国外热议：为什么很多中国人学了很多年英语，口语却还是不好？

Jayce Tan
When I was studying for my master’s degree in Sweden, an Italian classmate once approached me and asked why Chinese students often kept to themselves and didn’t socialize much with students of other ethnicities. I paused for a moment and gave him an answer he didn’t expect at first: “Because many of us don’t speak English very well.”
当我在瑞典攻读硕士学位时，一位意大利同学曾走过来问我，为什么中国学生常常待在自己圈子里，不太与其他族裔的学生交往。我沉思了一会儿，给了他一个他起初没想到的答案：“因为我们很多人英语说得不太好。”

From what I’ve observed, many Chinese students abroad lack confidence in speaking English, especially in their first year. Unlike many European countries where people grow up in more diverse, multicultural environments, most Chinese students grow up surrounded by other Chinese. Opportunities to have regular conversations with foreigners in English are rare.
根据我的观察，许多在外的中国学生在用英语交流时缺乏自信，尤其是第一年。与许多从小在更为多元、多文化环境中长大的欧洲国家不同，大多数中国学生是被其他中国人包围着长大的。能够经常用英语与外国人进行日常对话的机会非常少。

Although we start learning English from primary school, the focus is mostly on memorizing vocabulary and grammar—it’s repetitive and uninspiring. That’s also why many Chinese students are better at reading and writing than speaking. In my own school experience, the "speaking" part of English class usually meant reciting textbook passages aloud with the whole class, like in the picture below. It didn’t help much when it came to having real conversations in everyday life.
尽管我们从小学就开始学英语，但课堂上主要强调记忆词汇和语法——重复且缺乏趣味。这也是为什么很多中国学生读写能力往往比口语强。在我自己的学校经历中，英语课里的“口语”部分通常只是全班一起大声朗读课文，就像下面图片中那样。这种方式对于在日常生活中进行真实对话帮助不大。


Jan Kordac
When I was in China with my family 10 years years ago, we were several times asked by a school-age girl to take photo with us or with our daughter alone to have a proof that she was speaking with foreigners during holidays :)
十年前我和家人在中国时，有好几次被一个学龄小女孩请我们跟她或跟她的女儿合影，作为她在假期里与外国人交谈的证明。:)


Societas
That's a fun anecdote! It's interesting to see how times have changed. The girl's request for a photo with foreigners might have been driven by a desire to show off her English skills or interactions with foreigners to friends or classmates.
Nowadays, with the increasing globalization and access to information, attitudes toward foreign interactions might have shifted. Nonetheless, it's a great story that highlights the curiosity and enthusiasm of young learners!
这是个有趣的轶事！看到时代的变化很有意思。那个女孩要求和外国人合影，可能是想向朋友或同学炫耀她的英语能力或与外国人的互动。如今，随着全球化和信息获取的增加，人们对与外国人交往的态度可能已经发生了变化。尽管如此，这个故事很好地体现了年轻学习者的好奇心和热情！


Qzjmly
It is probably her homework assigned by the teacher.
那很可能是老师布置给她的作业。


WxidJoebiden
I was doing the same thing 10years ago，my English teacher gave me homework that to talk with a foreigner and take photos as proof
我十年前也做过同样的事，我的英语老师给我们的作业就是找个外国人交谈并拍照作为证明。


Yuguang
You must live in Shanghai lol.
你一定住在上海吧，哈哈。


Mike Behnka
Many, if not most, speak English quite well but have an accent. Now, let's ask how many people from a primarily English speaking country have learned mandarin to communicate with the well over a billion people who speak it?
很多人（如果不是大多数的话）英语说得相当好，只是有口音。现在我们倒要问问，有多少主要使用英语的国家的人学过普通话去与那十多亿使用它的人交流？


KS Goh
Having lived in China for quite a while (several years), I can tell you that many Chinese are pretty good at reading and possibly writing English, but are really not that good at spoken English. I have worked with a number of Chinese who can speak English decently, but I speak better Chinese than they do English anyway, so we just use Chinese..
我在中国生活过相当长一段时间（好几年），可以告诉你，许多中国人在阅读上（或许在写作上）还不错，但口语真的不太好。我与不少能说得体英文的中国人共事过，但我中文讲得比他们英文讲得好，所以我们就用中文交流。

Before you tell me about how America is monolingual, I know. Just saying that Chinese people generally aren’t that good at speaking English. No need for whataboutism, it’s a product of the education system and really not much need for English anyway, hire a foreigner (or a better-paid Chinese) to do the Chinese and English conversations for you lol
在你跟我说“美国是单一语言”的问题之前，我知道。我只是说总体上中国人英语口语普遍不太好。别争辩了，这主要是教育体系造成的，而且实际上生活中对英语的需求并不大——要用中文和英文交流的话，雇个老外（或者工资更高的中国人）来替你处理中英文对话就行了，哈哈


Mariluz 8a
And yet, my Chinese colleagues keep asking us Euros to “training meetings” which they set to record and abandon, apparently expecting the automated transcxt to be better than the manuals we already wrote. Am I the only one who sees a contradiction here?
然而，我的中国同事们不停地叫我们这些欧洲人参加“培训会议”，然后把会议录下来却不认真跟进，显然他们认为自动生成的文字记录比我们已经写好的手册更好。难道只有我觉得这有矛盾吗？


Sjak Vermeulen
Some languages like Chinese, are much to difficult for a normal being. How can i learn all those complicated signs or drawings. How must i use all those very different tones. Be glad that there is one language the easiest for the whole world. As your second trade and contact language. All those Asian languages are realy to hard to learn. It costs a Lifetime. Spanish is also ok. We also dont learn Russian. Because even all the Slavian languages are to difficult. And the older people were used to use German instead of English. Dangerous Putin even speaks very well German. With Merkel he spoke German. So i hoped that Merkel could stop him from the war. We also cannot learn all those different African languages. But Africans do everything to learn English. Many speak French. But in the whole world, French is often difficult to use. I learnt French. But it is hard. The good thing is. That you understand more of the other Latin Languages. The verbs are easier. I speak Dutch. And We understand easier German and the Scandinavian Languages. Many words are almost the same, but spoken with different accent or sound.
像中文这样的语言对普通人来说太难了。我怎么学得会那些复杂的符号或字形？我要如何使用那些不同的声调？要庆幸世界上有一种最容易的语言，作为你们的第二交易与交流语言。所有那些亚洲语言真的太难学了，要花一辈子。西班牙语也还可以。我们也不学俄语，因为所有斯拉夫语言都太难了。年纪大的人习惯用德语而不是英语。可怕的是普京甚至德语说得很好，他和梅克尔说的是德语，所以我希望梅克尔能阻止他发起战争。我们也学不完那些不同的非洲语言。但非洲人会尽一切努力学英语，许多人会说法语。但在全世界范围内，法语常常也不太好用。我学过法语，但很难。好的一面是，你能更容易理解其他拉丁语族语言，动词更容易。我说荷兰语，我们更容易理解德语和斯堪的纳维亚语言，许多词几乎相同，只是发音或口音不同。

Societas
The accent thing is true, but it's also true that many Chinese speakers have made significant strides in English proficiency.
However, it's equally valid to point out the asymmetry in language learning. While many Chinese learners strive to master English, it's indeed rare to see people from primarily English-speaking countries learning Mandarin, despite the vast number of Mandarin speakers.
Perhaps it's time for more English speakers to take up the challenge and learn Mandarin – who knows, it might just open up new opportunities and perspectives!
口音问题确实存在，但同样也有很多中文母语者在英语能力上取得了显著进步。
指出语言学习上的不对称性也是合理的。尽管有大量普通话使用者，但来自以英语为主国家的人学习普通话的情况确实罕见。
也许现在是更多英语使用者挑战学习普通话的好时机——谁知道呢，这可能会带来新的机会和视角！


Mike Behnka
Not necessarily mandarin, but additional languages for sure. And mandarin would be very useful, there are a lot of people who speak it.
不一定非要学普通话，但肯定可以学其他语言。普通话会很有用，会讲的人很多。


Alice Gatto
In my experience (10 years in and out of China) the people who don't learn any Mandarin are generally the most impatient about Chinese people's English. I do find that to be the height of arrogance.
根据我的经验（在中国进出十年），那些完全不学普通话的人通常对中国人的英语最不耐烦。我觉得这是一种极端的傲慢。


Gunārs Miezis
Accent is to speech what font is to writing, you literally cant speak without a set of sounds, which is what an accent is.
Mandarin is just spoken in China, english is spoken everywhere. Learning mandarin to talk to people in China is just as useful as learning iranian to talk to people in Iran, its really overkill, learning the international language which is english is good enough unless you want to live there.
口音之于口语，就像字体之于书写；你说话必然带有一套声音，这就是口音。
普通话主要在中国使用，而英语被广泛使用于世界各地。为了和中国人交流而学习普通话，就像为和伊朗人交流去学伊朗语（注：应为波斯语）一样，实际上有些过头了。学习作为国际语的英语通常就足够了，除非你想住在那里。


Bobby Wong
In Australia that is the case probably because of proximity. In the US, there are way more Latino’s than Chinese thus is the reason it is mainly taught in middle/ high school although Chinese and other foreign languages are optional.
在澳大利亚可能因为地理接近性是那种情况。在美国，拉美裔人数远多于华裔，这也是为什么西班牙语主要在中学/高中教授的原因，尽管中文和其他外语都是选修的。


Ayşe Yılmaz
English speakers don't need to learn other languages. Their countries are global empires. It's actually dumb to think they have any need to. If Chinese want to do business with Anglos they will learn English, not the reverse. There are a lot of Chinese people, most of them are poor peasants living in China who don't matter to the global economy, much less Americans. This isn't the own you think it is: it just underscores how the British Empire did something no Asian power ever could in four thousand years.
英语母语者无需学习其他语言。他们的国家是全球性帝国。若认为他们有学习外语的必要，这种想法实则愚昧。如果中国人想与盎格鲁-撒克逊人做生意，自然会去学英语，而非相反。中国人口虽众，但多数是生活在国内的贫困农民，这些人对全球经济无足轻重，对美国更是如此。这并非如你所想的犀利反驳：恰恰凸显了大英帝国完成了四千年来任何亚洲强国都未能企及的成就。


Steven Haddock
Chinese and English are pretty much as different as its possible for two languages to be. They have completely different structures, grammar, writing systems, rules for forming vocabulary and use of tonal inflection.
中文和英文几乎是两种语言能差得最远的例子。它们在结构、语法、书写系统、构词规则以及声调使用上完全不同。

Now, Chinese instruction is nowhere near as bad as standard Japanese instruction, but English is still taught as an academic subject and not as a second language. As such, a lot of English instruction in China is based upon being to able to take Chinese and translate it to English, or vice versa. That’s how academic instruction in most languages is done.
现在，中文的英语教学并不像标准日语教学那样差，但英语仍然作为一门学术科目来教，而不是作为第二语言来教。因此，中国的很多英语教学是基于把中文翻译成英文或反过来来训练的——这也是大多数学术语言教学的常见方式。

However, second language instruction focuses instead on language use and communicating with English speakers. Academic instructors tend not to be native speakers - they’re people who learned the language academically and had some exposure to native use. Second language teachers tend to be either native speakers or people who speak it as a second language to near native proficiency.
然而，第二语言教学更注重语言的实际使用和与英语使用者交流。学术型的教师往往不是母语者——他们是通过学术途径学会这门语言并接触过一些母语环境的人。第二语言教师则通常是母语者，或者是将该语言学到近乎母语水平的人。

So when many Chinese speakers try to speak English, they internalize it to Chinese and then come up with the English equivalent, often leaving out key features of English like the /s or /z sounds in plurals, or the /t or /d sound in the simple past tense (French speakers often do that too). Getting from “excellent academic proficiency” to “proficiency to speak to a native speaker” is a massive leap and there’s just nothing in Chinese instruction (or any other academic instruction) that will help you.
所以当许多中国人尝试说英语时，他们会先在脑中以中文为框架，然后找出相应的英文表达，常常会漏掉英语的一些关键特征，比如复数的 /s/ 或 /z/ 发音，或一般过去时的 /t/ 或 /d/ 发音（法语使用者也经常这样）。从“优秀的学术水平”到“能与母语者流利交流”的能力是一个巨大的飞跃，而中国（或其他任何国家）的学术式教学并不能真正帮助你达到这一点。

Foreign learners of English are also handicapped by hearing “idealized” English in lessons - well enunciated English and, in many cases, in British Received Pronunciation or, nowadays, Standard Southern British. When faced with speakers from America, northern England or Australia, they stumble because all of a sudden the speech is unintelligible. That’s an issue for native speakers too when they’re exposed to a new accent, but they tend to overcome it quickly because they know how English is supposed to work.
外国学习者在课堂上还会接触到“理想化”的英语——朗朗上口、发音标准，很多情况下是英式的“标准发音”。当他们遇到美国、英格兰北部或澳大利亚的口音时，就会因为突然变得难以理解而卡壳。母语者在接触新的口音时也会有类似问题，但他们通常能很快克服，因为他们已经知道英语本该是怎样的。

My cousin’s wife is native Chinese and her English is very good, but some phrases just confuse her and I should know better when I’m talking to her. She’s very likely not really comfortable with idiomatic English use, which varies widely from place to place.
我表弟的妻子是土生土长的中国人，她的英语水平很高，但有些地道表达仍会让她困惑——我在和她交流时更应注意这点。她很可能对英语习语的使用尚未完全适应，毕竟这类表达在不同地区的差异极大。


James Feigenbaum
One of my students/collaborators still has a lot of trouble confusing male and female pronouns, which can be very confusing for me.
我的一位学生/合作者仍然常把男性和女性代词弄混，这对我来说也会造成很大困惑。


Mariluz 8a
That happens to a lot of speakers of English as a second language. It’s one of the key difficulties for Spanish-speakers, for example, along with the gendered possessive articles.
这对许多以英语为第二语言的人来说是常见问题。例如，对说西班牙语的人来说，这就是一个主要困难之一，连带还有带性别的物主代词问题。


Bertus Joubert
I speak both Afrikaans and English fluently. The problem with translation is something gets lost in translation. To put it differently when you directly translate from one language to another the meaning gets changed. Despite the fact that I am fluent in two languages I would not even try Chinese. I cannot even speak Dutch even though Afrikaans developed from Dutch. I can read Dutch, but even though many words are similar there are differences in pronunciation. Sometimes my English and Afrikaans pronunciation also lets me down, because I learned a lot of words by reading.
我能流利地使用南非荷兰语（Afrikaans）和英语。翻译的问题在于有些东西在翻译过程中会丢失。换句话说，当你直接把一种语言翻译成另一种语言时，含义会被改变。尽管我精通两种语言，我也不会尝试学习中文。即便南非荷兰语是由荷兰语发展而来，我也说不好荷兰语。我能读荷兰语，但尽管很多词相似，发音上仍有差别。有时我的英语和南非荷兰语发音也会出问题，因为我学了很多单词是通过阅读而来。


Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam
They have very little exposure to SPOKEN ENGLISH
For instance an average of 30% Screens in India which release Hollywood films show the films in DUBBED LANGUAGE
Around 70% Screens show the film in English with English subtitles
In China only 10% of the Screens show the Films in English (If the Censor approves) while 90% of the screens show Hollywood films in Chinese LANGUAGE with MANDARIN SUBTITLES
Likewise 95% Chinese go to Public Schools which are Chinese Medium where English is just a subject than a spoken language
There is no access to YouTube except by VPN or to English Sitcoms on OTT Platforms
There is no sport like cricket with English commentary
Even Baseball commentary for NBA is Chinese dubbed
In spite of this the Gen Z speak decent English albeit with a strong accent
他们几乎接触不到口语英语。
例如，在印度，放映好莱坞电影的银幕中大约有30%是配音版本，约70%的银幕以英文原声并配英文字幕放映；
而在中国，只有大约10%的银幕（如果审查通过）是放英文原声片，90%的银幕则以中文配音并配普通话字幕放映。
同样地，95%的中国学生就读的是中文授课的公立学校，在那里英语更像是一门学科而不是一种口语交流语言。
除非翻墙，否则无法访问 YouTube 或在一些 OTT 平台上看到英文情景喜剧。
也没有像板球那样带有英文解说的体育节目，甚至 NBA 的棒球类解说也是中文配音。
尽管如此，Z 世代的英语还是说得不错，只是口音较重。


Feiron
Not just speaking, many students' listening skill is also not good. Because the schools' improvement to the students' oral skills is very limited.
不仅是口语，许多学生的听力也不好。因为学校在提高学生口语技能方面的投入非常有限。

Most students always spend too much time on memorizing words and grammar, instead of communicating with others. Unfortunately that's my situation. When I learned English in school, I just finished the homework, which was only about words, phrases and grammar. Because in our English class, every training on listening and speaking is based on sets of questions and tests. I have no chance to have a real communication with foreigners. (In fact, I took two English speaking classes taught entirely in English by foreigners online. But they're ineffective, because the class mode was that students answer the questioms from teacher, which has no essential difference to the listening-speaking test. )
大多数学生总是花太多时间记单词和语法，而不是与人交流。不幸的是，这也是我的情况。当我在学校学英语时，我只是完成作业，那些作业仅仅围绕单词、短语和语法。因为在我们的英语课上，所有关于听力和口语的训练都是基于一套套问题和测试。我没有机会与外国人进行真实的交流。（事实上，我曾在线上参加过两节完全由外国人用英语授课的口语课。但这些课程也无效，因为课堂形式是学生回答老师的问题，本质上与听说测试没有区别。）

Around me, the classmates with good listening-speaking skills, with no exception, all have at least two of the following features:
在我周围，那些听说能力好的同学无一例外至少具备以下两项或更多特点：

They come from a very international city, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, etc.. So they have more opportunities to communicate with foreigners, or even go aborad.
他们来自非常国际化的城市，如北京、上海、深圳、广州、杭州等，因此有更多与外国人交流的机会，甚至有出国的可能。

(One of) their parents are intellectuals, or even have the experience studying aboard, so that they have good listening-speaking skills.
They took a lot of extracurricular English tutoring classes outside during primary school or junior high school, which teach much more skills than the school's conventional courses.
他们的父母中有知识分子，或有出国留学的经历，所以孩子的听说能力较好。他们在小学或初中期间参加了大量校外的英语课外辅导，这些辅导比学校常规课程教授更多实用技能。

But I don't have any of these features. In fact, the vast majority of the Chinese students are the same.
但我没有这些条件。事实上，绝大多数中国学生的情况也是如此。