Abstract:China develops rapidly, and more and more foreigners begin to learn Chinese and Chinese culture. When foreigners are curious to ask questions about Chinese culture, many Chinese find it difficult to express their thoughts accurately. Obviously, Chinese people know quite a lot about Chinese culture, but just fail to describe them in the English language. As educators, it is a great task to research this topic. Cong Cong, a Chinese professor, named this phenomenon Chinese cultural aphasia in 2000. Educators or researchers should think about what causes this phenomenon and what educators can do to help students counter it. In order to find to what extent Chinese cultural aphasia exists especially in Yiwu. An investigation is made.
Key words:cultural aphasia; English education; China; questionnaire
摘要：中国的迅猛发展吸引了越来越多的外国人学习汉语与中国文化，但是当被问及中国文化时，很多人觉得无法用英语准确顺畅地表达出来出来。显然，中国人对中国文化相当熟悉，但是用英语表达时，却困难重重。这是一个很值得教育者去探讨研究的课题。2000年，从丛教授称这种现象为“中国失语失语”。教育者和研究者都该深思这种现象产生的缘由，以及该如何帮助学生去克服这种现象。为了了解中国文化的失语程度，特别是在义乌这个多元文化环境中，进行问卷调查研究是一种必要的手段。
关键词:文化失语；英语教育；中国；问卷调查
1. Introduction
Language describes loads and symbols culture. Language and culture cannot be divided. (Kramsch C, 1993) As is said by Newmark (1988), culture is the life style and its reflections of the community who share a particular language. Culture has a very close relationship with language. It is now widely acknowledged that western culture should be concerned during the course of English language teaching. At present, western culture is a focus of attention. Students learn the language as well as the culture.
English learners are increasing throughout the world. English language has become a global language. Therefore, English is not necessarily related with cultures of English-speaking countries. Native culture is what people express in English language. English language loads the cultures of learners’ own countries, despite the native language is English or not, as long as they use English language. That is the same case in China. Chinese people express Chinese culture in English language when communicating with foreign guests.
1.1 Chinese Learning Abroad
China develops rapidly. Chinese and Chinese culture becomes very popular throughout the world. Chinese subject is set up in more than 2300 colleges in 85 countries. About 30,000,000 foreigners are learning Chinese, and the number of learning Chinese is still increasing. (Yan, X., 2009) When Westerners are interested in Chinese culture and inquire about it, one should introduce it to them in fluent English. So it is necessary and important for Chinese people to learn Chinese culture well especially in English language. The atmosphere offers a good platform for intercultural communication. 1.2 China’s English Education
As China’s economy develops, intercultural communication becomes more prominent. English is a world language. People from different countries communicate in English. China government pays great attention to English education and supports it in many aspects. People of all walks, of all ages learn English. As a subject, English is very important in all phases of school education.
1.3 Culture Education
According to the theory of Cultural Relativism by Franz Boas (1911), every culture is equal. No culture is superior or inferior to others. Chinese learners learn English, not because whether the culture is superior or not. It is the need for communication. When learning a language, bear in mind the principal of cultural relativism. Western culture and Chinese culture are of equal value.
As is said by Hall (1959) in his works The Silent Language, one could learn the culture of other countries not only to understand foreign culture, but also to understand one’s own culture through learning. Therefore, one can have a much better understanding of Chinese culture through the course of western culture learning.
1.4 Aphasia of Chinese culture
The ignorance of the native culture, that is, Chinese culture, was developed by Chinese Professor Cong, C. (2000) when she taught her doctoral students practical English teaching on academic exchange. The process of her teaching reveals that even doctors, who hold the highest diploma, have difficulties in expressing Chinese culture in English language. In China’s English teaching, Chinese cultural aphasia is a major problem and is quite common.
According to the survey made by the researcher Zhou W. (2009), the subjects of the survey were those who had learned English for at least 16 years and 97% had passed TEM-4 and 74% had passed TEM-8. Moreover, they all had been taught by foreign teachers from English-speaking countries. However, the survey showed that 79% of students were unable to describe Confucianism and 82% of students could not describe Taoism. When questioned which topic they were confident of, 74% of the students declared they were more confident of Chinese culture, because they were born and lived in China, and thus were very familiar with native culture; paradoxically, 68% of the students said they found Chinese culture most difficult to introduce in English. These results are astonishing and depressing. Topics about Chinese traditional culture are interesting and favorite ones to westerners when they meet native Chinese speakers. They would certainly be very disappointed. 2. Questionnaire Analysis
2.1 Aim
The aim is to determine the extent Chinese cultural aphasia exists among college students especially in Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College, and to know students’ needs. As a result, the author designed and conducted a questionnaire to collect some statistics regarding this issue.
2.2 Subjects
The subjects for the questionnaire were all English major sophomores and juniors in Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College. The total number of subjects was 355.
Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College is a higher vocational college. It is a three-year college. The sophomores and juniors have studied as English majors for one or two years. There are two foreign teachers teaching them Oral English. Many of them have passed CET-4 and some have passed CET-6.
2.3 Protocol
The questionnaire was analyzed both manually and by using Microsoft Excel.
2/4 Questionnaire Data
Table 1 To What Extent Participants Know about Chinese CultureItem Number Percentage
Know it very well 28 7.89%
Know it well 263 74.08%
Know very little 64 18.03%
Table 2 Whether Or Not Participants Could Introduce Chinese Culture in EnglishItem Number Percentage
Yes 18 5.07%
No 337 94.93%
Table 3 Chinese Culture in TextbooksItem Number Percentage
There are many courses mentioned Chinese culture 22 6.20%
There are not much 226 63.66%
None, but teachers would mention some 77 21.69%
None, neither would teachers mention it 30 8.45%
Table 4 Awareness of Chinese Culture in English TextbooksItem Number Percentage
Pay special attention to it 60 16.90%
Just look it through quickly 262 73.80%
Just skip it 33 9.30%
Table 5 Whether Or Not It Is Necessary to Infiltrate Chinese Culture into English TextbooksItem Number Percentage
Table 7 Textbooks Which Should Mention More Chinese CultureItem Number Percentage
Table 8 Whether Or Not It Is Necessary to Add a New Course about Chinese Culture in the English LanguageItem Number Percentage
Table 9 Advantages to Have Chinese Culture in Textbooks Or CoursesItem Number Percentage
2.5 Results
The result of the questionnaire shows the extent Chinese cultural aphasia exists among the college students and students’ thoughts about Chinese culture.
Table 1 and Table 2 show that though 7.89% and 74.08% of the participants doing the questionnaire declare they know Chinese culture very well, 94.93% of the students could not introduce Chinese culture such as the hundred schools of thought and their exponents, the 24 solar terms, the Silk Road in English. As is seen from Table 4, regarding Chinese culture in the textbooks, 63.66% of them declare there is not much Chinese culture. When they come across Chinese culture, 78.3% of the students just look it through quickly, only 16.9% pay special attention to it, while the rest, 9.3% just skip it.
80.28% feel it is necessary to infiltrate Chinese culture into English textbooks. The most interesting of the content is custom, courtesy, history and diet. The second most interesting kind is drama and education. Courses such as Comprehensive English, English Reading, Chinese English Mutual Translation, English Listening and Speaking are preferred to add more Chinese culture. Regarding adding a new course about Chinese culture in English language, 74.93% are positive.
According to the questionnaire, there are at least three advantages to add Chinese culture into textbooks or set up a course:
It can help spread Chinese culture to foreigners much better.
It can help learners understand Chinese culture much better.
It can help improve learners’ English ability.
3. Conclusions
Though Chinese people know a lot of Chinese and Chinese culture, many people still fail to express the native culture in English language. Chinese cultural aphasia does exist.
There are possible causes that educators pay more attention to western cultures than native culture, students are not aware of getting native culture in the English language. Students can get high score in written test, but are not skilled in speaking Chinese culture in English.
From the questionnaire done in Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College, the result demonstrated that Chinese cultural aphasia exists in colleges, at least in Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College. In textbooks, content about Chinese culture is rare. A survey in Ningbo also showed that only 2% of the content was concerned with Chinese culture (Bo, X., 2007). Students could not receive enough information about Chinese culture in English either from textbooks or classroom teaching. Most of the students really hope to get more information about Chinese culture in English. As is recommended by researchers, such as Yan, X.(2009), supplementary materials about Chinese culture are also good for learning Chinese culture, for example, Moments in Peking and The Art of Living by Lin Yutang, The Good Earth by Pearl Buck; The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Analects of Confucius translated by Arthur Waley.
Based on these conclusions and findings, it is recommended that educators or researchers should take some measures to help students counter Chinese cultural aphasia. In the culture education of foreign languages, western researchers have done many experiments, providing many good education examples and suggestions. It was recommended by Byram (1989) that separate courses about culture should be set up in foreign language education.