清免费看 无地区限制
一周点击热帖 更多>>
一周回复热帖
历史上的今天:回复热帖
2020: 转贴:亞裔應捍衛權利
2020: 以习近平为代表的官僚来领导经济?
2019: Zt胡大朗批徐芦申帖:猫思想的"行
2019: 七绝 题照(730)发财美梦寄黄粱
2018: 组合逻辑附加题:多控双光楼梯灯
2018: 儿子的同学被母亲杀死,死神这么近
2017: 金正奀不会怎样习包子的。当年蒋尼古拉
2017: 马黑:川普开除FBI 局长很不寻常
2016: 是“党指挥枪”还是“枪指挥党”?
2016: 习近平真是姥姥不疼、舅舅不爱的大傻瓜