Why non-prevocalic /r/ and /æ/ are becoming more prevalent in ELF

I notice that more and more Europeans are starting to have rhotic accents. I also notice many of them use /æ/ for the BATH vowel. This is interesting because they are supposed to have been taught British pronunciation at school. Those two are notable features of American English. Not only I notice this among Europeans, even some Singaporeans and Malaysians are starting to manifest those features. Singaporean/Malaysian Englishes are traditionally non-rhotic, because they are British-based.

In sociolinguistics, many specialists hold that unmarked features prevail and marked ones eventually phased out when different dialects come in contact with each other. They also posit that regular features will win over irregular ones. Of course, this presupposes that all other things being equal.

So, it is understandable that why those two features mentioned above are prevailing. It makes more sense to pronounce the /r/ whenever there's an R in the spelling. Also, non-rhotic accents have complex rules on exceptions. This includes: the /r/ should be pronounced if the next word starts with a vowel; an /r/ should be inserted even if there is no R in the spelling, if a word ends with a vowel and the next word starts with another vowel, etc. It's too complicated for learners.  In the same way, using /æ/ both for TRAP and BATH vowel seems more straightforward, since both are spelled with the letter A.

There is even less reason to stick to the RP-type pronunciation, since almost half the people in the UK itself share those two features. For example, people in the north of England, Scotland and Ireland are mostly rhotic and have /æ/ for BATH.

If this is the case, why did non-rhotic and /ɑː/ came to be considered the prestige British pronunciation to be taught to foreigners, then? I think this is to do with prestige by dissociation. Groups set up linguistic rules that are difficult to master, unless you have spent a long time within this group. That's why in-group jargons are difficult for outsiders. In the same way, upper-class society in the southeast of England used those hard-to-master features as a "shibboleth" to distinguish themselves from the masses. Indeed, it's hard for an outsider to figure out why we should say pass with /ɑː/ and mass (Catholic liturgy) with /æ/!

But just because London happened to be the capital of the Empire, and people with power had such kind of accent, it was promoted as the standard, both within Britain and overseas. Later on, along with the social transformation, RP lost its prestige in Britain itself, but it was continued to be taught to foreigners because textbook writers and teachers needed an established standard.

The situation is somewhat similar to that of erhua rhoticization (兒化) in Beijing Mandarin. When to erhua and when not to erhua is quite arbitrary and difficult to learn unless you have grown up in Beijing. This is why people from Xi'an erhua practically everything, while in southern China, people omit erhua altogether.

By the way, the fact that English people are so conscious about the /ɑː/ - /æ/ issue proves that this difference does not affect intelligibility at all. All the more reason for us "foreigners" to adopt the one that is more regular!

In the international media, RP-type accent has become marked, too. So if  it's true that marked accents won't prevail, RP will likely not. Many foreigners and even Americans have positive attitude toward RP-like accents, because they associate them with imagined high-class British aristocracy and sexy men/women. Paradoxically, many sinister characters in Hollywood movies also tend to have a British accent. This shows exactly how "marked" RP has become in the American-dominated world of the media. It is used for a special effect, just because it is special. It is not plain and ordinary like the genetic American accent. So this means that few people will be putting on an RP-like accent if they are in serious or formal ELF situations, such as job interviews. On the other hand, those who can put on an RP-like accent may still be in demand for taping commercial messages that need to promote a posh image.

Is there still any point in teaching RP?

Some years back, I was attending a conference in Taiwan, listening to a senior Taiwanese scholar present on the Received Pronunciation (RP). It is roughly the same as "BBC accent" or "posh Southeastern English accent". The presenter said only 1% of the British population spoke with such accent. And yet he recommended it be taught to learners in Taiwan. So, during the Q&A session, I asked: If there are so few people using it, why should we teach it? Then my boss sitting next to me covertly reminded me that it was impolite to ask questions to senior presenters during Q&A sessions, so I backed off.

And to answer this question now myself, I think there is still a value in exposing learners to the RP, even though it's a dying (?) accent in England.

Even though RP has long lost its prestige in England, it is still widely taught to "foreigners", especially in Europe. So you are likely to come across a second-language speaker of English with an RP-inspired accent. In Hong Kong, Singapore, India and other Anglophone countries in Asia (with the exception of the Philippines), the teaching model at schools still derive from the RP. But many Taiwanese learners, especially those at lower proficiency levels, are quite unfamiliar with anything other than the idealized General American pronunciation. So they find it rather hard to understand second-language speakers who have learned British English back in their home countries.

Despite the fact that its speakers are considered "affected" and "cold" within the UK itself, the RP is a well-documented accent. There are many dictionaries and ESL textbooks that use this pronunciation, including authoritative ones like Daniel Jones's English Pronouncing Dictionary. Those are handy for teachers when they are not sure about pronunciation. On the other hand, most American dictionaries don't prescribe any one particular pronunciation. The phonetic symbols they use are designed to allow room for variation. Although language is and always will be varied (and that's the beauty of it), but that's not necessarily a comfortable situation for teachers looking for something "definitive". (Especially so for "non-native" teachers, who feel insecure for their perceived lack the authoritativeness as an authentic source of English.)

Plus, the RP has retained its prestige, in out of all places, America. I've seen many TV programs, commercials and movies where (fake) posh British accent is used for some supposedly positive effect. Even though very few people in Britain actually speak like that, Americans seem to associate it with some kind of fancy/fanciful European stuff. So if you are thinking of going to America, having an RP sort of accent might help. I must add though, that this might not apply if you are not European. My experience is that some Americans are not as favorable to non-whites with a British-derived accent. Maybe they notice you look like a foreigner and have an "unusual" accent, so they just conclude that you have a "foreign" accent. (Across the border in Canada, though, I notice that some people expect "foreigners" to be taught British English, even if their own variety is so much closer to that of the US.)

But in the context of Taiwan, all I'm saying is we should expose learners more to different accents including the RP, which is quite useful because it's taught to international learners. I'm not saying that they should all try to sound like the Queen with an exaggerated "aristocratic" intonation. Don't do this all the more if you are going to the UK. There, people with regional working class or black accents are considered cool nowadays. I'm saying that you will find it becomes easier for you to understand people from many different countries speaking English, once you are familiar with what they are being taught at school: the RP.

Resisting the "accentism" in Taiwan

This post is about accentism in English in Taiwan. There is a whole lot of issues regarding the accentism in Mandarin/Hokkien in Taiwan. Hopefully, I'll get to write about it one day!

In this post I will discuss briefly the following three issues: whether we should be teaching students what is considered in the society to be a "less than ideal" accent; why local accents are always belittled; how accentism is related to racism.

I have argued that students should be equipped to communicate with people from all over the world, particularly Asia, and not only with the native speakers of English. As I have been telling you, this means de-emphasizing nativelikeness in pronunciation teaching, as native-speaker accents are not suited for lingua franca communication. Some people have told me: "But, petekobe, don't you think we're shortchanging the students by not teaching them the most privileged accent, i.e. the native-speaker accents? If they go to a job interview in the future, they'll be disadvantaged if they had a weird accent."

My response is: No. We are not helping the society change its unfounded prejudices in accents by conforming to those prejudices. Let me use an analogy. You and I know that the mainstream society is biased against, say, black people. Would you advise a black student who is going to a job interview to paint his face white, so that he will stand a better chance of getting hired?

How the society privileges one accent and belittles others are based on how people associate certain accents with certain groups of people, and how they think about those groups. It has nothing to do with intrinsic linguistic qualities of any variety. It is absolutely untrue to say, therefore, that an American accent is superior than, say, Singapore accent, because the former is clearer, more accurate, more correct, etc. A Singaporean can do an excellent job communicating with another Singaporean in English, regardless of what an overhearing American thinks of their English. So, if someone thinks that a native-like north American accent is "class" and pleasant; and a very proficient and effective communicator with a trace of Korean or Chinese accent is unpleasant, less fluent, etc., it's to do with how you are socially conditioned. Prejudices are prejudices, and should be treated as such. There's no need to conform to it. It will not help students in the long run.

Now you may say: "Yeah, but it's the Taiwanese themselves who are looking down on their own accent." I agree. Just listen to those ads for language centers on ICRT. So many of them are about how shameful it is to speak Taiwan English, and how they can drop it by enrolling to those centers where they will be taught by "real 道地口音 native-speakers". The same problem seems to be prevalent even in nearby places where the local varieties of English are robustly functioning, like Hong Kong and the Philippines. Why do people look down on the accents of their own kinds?

The privileging of native-speaker accents and belittling of local accents reflect how people perceive the economic structure in the society. In order for you to have a nativelike, say, Canadian accent, either your parents have to be affluent enough to have sent you to Canada as a 小留學生 when you are eight years old, or at least be able to send you to a reputable buxiban. Certainly, if you were educated in the regular Taiwanese system, and you really tried hard in your English, you should sound like a regular Taiwanese person who can speak English well, but not like a "true native speaker". Because once past the "critical period", you have little chance of attaining a native speaker accent, if not other areas of linguistic competence.

So it is no wonder that the ELT industry (language centers, buxibans, etc.) has to propagate the idea that the only way to be successful in learning English is to master a native-like accent. And it is a good news for them that few people are likely to reach that goal, because they'll keep paying and paying the tuition in the hope that they will succeed one day! (The sad fact, though, is that many of them get discouraged and give up English altogether.)

On a final note, I want to talk a bit about how some people listen with their eyes and not with ears. Everybody has heard anecdotes along the line of a white Ukrainian getting hired as an English teacher, while a British native speaker of South Asian descent is turned away. I also heard that an Asian-British teacher with a posh RP-style accent always got complaints from students regarding his accent, while his white colleague with a strong northern England accent got none! One even gets an impression: If it is a white person speaking and learners find it hard to understand him, they'll blame themselves for their English not up to the standard; while if it's a non-老外 whom they're having trouble understanding, they'll blame it on the "weird" accent that their interlocutor has. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that a Ukrainian shouldn't be hired as an English teacher. More often than not, they are no less good English teachers than Canadians or South Africans. Their grammar and vocabulary may even be better than an average native speaker, and I have repeated many times that a native-speaker accent is not important. What I want to draw your attention to, however, is how arbitrary and baseless some judgments people make about accents are. Presuming that most employers in Taiwan have proclivity toward native speakers, this hiring person may not have noticed the "non-nativeness" of the Ukrainian because of what she looked like. And the very same person may well become very picky, if the candidate was a non-老外-looking person!

How to speak English as a Lingua Franca

More often that not, we so-called "non-native speakers" use English to communicate with other "non-native speakers". When a Japanese and a Taiwanese or a Korean and a Thai are conversing with each other in English at an international conference, English is being used as a lingua franca. In this case, there are some things you can do to facilitate successful communication. And those can be quite different from when you are trying to communicate with native speakers of English. So please try the following tips, unless you are intending to immigrate to an inner-circle country (a country where the majority of people are "native speakers" of English; e.g. U.S.A.) and blend in to the mainstream society there.

1. Speak slowly and clearly. Enunciate each and every syllable. Never contract or omit syllables. If you do this, you will sound more "foreign" or less non-native-like to native-speaker ears. But believe me, all other people will find it easier to understand you.

2. When in doubt, use "spelling pronunciation". When you come across words you're not sure how to pronounce, just read it out syllable by syllable, as if you are pronouncing an Italian or Indonesian word. For example, if you are not sure how to pronounce "Abimelech", just say "ah-bee-meh-leck". Surely, you will sound very non-native-like. Native speakers may even think that your "foreign" accent is really strong. But don't worry, native speakers are in minority of English speakers today. If you are using English as a Lingua Franca, what native speakers will think of your accent is quite irrelevant. And I guarantee you that all the non-native speakers present will understand you better!

3. Avoid using any idioms or slang as much as possible. Some Asian people like using idioms, thinking that it can show how native-like their English is. But those idioms can be obscure to your non-native listeners. One of the reasons why native speakers of English are hardest to understand in international conferences is that they use many idioms that are culture-specific. For example,  many American idioms originate from baseball terms, when most people in the world are completely ignorant about baseball. (Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are obvious exceptions.)

If you want to use an idiom for a specific effect, make sure you explain the meaning. In some cases, you may use translated versions of some idioms if you are sure that the same idiom is used in the country where your counterpart comes from. For example, "having an iron rice bowl" is understood in many Asian countries as meaning having a very stable job.

4. Try to use as easy words and expressions as possible. Make sentences short. Stick to "one idea per sentence" principle. Some Asian people like to use "big words" to show that their English is good. But this does not help communication at all if it makes the meaning more obscure.

5. Optionally, you can model your English after a second-language variety, such as Philippine English and Singapore English. Native-speaker varieties, for instance American English, have some disadvantages. First, formal empirical research found that native speakers are not the easiest to be understood in international communication situations. Some people think that just because American English is the "standard" English, so it should be universally understood; but this was proven not to be the case. Secondly, a native speaker accent is unattainable for many. If you are already past the "critical period", it is highly unlikely that you will ever sound like a "true native speaker", no matter how hard you try. So you have to settle permanently for a second-best: "trying to sound native, but not quite there yet".

6. Finally, this is anecdotal and has not been proven yet, although some informed experts do recommend it: Try to pronounce all the "r's" in the spelling if possible, like in an American accent. I have a very strong hunch that this will make you easier to be understood by many non-native speakers. What I mean is this: if you learned English in such places as Hong Kong, Malaysia and many other countries, you may have been taught British English. In the so-called standard British pronunciation, the "r" in the spelling is not always pronounced, as in such words as "car park" and "Peter". There is nothing wrong at all with this kind of pronunciation; I myself was taught this way in Japan. But since people in many Asian countries usually learn to read and write English before they can speak it, it makes more sense to them that when there is an "r" in the spelling, it should be pronounced. In Taiwan or South Korea, some people may even think that your English is poor if you fail to pronounce the rolled "r", because those countries are under so much American influence.

Again, all these tips are applicable only if you are using English to communicate successfully with other non-native speakers. If your purpose of learning English is to communicate exclusively with native speaker, though this is becoming quite rare, I suggest you try to get as close as possible to a native speaker accent. Even people with extremely high proficiency in English, for example former U.N. secretary-general Mr. Kofi Anan, are still considered by many native speakers to have a very strong accent and sometimes even ridiculed, just because they don't sound American or British. (You may say that it's not good to advice students to settle for something "less than ideal", because they may be disadvantaged in future job interviews, etc. I will address this in a separate post.

Rhoticity in Hong Kong English: A Philippine influence?

I've wanted to write about this for a long time, but never found the time to do so.

I found this study about rhoticity in Singapore English (http://www.icphs2011.hk/resources/OnlineProceedings/RegularSession/Tan/Tan.pdf). In a nutshell, it found that many people in Singapore consider rhoticity (pronouncing the /r/ in words like "car" and "cart") to be a sign of good education and higher social status.

I was wondering about this for a long time. When I was living surrounded by Singaporeans about 20 years ago, none of them had a rhotic accent. Then I came across some very fashionable Malaysian students who tried to sound rhotic, seemingly in an attempt to appear "Americanized" and "cool". And recently, I started listening to Singaporean talk shows on internet radio, and noticed that more and more seemingly "upwardly mobile" people, especially female, are starting to "roll the r".

This is interesting because, from what I know, in southern England, having a rhotic accent is considered a sign of being a country bumpkin rather than hip and cool. (You sound like you are from Ireland or West Country or somewhere like that if you pronounce the "r". Even people in Lancashire don't do that anymore, you know!) So this is another sign of increasing dominance of American English even in traditionally British-oriented outer-circle Asia (minus the Philippines, of course).

Now, when I attended the IAWE conference in Hong Kong last year, there was a linguist from Hong Kong saying that some younger Hong Kong speakers are going rhotic due to the influence of the American media inputs. This is hardly surprising because many of the DJs and personalities on English channels of RTHK have north American accents. And if I'm not mistaken, among the expat communities in Hong Kong today, there are more Americans and Canadians than Brits.

I asked him if this could also be because many Hong Kong families hire Filipino helpers to take care of their children. In fact, quite often, those helpers are the only people with whom many Hong Kong children converse in English, so it would not be a surprise if Hong Kong youngsters picked up the Philippine rhotic /r/ from them, even if they are still taught the non-rhotic RP at school. But the linguist in question categorically denied this possibility. I was not quite convinced. Maybe some research is needed.

Rhoticity makes you sound more fluent? From a former non-rhotician

I was reading this: http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t13547-0.htm

It was so interesting I just couldn't stop.

Since I can't post my comments there, I will answer the question here, then.

I used to sound non-rhotic, but now I'm more rhotic. I'm a Japanese person teaching English in Taiwan. My original accent was non-rhotic, because Japanese English is essentially non-rhotic, and I was taught British English. Most of my friends when I lived in northeastern England were from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, all of whom were non-rhotic (unless they were faking an American accent or something).

But I went rhotic after I came to Taiwan. There are several reasons to that. First, in Taiwan, rhotic seems to be the prestige accent. I once saw a book that taught KK音標, and it said you should pronounce the rolled /r/ because it will make you sound more 溜. (Actually, this is one of the reasons why many non-rhotic foreigners think Taiwanese people sound caricature American.) People thought my accent was 不標準 when they heard my non-rhotic English and concluded it was because I was Japanese, not because I was trying to sound British. Third, Jennifer Jenkins said rhotic was more intelligible in lingua franca communication. I guess that's true, because we Asians generally learn how to spell English words before we learn how to pronounce them. It seems more "logical" to me to insert an r sound when there is an r in spelling. And in RP, there is the inconsistency of having to pronounce the r when the next word starts with a vowel. Lastly, I lived in the Philippines for almost three years and have lots of Filipino friends. In the Philippines, people, especially those with lower English proficiency, have difficulty understanding you if you sound non-rhotic, perhaps because you sound so different from the way they are taught what English words sound like.

I do sound a lot more non-native when I sound rhotic (maybe because it was in the Philippines that I learned to sound rhotic), but my students seem to understand me much better when I sound rhotic. This is probably because they're familiar with what I call the "KK音標-inspired accent". And it doesn't matter if I sound non-native, not least because they thought I sounded non-native even back when I was trying to sound as British as possible in class, probably because of my Asian face and Japanese surname. (Besides, we all know that native speakers are only a minority of English speakers.)

I have noticed, though, I subconsciously switch back to non-rhotic in several situations. First, when I'm having very relaxed conversations with, say, my wife, I turn non-rhotic, because that's my original accent in the first place. I also turn non-rhotic when I have to "impress" someone with my "high class" British accent, especially when I have to talk to a teacher who, I feel, looks down on me because of my non-nativeness. (Isn't this the use of Bourdieu's "linguistic asset"?) Also, I tend to suddenly turn non-rhotic when talking to a non-rhotic interlocutor, for example, a Briton, perhaps as accommodation strategy. I sometimes notice that I’m speaking non-rhotic when conversing with other rhotic native speakers or fluent L2 speakers, probably because I know that they have high proficiency and subconsciously think that they shouldn’t have any problem deciphering me.

Consequently, the best place to hear me sounding rhotic is classrooms.

The dilemma is: I sound rhotic because I think students can understand me more easily; but students may think my English is limited because I sound more non-native when I’m rhotic.

One solution would be for me to pick up a native-like American accent. But I really can’t imagine myself doing that. I used to dislike my classmates who had an American accent and used to label them as fake Americans. And I don’t want to be a target of a terrorist attack when visiting some Islamic countries. 

Ode to "non-native" Englishes

We are not native speakers of English. So we don't sound like one. And we most likely never will, if we don't sound like one by now. But that's OK. There's no need.

There are more non-native speakers in the world than there are native speakers. So we are more likely to be using English with other non-native speakers than with native speakers (unless you immigrate to the US or get a job at the British Embassy or something). It is certainly the case with me. Few of my friends with whom I use English are native speakers (except my colleagues at school). I attend an international church where English is the practically the only language used, but very few in the congregation are native speakers of English. They seem to understand my Japan English without much difficulty.

It is probably not true that native-speaker varieties of English are the most widely understood. There are quite a few studies which found out that native-speaker varieties were actually harder to be understood in international communication. And I have attended many international conferences and meetings where native speakers were the only ones having trouble understanding and being understood. It's not hard to guess why. Many of them are so used to speaking in English that they speak so fast, and they don't enunciate clearly. And they use many local idioms and slangs that may be common in their own countries, but not outside. Some of them probably put the blame for communication breakdowns on the fact that our English is "not up to the standard". We know from studies that such an attitude interferes negatively with one's ability to understand.

Aside from being understood more easily in international communication, there are other benefits to sounding non-native. I feel more comfortable and psychologically stable when people can tell from my accent my cultural background. This way, I don't have to try to pretend to be someone else. It is tiring to sound like a native speaker. It is even worse sometimes even imitating native speakers' mannerisms, facial expressions, etc. (I think many fellow non-native teachers agree with me.) It is a futile effort. And it makes me feel stupid. Besides making me feel as if I was a copycat monkey (物まね小猿) in the English-speakingdom, it actually does make me sound more stupid, because I can't pay much attention to contents, grammar and lexis when I have to pay so much attention to native-like pronunciation.

Another thing is that it is dangerous nowadays to be mistaken as a native speakers of English in certain countries, especially in the Middle East, etc. But this is a sensitive issue, so I won't talk about it here then.

OK, so if we don't need to try to sound like a native speaker, how can we raise our success rate in international communication with other non-natives? Here are my thoughts.

From my experience, it is important to pronounce the words clearly. You should almost sound like "spelling pronunciation". This will certainly slow down your speech. You will also sound less "native-like" and more "foreign" to native ears. But that doesn't matter. People from different countries will understand you better.

Studies found that "syllable-timed" accents were easier to understand for non-native speakers. Syllable-timing means you give almost equal stress to every syllable in a word. So you sound like "cohn-grah-choo-lay-shee-ons" when you say "congratulations". Many proficient non-native speakers of English have syllable-timing. Yet, syllable-timing is one thing that will make you sound definitely non-native. You may feel you are less "cool" when you sound less like an American. But you have to realize that you will never sound completely like an American no matter how hard you try anyway. (Unless you have some special talent, that is. And if you do, you should perhaps consider becoming an actor.)

I think one of the reasons why "spelling pronunciation" or "syllable-timed" accents are easier to understand is because, especially here in East Asia, we learn how to spell and read English before we learn how to speak it (if we ever do)! When I was learning English as a young student, I always felt frustrated that English words never sounded like how they are spelt when pronounced by native speakers.

Another important thing is more of a psychological factor. It is called accommodation. It means you have to accept that people have different accents, and be willing to try hard to understand people with "unusual" or unfamiliar accents. This can happen only if people are constantly exposed to people with many different accents. The opposite happens when people are exposed only to limited varieties of accents. For example, many Taiwanese students are familiar only with a kind of American accent. So they may mistakenly think that is the only "standard" accent of English. And when they come across someone with a different accent, they naturally find it difficult to understand. This is usually because they subconsciously blame the other person for not having what they think is the "standard" accent. This causes them to give up efforts to understand too easily. The problem can be solved easily by constantly exposing learners to different accents.

It is encouraging to know that in many countries, like the Philippines, people are "functionally native" in English. It means that they use English among their own countrymen in certain domains. Even though the way they use English may be different from that of, say, Americans, and occasionally get laughed at for that, it nevertheless functions perfectly well as a lingua franca in those domains.

I often use English with my fellow East Asians including Koreans and Vietnamese, because it is often the only language we have in common. And it is very helpful that they find my Japanese rhetorical style and cultural references very similar to their own. The communication would be much more problematic if I spoke with an impeccable British/American English. Well, Asian Englishes is another topic so I will write about it some other time, then.

教室常見問題：英語學習篇。

很久沒有更新了。先轉載課堂上發的教室常見問題中，關於英語學習的部份，供大家討論：

Q: 如果每個星期都來上課，我的英文會進步嗎?

A: 不會，如果你只是來上課的時候才接觸英語的話。

外語能力要進步，必須每天至少學習半小時。一週只有兩小時的上課時間，幾乎不可能讓你的英語進步。上課時間主要是提供如何自習的指針而已。而關鍵在於自習。

如果你想讓你的英文進步，我建議每週至少5天，接觸至少半小時的英語。像「大家說英語」那類的雜誌非常好。

Q: 學校的英文課對TOEIC那樣的考試有幫助嗎?

A: 間接有幫助。

考試有分achievement test和proficiency test兩種。TOEIC是proficiency test。而銘傳的考試也偏proficiency test。意思就是TOEIC跟銘傳的考試都是要測試你平常的英語實力有多少。所以考前臨時讀書對分數的影響不大。唯一的例外是單字的部分。

Q: 我覺得我的英文「不標準」，是台式英語。怎麼辦?

A: 台灣人本來就該說台式英語。現在世界各地，特別是亞洲地區，把英語當共通語言；每一國人都為了保留自己風格，使用具有各地特色的英語，而不會刻意模仿美國人或英國人說的英語。這本來就是自然的現象。如果一個人，又不是美國人，也不住在美國，可是一開口就說純美式英語的話，不但很不自然，也可能被各國的人懷疑沒有建立起自己的文化認同，甚至被誤會你是支持美國在國際政治上的立場而導致危險。

現在世界的英語人口中，多數是以英語為第二語言的人。意思是說，如果生活上使用到英文，大多跟非母語的人溝通，而不是跟美國人。既然不是跟美國人，為什麼一定要用美式英語? 而且語言學家們研究發現，美式英語在國際溝通時，並不是最會通的；具有第二語言特色的英語，反而比較容易被聽懂。

可是請不要誤會，我說的台式英語，就是既具有台灣特色，又被國際聽懂的英語；而不是純粹有錯誤，造成對方霧煞煞的英語。後者一般被叫做 "Chinglish"，是我們應該避免的。上課的時候，老師會鼓勵Taiwan English，而糾正Chinglish.

Q: 我英文發音不好，怎麼辦?

A: 首先，你為什麼會覺得自己的發音不好呢? 如果你的發音不像美國人，或那很會卷舌的台籍補習班老師，並不一定代表你的發音不好。我的經驗是，大部分的台灣學生，發音不會有太嚴重的問題。老師只會在遇到可能導致對方誤會的發音問題的時候，才會糾正發音。（世界上多數人覺得很饒舌的怪音如 /th/，就算完全不會也幾乎不影響國際溝通。最多只有不懂社會語言學的同胞會嘲笑你而已。）

再說，發音在溝通時的重要性不是最高；字彙和句型的重要性遠比發音高。如果一個人太注意發音，他就沒辦法那麼注意字彙和文法，導致溝通上更嚴重的問題。反之，一旦接受自己特色的發音之後，你會發現自己的英文變得好流利。

Q: 上課時老師講一直講英文，我聽得不是很懂，怎麼辦?

A: 那恭喜你。只有不斷接觸大約60%聽懂的英文時，你的英文才可望進步。如果100%聽得懂，那就代表這個程度對你來說是太淺了；聽再久，你的英文不會再進步。為了不浪費你的錢和時間，請到「進階班」去。如果你是完全聽不懂，那麼這個程度對你來說太難了，聽再久也不會突然變成聽得懂。但因為英語課是必修，所以趕快找老師商量該怎麼補救吧。（可是依我的經驗，台灣的學生幾乎沒有完全聽不懂的。）

在英國，沒有人會用「標準英國音」？Does anyone in Britain have a "standard British accent"?

最近英國有暴動，相信有很多人在新聞上聽到倫敦的年輕人說的英文，覺得很難懂。我聽到台灣人說：「英國的英文不是最標準的嗎？」或甚至「這不是英文吧。」等。我發現很多台灣人以為英國的英文很「高雅」，「純正」等等。可是，實際上，使用所謂「標準英國腔」的英國人，幾乎是不存在的！

使用「標準英國音」的英國人幾乎不存在

根據統計，使用「標準英國腔」的英國人，大約只有1%左右。這些人是誰？他們是老貴族，老一輩的BBC播音員等，生活上幾乎不可能遇到的。實際上，英國根本沒有法定語言，所以正確來說，應該說「標準英文」這種東西是不存在的。那麼，人們所討論的「英國標準音」又是什麼？

一般人所說標準英式發音，就是英式英文的辭典標出來的音，叫做Received pronunciation (RP)。（因為沒有法定標準，所以每一本辭典都有點不一樣。）RP不是特定地區的口音，而是以前的時代，受過精英教育的人所使用的階級方言。（請注意！這不是倫敦地區的口音，只是部分使用這種口音的人住在倫敦。絕大多數的英國人來自勞動階級背景，所以受過這種菁英教育的人根本很少。）1960年代以前，大部分BBC的播音員擁有這種口音，所以有人說這是 “BBC English”。（我覺得這很容易誤導，因為現在BBC根本很少用這種口音。）也有人說這是 “Queen’s English”。（請問英國有幾個女王？畢竟大部分英國人不是女王。）

現在的英國人對RP沒什麼好印象。因為他們是勞動階級，當然對中上流階級的文化有反感。因為RP是上流的階級方言，所以一般人當然也對操這種口音的人的印象是驕傲，冷漠，狡猾，過度保守等。（如果是在台灣的文化中，窮人可能嚮往有錢人的文化，因為如果努力工作，他就可能加入中上流階級。可是在像英國那樣的階級社會，這幾乎是不可能的事，所以他們只好徹底討厭有錢人。）很有趣的統計是：有人調查了電影裡面的英國腔，發現使用這種口音的人物，通常是壞人！

那麼，一般的英國人使用什麼口音呢？

英國沒有標準音，有的是地方口音

英國的地方口音非常多，各地的人使用自己地方的口音。就連BBC也鼓勵播音員使用自己的地方口音。這為我們外國人帶來不少頭痛，因為如果你只習慣美式英文或RP的話，有些口音聽起來根本不像英文！可是英國人聽各式各樣的地方口音，已經習慣了。（這也證明，如果只是為了溝通的需要，你的口音根本不需要多「標準」。所謂「標準口音」，往往是某些人藉以排除另一些人的工具。）

最近很夯的Estuary English

有一種英式口音，現在好像很流行：那就是Estuary English。很多英國的時尚或音樂節目裡，使用這種口音，所以給人的印象是蠻酷，蠻hip的。（容不容易聽懂，就另當別論。）這本來是倫敦周圍的地方口音和RP的混合體。既然不會像RP那樣給人驕傲冷漠的印象，又不會像純正倫敦口音那樣造成別人完全聽不懂，可說一舉多得。Estuary English的定義，現在已經逐漸擴大，包括所有地方口音跟RP混合的新方言。

需要注意的是，有些英國人會不大喜歡聽到外國人使用Estuary English，雖然同時也不喜歡本國人講RP。這樣的矛盾，可能是因為外國人傳統上學習的是RP，所以他們聽不習慣外國人講道地的Estuary，特別是倫敦式的那種Estuary。我個人的經驗是，很多英國人特別討厭外國人學倫敦人說 “innit”。（innit可取代所有的附帶問句。例如， “You know how to swim, innit?”等。蠻方便的吧。可惜英國人不讓我們用！順便一提，英格蘭北方的人使用 “eentit”。）

那麼，如果我們外國人想要學習英式口音，怎麼辦呢？

要學哪一種發音，看學習目的是什麼

要學習哪一種口音，那就看你學習的目的是什麼。如果你要到英國的某個地方生活，那當然要學那個地區的口音。例如說你要定居在伯明罕，那就千萬別學倫敦口音！而如果你學習的目的是跟世界各地的人溝通，那麼，你的口音最好不要太像英國人或美國人了。有研究結果顯示，英國人或美國人等Native speaker的口音，在國際場合上並不是最容易被了解的。這樣的話，應該學習什麼口音好呢？

就是自己的口音。（台灣人的話，台灣口音。）每一國的人，各講帶有各口音的英文，既然能夠彼此溝通，同時也透過口音可以顯示自己的identity。當台灣人，韓國人，丹麥人跟阿根廷人用英文溝通的時候，如果硬要用美國腔或英國腔，然後溝通有問題的時候怪對方的英文不夠像native speaker，那不是很奇怪嗎？

（當然不用刻意把自己的口音變得很「台」喔。如果一個台灣人，以美式口音或RP當作學習對象，同時又不要刻意去模仿native speaker調調的話，學出來的結果自然就是最理想的台灣英文。）

偏重母語人士的發音是錯誤的。The myth of native speaker accent

偏重母語人士的發音是錯誤的。

我發現很多台灣的朋友，都希望自己能說一口像美國人一樣「標準」的英文。他們的理由是這樣的「標準英文」，到全世界的那一個角落都行得通。可是對不起，他們錯了。有研究發現，母語人士（例如美國人、英國人等）的發音，在英語做為國際溝通語言的時候，並不是最容易被聽懂的！所以，如果老師教學生極力模仿母語人士的發音，將來他們在實際國際溝通的場合使用英語，可能會吃虧的。

以英語做為第二語言人士的發音，在國際溝通上更容易被了解的原因有幾個：

第一，第二語言人士的發音比起母語人士的發音更合理。

任何語言當然都有不規則的地方，學習者就是要把這些當作例外，死背下去。不過把英語當作第二語言學習的人，把英語很多不規則的地方加以規則化了。這樣的例子很多，在這裡我只舉一個。母語人士英語的發音是stress-timed；這就是說一個單字不管多長，通常只有一個重音。例如說，很多美國人發 “congratulations” 的音，只有一個重音，也就是第四個音節的la。其他的音節，不管拼法是o還是a還是u或者是ion，全部一樣都發成schwa，也就是類似注音符合ㄜ的音，只是發得很弱。不同拼法都發一樣的音，這說起來很不合理，難怪聽不清楚。另一方面，大部份把英語當作第二語言的人，母音怎麼拼就是怎麼發，所以o就發o的音，a就發a的音；除了比較合理之外，先學過英語拼法的人，更容易聽懂。菲律賓式英語發音是其中一個例子。就用一下common sense就知道，母語人士因為天天都跟母語人士在講英語，所以講得很快，而且咬字都不清楚。（可是在國際場合上人家聽不懂，他們會怪你的英文不夠好！）

第二，使用第二語言發音的人數較母語人是多。

目前很多人都很清楚，學習英語的目的，不只是為了跟美國人溝通，而是跟全世界溝通。而「全世界」的人，並不都是使用美式口音。目前全世界使用英語的人口，多數是把英語當作第二語言的人們；母語人士只是少數。例如說，印度，菲律賓等國家使用英語的人口，都比英國多；有學者們預測中國快要成為英語人口最多的國家。所以，將來工作上或生活上如果用得到英語，比較有可能跟第二語言人士，而比較少可能跟美國人。這個時候，當你已經知道美國或英國口音並不是最廣泛通用的口音的話，為什麼還非學得像美國人的發音不可？

第三，聽不懂的主要原因不是發音，而是偏見。

有社會語言學的研究發現，當你聽不懂某人的口音，大部分不是因為你沒辦法辨別對方所發出來的音，而是因為潛在意識裡認為「我講的就是標準，而對方講的帶有口音，所以我拒絕負擔為了解他我所需要做的努力」。換句話說，聽不懂不是因為發音，而是因為偏見。我有很多這樣的經驗。有很多學生曾經表示他們覺得我講話很難聽懂，因為我有日本口音。可是有研究調查顯示，日本口音的英文，是比中文口音的英語更容易辨別的。所以照理講，日式口音更容易聽懂才對。可是因為很多人有一種偏見，就是日本人的英文就是爛；所以還沒開始聽，就已經拒絕懂了。社會語言學家們也證明，並沒有根據，所謂「標準語言」比其他方言更好或更清楚易懂。這是主觀意識的問題。而就像大家都同意應該消除對某些種族或對殘障人士的偏見，我們也應該努力消除對不同口音的偏見。

要求學習者學會母語人士一樣的口音是不可能的，也沒有必要的。很多語言習得學的專家們都同意，成熟學習者要學會像母語人士一樣的發音，是不可能的（除了發音這點以外，第二語言人士卻也能達到非常高的語言能力；例如最近幾任聯合國秘書長，沒有一個是英美人士（現任是韓國人），很多以英語為官方語言的國家（菲律賓，新加坡，印度等）的領袖等，他們英文能力必定也比很多美國人都強吧）。有些學者認為，大人學不會口音是因為潛意識下他拒絕成為另外一個人；就我個人來說，我不會希望人家聽到我的英文時誤認我是美國人，因為我就不是嘛（特別在回教國家，千萬別被誤認是美國人，是會有危險的！）。那麼，明明知道這個目標是不可能達成的，還要求學生朝這個不可能的目標努力，而讓那些無法達到目標的學生感到沮喪，那不是很好笑嗎？這樣不合理的科目，恐怕只有英文吧！

因此，給學生的目標 (model)，不應該是母語人士，而是雖然帶有本地口音，但在國際場合上成功以英語工作的本地人士。學校製作教學錄影帶，請不要再用太多白人或國外長大的ＡＢＣ當演員，而多用一點帶有「在地味」口音的演員吧！否則，很多在台灣長大的小孩，只是因為自己沒有辦法達到像那些白人或ＡＢＣ那樣的口音，而感到自己的英文很遜，甚至完全放棄英文呢！

英語は金持ちの言葉？

前にもフィリピンの言語について書きましたが、また書きたくなったので。

フィリピンを旅したことある方なら、看板や標識はほとんど英語しか書いていないことに気がついたでしょう。公用語は英語とフィリピノ語２種類のはずなのに、公式文書はなぜか英語だけ。ところが、街中で、フィリピン人同士が英語だけで会話しているのは、学校や役所、金持ちの地域以外ではあまり聞かないでしょう。

読み書き、家族との会話、同僚との会話、学校の授業など、全部が一種類の言語でできる日本や韓国のような国は、本当に珍しいです。フィリピンもその例に漏れず、毎日いろんな言語を使う必要がある国です。

まず、家で話しているのは、地元の言語であることが多いです。こういう言語はたくさんありすぎるので、さらに、付近の大都市の言語が、異なる言語を話している人々の間の共通語になっていることが多いです。たとえば、セブ島近辺なら、セブ市で話されているセブアノ語を使えば、別の言語を話している人たちとも意思疎通が図れる、ということです。

さらに、国レベルでは、「フィリピノ語」というのがあります（実質上は、マニラ周辺の共通語、タガログ語と同じです）。小学校に入ると、初めてこれを勉強する人が多いです。でも、今テレビの人気番組はほとんどこのフィリピノ／タガログ語なので、大して苦労しなくてもこれをマスターするフィリピン人も最近多いです。また、何百万人というフィリピン人が海外に出て働いていますが、彼らが海外で、言語背景が異なるフィリピン人と会ったら、この言語で話すので、海外に出た結果フィリピノ／タガログ語が上手になるフィリピン人も多いです。

また、最近国の政策に変更があり、地元言語が復活することになったとはいえ、まだ実質的には小学校は英語とフィリピノ語のバイリンガルになっています。中学までにだんだんすべてが英語になっていくシステムです。

本屋にはほとんど英語の本しかありませんし、新聞も、大新聞といわれるようなやつは英語だけです。ラジオやテレビはフィリピノ語や地元語が有力なので、フィリピン人がまとまったモノを読むときは、ほとんど英語しか使わない、ということでしょう。（以前、台湾にいる高学歴のフィリピン人に、フィリピノ語で書かれた本をあげてもあまり喜ばれないことがありましたが、彼らが読むのはもっぱら英語なのです。）

（東南アジアのほかの国と同じように、「英語のおかげで学力が弱くなっている、英語は科目だけにとどめて、まず母語で思考能力を強めたほうがいい」と主張する言語教育専門家と、「英語はやっぱり大事だから早くから教えたほうがいい、他のいろんな地元言語を習得する暇があったら、英語をやったほうがまし」とする、言語教育には素人の父兄との間で、激しい対立があります。フィリピンの場合は、幸い前者が勝ったということです。これについてはまた別の機会に書きます。）

「大金持ちのフィリピンと貧乏人のフィリピン、この二つの全く異なる国が、同じ島々の上に共存している」とよく言いますが、これと同じことが、学校でも起こっています。

富裕層の子供は、幼いときから英語を話している子も多いし、親が英語を話す幼稚園に入れたり、英語のせいで勉強に追いつけないということがあれば、英語塾に通わせることができるので、英語を使う政策は、富裕層に有利、ということになります。

一方、地元語とフィリピノ語しか上手にはできない貧困層は、自分の国の法律はおろか、普通の本や新聞もろくに読めない、つまり一生出世できない、ということになります。英語が貧富の差の拡大に貢献している、という意見が専門家の間では根強いですが、一理はあるかもしれません。

だからと言って、新しい政策が決めたように、授業で使う言語としての英語を廃止して、すべてを地元語＋フィリピノ語にすれば問題は解決するかといえば、そうもいえないと僕は思います。

フィリピンの公立学校の学力が上がらない原因は、英語にあるというより、設備、教材、先生の給料、子供が働き手として必要とされていることなど、経済的なところにあるのではないでしょうか？先生が自分で学校に机や椅子を持ってこなければいけないほど貧しいところがあるそうですから、もう英語なんちゃら以前の問題でしょう。

仮に、英語を廃止して、高等教育を全部フィリピノ語にしたとします。たとえそうしても、富裕層の子供はフィリピノ語でも貧乏人の子供より良い条件で勉強するはずですから、結局ギャップはあまり縮まらないのではないでしょうか？

また、逆に、経済条件が良ければ、学校の言語と家の言語が違っても、ちゃんと勉強できる、ということもあります。たとえば、シンガポールや香港では家の言語に関係なく学校ではすべて英語ですし、台湾も僕達ぐらいの世代までは、家ではほとんど「台湾語」か客家語で暮らしていたのにもかかわらず、学校の勉強は小学校から百パーセント母語ではない「北京語」です。それでも、この３つの「国」は、学力の面で、常に世界のトップクラスです。

初等教育を自分の言葉でやらないと知能的な発展に差し障る、という説は、学会ではほとんど常識になっており、正しいのかもしれませんが、シンガポールでも香港でも、表面上は英語オンリーということにしておいて、実際には子供たちは一旦母語に置き換えて考えているから、知能発展にあまり差し支えがない、ということも見逃されがちです。確かに直接母語でやったほうが、一旦英語に置き換えるより易しいかもしれませんが、国によっていろいろな事情（シンガポールの複雑な人種関係、香港の国際金融都市としての重要性、フィリピンのいろんな言語の教材を作る困難など）があり、みんなにベストのことがたやすくできるとは限りません。それに、一旦置き換えなければならない手間が、経済力でカバー可能な部分（たとえば塾に通わせるなど）でしょう。

フィリピンが、小学校で教授言語としてのを英語を廃止して、少なくとも３年生までは地元の共通語で教えることに決めたことは、一応喜ばしいことでしょう。看板や法律も将来フィリピノ語に変更できれば、富裕層以外の人たちにとっても公平です。でも、富裕層は政策を無視して、これからも日常生活で英語を使い続けるでしょうし、英語が社会的地位アップに必要な言語であるという客観的事情も、すぐには変わらなさそうです。言語教育に関する終わりのない対立で社会的資本を費やすよりも、公立学校をめぐる経済的状況を改善することが先決なのではないでしょうか。

Pronunciation is not that important

In Taiwan, people pay too much attention to pronunciation when learning a foreign language. Often, people who have “native-like” American accents are considered good teachers. It sometimes even seems they consider accent more important than grammar and vocabulary, or even content! As is often the case, those who have “impeccable” native-like accents are those who started in their early childhood. Because they learned English before their cognitive skills have fully developed, if you transcribe what they are saying, you might notice that their grammar and vocabulary are quite “non-native-like”. Worse still, teachers are often hired solely on the basis of their native-like accent, without taking into consideration proficiency in other respects.

But the reality is, accent and pronunciation are not that important when it come to English. English is a language used mainly for international communication. The main purpose of learning English today is not to communicate with its native speakers. If communicating with native speakers was the sole purpose, as would be the case for learning, say, German or Japanese, it does make sense to try to sound as closely as possible to the native speaker. But if the purpose is to communicate with other second language speakers of English, the target would be to be able to communicate as successfully as possible, and not how native-like you can sound with lots of “道地” idioms and slangs.

And for international communication, native-speaker English is not the most useful model. There are studies that show that native speakers are not the most easily understood in international communication. Rather, someone with a strong, for example, Arabic accent, who speaks slowly and clearly without using difficult idioms and slangs, would be a more effective communicator.

Actually, this fact is quite clear from experience. When I first went to England, I felt it was much easier to understand my fellow overseas students from Spain, Germany and Indonesia, than English people. For starters, native speakers, especially students, don’t enunciate very well, and also tend to speak very fast. And they use lots of peculiar slangs and unfamiliar idioms that are difficult for second-language users of English to understand.

Nor is it that attaining native-likeness is desirable. How we use language reflects our identity. So the way I use English should reflect my own culture and identity, not that of an American or British. By trying to sound like a North American, you are assimilating yourself to North America, thus trying to become someone you are not. Besides, it is better nowadays not to be mistaken as an American, especially in certain countries!

In the first place, anyway, a native speaker accent is not attainable for many of us. If you didn’t start very early in your life, it is likely that you will never drop that “foreign” accent no matter how hard you try. There are theories that indicate that this is so because you want to protect your own identity unconsciously. Besides, if you are a teacher, you should already know very well how “unteachable” pronunciation is. So why waste our time trying to attain something which many specialists have already proven to be unattainable?

Speaking from my experience, excessive attention to accent also takes away due attention from grammar and vocabulary. So it is quite possible that you can speak English more fluently when you are paying less attention to pronunciation. This is definitely the case for me. So the days of using half my brain thinking how to sound British is over. The brain is for thinking some better stuff!

I studied in the UK. When I was there, I was a teenager. So, understandably, I had a lot of peer pressure to sound like other students around me. I tried very hard to sound like English young people, and I was quite successful in that attempt. In fact, many native speakers commented that my accent was native-like.

But soon after arriving in Taiwan, I realized that having a native-like accent was not always so useful. The job interviewer was a native-speaker so she rated my English highly, but the problem was that many of my students found it hard to understand me. Because I sounded differently from the way they were used to (Taiwanese students are generally exposed only to American English), some even complained to the school that my “Japanese accent” was too strong!

So I tried to drop my British accent. I started sounding like a “foreigner”, but it was very clear that people could understand me better. Not only that, I felt more confident because I no longer had to pretend to be what I was not in the first place: a native speaker of English from Britain.

My English now reflects my unusual background and who I am. Basically it is Japan English, because that’s where I first learned the language. And I became fluent in it while I was in Britain, so that explain the trace of British flavor in my English. However, most of my interlocutors coming from Taiwan and other Chinese-speaking backgrounds, I demonstrate feature of China/Taiwan English especially in syntax and lexis. Finally, I did my PhD in the Philippines, where I extensively used English in all domains of life; so definitely, my English is greatly influenced by Philippine English. (I suspect this is what makes my English easier to understand for my Taiwanese students. I picked up the rhotic “r” while in the Philippines. Not only that the Taiwanese are more used to American English, pronouncing the “r” makes it more orthographically faithful.)

Everybody can speak in more than one way. It is thoroughly natural and normal to sound differently in different situations. When I get caught up in the content and start paying less attention to accent, I notice that I sometimes switch back to my former non-rhotic accent. (Both Japan English and British English are non-rhotic, and I guess I find it more natural and easier to pronounce.) When I speak to my students or Filipinos, I notice that I immediately regain my rhotic R’s. And when I have to speak formally and pay extreme attention to speech, I suddenly start sounding British again! Another situation in which I unconsciously sound British is when I am with native speakers or my boss. I know that they look down on “foreign accents”, and that it might jeopardize my work!

So my advice is: Start sounding like yourself, not like a token native speaker.

Horse horse tiger tiger

昨天在廣播上聽到這樣的廣告：

外國人：”How are you?”

台灣人：”Horse horse tiger tiger”

外國人："What!?"

台灣人："馬馬虎虎啦！阿兜仔哪聽無！？"

Narrator: “你還在說台式英語嗎？快來參加...”

大有問題！這顯示Taiwan English還是被妖魔化。

這個廣告的問題包括：

一，用英語溝通的對象被定位成阿兜仔；

二，台式英語被妖魔化；

三，台灣英語和Chinglish被混為一談；

四，這樣的廣告被認為有效。

一，用英語溝通的對象被定位成阿兜仔

現在以英語做為第二語言的人遠超過以英語為母語的人。目前亞洲是使用英語人口最多的地區，而美國經濟正在沒落當中。所以你實際使用英語的對象，比較有可能是以英語當第二語言的人，特別是亞洲人。有科學根據顯示，跟這種人溝通，把英語說得像母語人士並不理想，因為母語人士習慣用一些特殊的俚語和片語，而且因為從小習慣說英語，發音並不是很清楚。

二，台式英語被妖魔化

因此，現在的世界上並沒有一種所謂「標準英語」。實際的情況是各種母語的人，帶著各種母語口音及特色的英語，在互相溝通。說一口美國白人口音的英語並不保證你能跟各種人有效地溝通。更何況，在９１１以後美國在世界上很多地區很不受歡迎，跟來自這種地區的人用英語溝通最好不要被誤以為是美國人。而且，雖然不是美國人，說話卻像是美國人，會被外國人認為你沒有健全地建立自我。

台灣人學習英語，學出來的是具有台灣特色的台灣英語，這是正常的，自然的。阿拉伯人說阿式英語，歐盟的人說歐式英語，他們每天用自己的英語在國際場合上辦事。為什麼只有台灣人非學一口實際上不存在的到底美式英語不可？

三，台灣英語和Chinglish被混為一談

好的台式英語，是保留台灣人的特色，同時也跟各國以英語為第二語言的人溝通沒有問題。為了用英語說出跟台灣獨特文化有關係的事物，有些字彙和文法會跟其他各國的英語不同，這也是正常的，而且大致上不會影響溝通。對方不懂的時候就加以說明，是溝通的基本常識；對方下次就懂了。實際上，long time no see和ketchup都是受中文影響的說法，久而久之已經被納入國際英語中。

而Chinglish指的是明顯錯誤的英語，會造成溝通上的問題，應該避免。雖然我認為horse horse tiger tiger已經被很多常跟以中文為母語的人接觸的外國人聽懂，所以不能斷然說「只是因為美國人不這麼說，所以這是錯誤的英語」，可是因為 ”so so” 這個已經存在的說法廣泛被接受而且比較簡單，所以跟不同母語的人溝通時應該說 "so so" 而不是”horse horse tiger tiger” 。

當然，跟有中文背景的人用英語溝通時，故意說成 "horse horse tiger tiger" ，可以建立跟對方的認同感，是不錯的溝通策略。

這個廣告的問題是，把 “horse horse tiger tiger” 這個Chinglish說成是「台式英語」。

四，這樣的廣告被認為有效

不過最大的問題應該是，這家業者認為這樣的廣告能夠有效吸引台灣民眾來參加他們的語言學習機構。也就是說，這個廣告的內容反射了一般民眾對學習英語的看法。

仍然活在過去那段學習英語的主要目的是跟美國人溝通的日子，不會因為英語已經成為世界共通語而作出學習上的調整，難怪台灣人的英語能力會輸給其他亞洲國家。