It’s Chinese English month!
Posted by Laine Redpath Cole on April 13, 2010
The IATEFL (International Association of Teacher’s of English as a Foreign Language) event has put me slightly behind on this month’s trumpeting. But here we go: It’s Chinese English month, yeeha!
This is exciting for a number of reasons: we recently rolled out the Chinese version of the Macmillan Dictionary Online. You’ll see that all of the informational content is in Chinese. Also, the Shanghai Daily has adopted the Dictionary’s double-click feature, which means that their readers have direct and immediate ‘pop-up access’ to definitions for words they don’t know … yet.
So: we’re all about China in more ways than one. Mostly, though, I’m excited because I taught English in Taiwan for ages and so it’s nice to be back in touch with Chinese in some way. My favourite (relevant) story about teaching English to Mandarin-speaking students was when I first said the word McDonald’s in a kindergarten class. Speaking Chinese at school was strictly forbidden for teachers and pupils, and the class of 5-year-olds gasped at my transgression and yelled in unison and with glee: ‘MissLaineyouspeakchinese!’ I sort of wished it were true as I spoke hardly any Chinese at that point. After a bit of ‘No, I didn’t’, ‘Oh yes you did!’ back and forth, it became apparent that McDonald’s had been claimed as a Chinese word by my tiny charges and that no amount of explanation or incredulity would convince them otherwise – it was all in the pronunciation.
Also I, personally, want to thank Chinese for words like:
Happy Chinese English month! Keep your eyes peeled for our first guest post tomorrow!
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Posted by It's Chinese English month! | Macmillan on 13th April, 2010
[...] rest is here: It's Chinese English month! | Macmillan Posted in English | Tags: association, English, event-has, foreign, foreign-language, month, [...]
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Posted by Callum McKinlay on 14th April, 2010
“Long time no see” : a great phrase directly from Chinese, too. Still enjoying teaching English in Taiwan.
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Posted by AllaSobirova on 14th April, 2010
I am looking forward to getting to know more about Chinese!thank you a lot for your more and making us more qualified professionals!
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Posted by Stephan Hughes on 14th April, 2010
Growing up in the cosmopolitan melting pot of Trinidad and Tobago, I have vivid memories of Chinese words in our vernacular especially when it comes to food: chow mein and pow are that come to mind immediately. I guess they´ve always been around but we were unable to notice.
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Posted by Deborah Ash on 14th April, 2010
I’m in China right now, how appropriate.
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Posted by Maria Costa on 15th April, 2010
Irresistible! Macmillan takes us to great journeys across the world.
Thank you so much! -
Posted by buy diflucan on 16th April, 2010
I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.
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Posted by Alessandra Cariello on 16th April, 2010
I´m in a cosmopolitan city in Paraguay which chinese is spoken. It would be great to learn the language. Thanks!!!
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Posted by Robert on 21st April, 2010
An interesting idea to remember Chinese-oriented words in English.
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Posted by blah on 17th February, 2011
I believe honcho is a Japanese oriented lexeme
