Communication with China

On Friday, I wrote a post questioning the typical Chinese attitude towards the Olympic games. I suggested that we should not simply trust an article in the Washington Post but try and do some of our own research. I tried to find somebody from China with whom I could communicate, via Skype.

I was successful.

My new Chinese friend wrote:

"BeiJin Olympic ,a world ,a dreaming, yes, all people is readed

Chinese's unceasing endeavor, participated in the world economics development and has made the corresponding contribution. The Olympic Games are also a world big meeting, lets we better understanding world, can also let the world better understand us."

i used yahoo babel fish

translate your text

While this English is obviously imperfect, my friend was able to write simpler sentences with much higher quality.

But consider the educational impact of having students correspond with a Chinese citizen in this way. The student would have to think critically in order to make sense of the comments. Then the student might verify his understanding with his new friend. In this process, the student would develop a deeper understanding of linguistic differences. He could also develop a deeper understanding of English when considering why the writer might have used certain words grammatically incorrectly. Why for example, did the writer state, "lets we better understanding world" instead of "let's us better understand the world"? What is the relationship between "we" and "us"? What is the relationship between "understanding" and "understand"?

While I did not do so, a student might have asked the Chinese person to send a comment in Chinese and then used Babel Fish to translate it into English.

Just think, until recently this type of communication was limited to government officials and business executives. Now it's available to everybody.