Not so, perhaps for the majority of people in the world. "Shifting L1" is a natural and common phenomenon. It means that your primary language shifts from one to another over time. For example, my wife was monolingual in Taiwanese Hokkien before she entered kindergarten. Her parents only spoke Taiwanese Hokkien at home. But after she started schooling, she became proficient in Mandarin. It was back then when the use of so-called "dialects" were discouraged in schools. She always chatted with her friends in Mandarin. So, soon, Mandarin became her dominant language. Now, although she can understand Taiwanese Hokkien with no difficulty, she's not very confident in it either; except for some limited purposes, such as chatting with elder members of the clan, or shopping in traditional markets.
The majority of people in the world live in multilingual societies. In such societies, the language you speak at home may be different from the dominant language of the particular location they live in, which may again be different from the official language or national lingua franca. For example, Juan, a Filipino adult, comes from an Ilonggo family. His parents spoke Ilonggo at home when he was a young child, so you may say that his "mother tongue" is Ilonggo, which is a regional lingua franca in some provinces in the central Philippines. However, his family lived in Manila, so none of his classmates spoke Ilonggo. They spoke "Taglish" (A mixture of English and Tagalog, the vernacular of middle-class manilenos). Soon, Taglish became his dominant language. But as the school he went to was a prestigious private school where people mostly spoke English only, so by the time he graduated from college, English became his dominant language. He can still use Tagalog to conduct casual conversations, but he can't really talk about all topics in straight Tagalog. Moreover, he has forgotten most of his Ilonggo, except some basic expressions. So does it still make sense to say that his first language is Ilonggo? And does it make sense to say that he's a non-native speaker of English, when it is the language he is most proficient in, even though he obviously does not sound like an American when he speaks it (in fact, he has a quite strong Philippine accent)?
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
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!
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!
Monday, January 27, 2014
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Code-mixing in Taipei Mandarin
The most prevalent code among the young generation in Taipei is Taipei Mandarin, with extensive code-switching, especially with Taiwanese Hokkien lexis. Or so I thought.
I was recently surprised to have come across a young person who has lived all her life here in Taipei, but Taiwanese Hokkien was not among her repertoire for code-switching.
She could not follow the conversation I was having with my daughter and my wife, which was being conducted in Taipei Mandarin with some borrowed words from Taiwanese Hokkien. It was something along the line of: 「如果你把a-kong的te-koh kong-phoa的話，他一定會很生氣。」 I was being careful not to insert too many English or Japanese words in my utterances, in order to accommodate this young lady. But to my surprise, she only understood the Mandarin part, or so she claimed.
I didn't get to ask her background, but I would assume from her job description that she must have been educated in Taiwan at least until university. So it came to me as a surprise that she even didn't know some Hokkien words which I had considered to be basic.
In the past, I occasionally came across older generation people with roots in the mainland, who claimed that they understood no Taiwanese Hokkien, because they considered it to be a low-class dialect. It is rare to find this sort of ideology among the youth in Taipei nowadays, regardless of their cultural background. So I suspect that this girl I met yesterday was being sincere when she said she didn't understand us.
The lesson I learned from this incident is that I need to be more careful about accommodating my interlocutors, even if they are young people from Taipei, by sticking to Mandarin words whenever possible and appropriate.
I was recently surprised to have come across a young person who has lived all her life here in Taipei, but Taiwanese Hokkien was not among her repertoire for code-switching.
She could not follow the conversation I was having with my daughter and my wife, which was being conducted in Taipei Mandarin with some borrowed words from Taiwanese Hokkien. It was something along the line of: 「如果你把a-kong的te-koh kong-phoa的話，他一定會很生氣。」 I was being careful not to insert too many English or Japanese words in my utterances, in order to accommodate this young lady. But to my surprise, she only understood the Mandarin part, or so she claimed.
I didn't get to ask her background, but I would assume from her job description that she must have been educated in Taiwan at least until university. So it came to me as a surprise that she even didn't know some Hokkien words which I had considered to be basic.
In the past, I occasionally came across older generation people with roots in the mainland, who claimed that they understood no Taiwanese Hokkien, because they considered it to be a low-class dialect. It is rare to find this sort of ideology among the youth in Taipei nowadays, regardless of their cultural background. So I suspect that this girl I met yesterday was being sincere when she said she didn't understand us.
The lesson I learned from this incident is that I need to be more careful about accommodating my interlocutors, even if they are young people from Taipei, by sticking to Mandarin words whenever possible and appropriate.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Non-rhoticity: A sign of failure?
Another interesting conversation I had, this time with Taiwanese linguists, at IAWE Hong Kong.
One of them said: "I noticed that you have a British accent." So he noticed my non-rhoticity and connected that with a British accent. This is not surprising; after all, he's a specialist.
"But many students in Taiwan don't make that connection," I said. "They just think that I'm a poor speaker of English, just because I don't roll my /r/ like their junior high school teachers did."
He said something very important. He said the pronunciation of rhotic /r/ is so emphasized in Taiwan's English teaching that non-rhoticity is considered a failure in an attempt to produce it!
Unless you are a Caucasian from the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, etc., that is. (People often listen with their eyes, more than they do with ears.)
Indeed, in a book called "KK音標速成秘笈", the author says:
中國學生（尤其是說閩南語的同學）發此音時，舌頭大都不夠捲，也不夠軟，而中國北方省份的居民，如北平人，發此音就發得很好。若想把美語說得「溜」就得每天花一點時間練習這個音 (p. 50)
On another page he also says:
每天練習國語的注音符號「ㄦ」的聲音，可使舌頭變得較靈活。另外準備一面小鏡子觀察自己發音時的嘴型。(p. 25)
So I did a little experiment in one of my classes. I played a recording of a very typically British RP-sounding speaker, and showed them a picture of a Japanese guy at the same time. Then I asked them what they thought about the accent.
They said "Horrible! This guy's got to do something about his strong Japanese accent!" or something similar!
By the way, the above author says in his book that when he was growing up as a child, his parents were speaking in a "foreign language". (Of course he can't say they were speaking in Japanese! He's an English teacher for goodness' sake!) That's probably why he was drilled by his Mandarin teachers to pronounce the "ㄦ" correctly. So he transferred that to English.
So then, this has got all to do with the "正音 Ideology", then. Well, that's another topic.
In the meantime, if I want to keep my job as an English teacher, I should better get in front of a mirror and start going: "rr, rrr, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
One of them said: "I noticed that you have a British accent." So he noticed my non-rhoticity and connected that with a British accent. This is not surprising; after all, he's a specialist.
"But many students in Taiwan don't make that connection," I said. "They just think that I'm a poor speaker of English, just because I don't roll my /r/ like their junior high school teachers did."
He said something very important. He said the pronunciation of rhotic /r/ is so emphasized in Taiwan's English teaching that non-rhoticity is considered a failure in an attempt to produce it!
Unless you are a Caucasian from the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, etc., that is. (People often listen with their eyes, more than they do with ears.)
Indeed, in a book called "KK音標速成秘笈", the author says:
中國學生（尤其是說閩南語的同學）發此音時，舌頭大都不夠捲，也不夠軟，而中國北方省份的居民，如北平人，發此音就發得很好。若想把美語說得「溜」就得每天花一點時間練習這個音 (p. 50)
On another page he also says:
每天練習國語的注音符號「ㄦ」的聲音，可使舌頭變得較靈活。另外準備一面小鏡子觀察自己發音時的嘴型。(p. 25)
So I did a little experiment in one of my classes. I played a recording of a very typically British RP-sounding speaker, and showed them a picture of a Japanese guy at the same time. Then I asked them what they thought about the accent.
They said "Horrible! This guy's got to do something about his strong Japanese accent!" or something similar!
By the way, the above author says in his book that when he was growing up as a child, his parents were speaking in a "foreign language". (Of course he can't say they were speaking in Japanese! He's an English teacher for goodness' sake!) That's probably why he was drilled by his Mandarin teachers to pronounce the "ㄦ" correctly. So he transferred that to English.
So then, this has got all to do with the "正音 Ideology", then. Well, that's another topic.
In the meantime, if I want to keep my job as an English teacher, I should better get in front of a mirror and start going: "rr, rrr, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
置いてある素材がメニュー：屋台麺店でのオーダーの仕方。
台湾の麺店には外省系（牛肉麺店など）と、本省系（麵攤）があることは、すでに述べたとおりです。前者は壁にきちんと値段を書いたメニューが張ってありますし、ガラスのドアの冷蔵庫には、お皿に持った小菜がセルフサービス用に入っていますから、漢字さえ読めればオーダーの仕方は簡単です。後者は、住宅街などでとてもポピュラーで、営業時間も長いので小腹が減ったときにとても便利ですが、看板もなければメニューもないところも多いので、ちょっと敷居が高いかもしれません。本稿では、こういう屋台風麺店でのオーダーの仕方を書きます。（なお、東南アジア各国の麺屋台も同じスタイルが多いです。）
まず、席に座る前に、どんな麺が良いのか指定します。ガラスケースの上に、乾いた麺の玉が置いてあるから、食べたいのを指定すればよいのです。外省麺、つまり白い小麦麺は、細いのと平べったいのと二種類あることが多いです。黄色いのは油麺という本省風の麺です。日本のラーメンの元になったのではないかと感じます。あと、灰色でちりぢりなのは意麺といって、インスタント麺に似た食感です。香港の意麺（スパゲッティ）や伊麺とは違うのでご注意ください。ついでに言うと、香港のような細くて黄色い麺は麵攤にはありません。あれが食べたい人は、香港風のロースト肉やお粥を扱っている店に行けば食べられますが、台湾では特殊なものなので、そうあっちこちにはありません。
次に、スープ麺（湯）が良いのか、ドライ（乾）が良いのかを伝えます。また、バリエーションで、日本の坦々麺のようなゴマだれに絡ませたようなものも出来ることが多いです。この麺が主食となります。なお、ビーフンやフォー（クイティアウ）、春雨などは小麦粉で出来てないので、中華系では麺として扱いません。でも店によっては、バリエーションとしておいてある場合もあります。スープ麺の場合は、自分で白胡椒をかける人が多いです。
さて、上記の麺には、ねぎぐらいしか具は入ってないです。ですから、今度は、ガラスケースに入った豚の臓物類、乾豆腐や、昆布などから、好きなものを切ってもらうことになります。僕は見ても何がなんだかわからないので、適当に一人前切ってもらうこと（黒白切）が多いです。大体、新鮮でおいしい肉が食べられます。上には甘い醤油のペーストがかかっていますが、テーブルの上に置いてある激辛のラー油をお好みでかけると、とてもおいしいです。
もうひとつ、こうした麺屋台で食べられるのが、青菜です。屋台では、中華なべで炒める設備がないことが多いため、湯がいたものに、ラード少々や甘いにんにく醤油とのペーストをかけて出てきます。野菜不足の人に良いです。
さて、メニューに値段が書いてないからといって、ぼったくられる事はないから大丈夫です。食べ終わったら、経営者に「ごあつぉえ？」というと、数字だけで値段を言われます。たとえば「ぺーつぁっごー」といわれたら85元のことです。あまりにも安くて驚くことが多いでしょう。経営者の気分によって（？）よく負けてくれることがあります。ぜひ試してみてください。
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