Culture, Prose

The Origins of Chaos, or the English Spelling Explained

by Anna Wawrzonkowska In 1992, Gerard Nolst Trenité, a Dutch academic and linguist, wrote his famous poem: the Chaos. It is, perhaps, the best summary of the helpless confusion any non-native speaker feels when put against the whirling maelstrom of English spelling and pronunciation. Dearest creature in creation Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you […]

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Comment, Prose

English in Hong Kong: The Unfortunate Decline

by Jonathan Yeung Hong Kong has two official languages: English and Chinese. Legally, both languages are meant to have equal status. This is clearest on the streets, where all road signs are bilingual; English on top, Chinese on the bottom. Before 1997, when Hong Kong was a Crown colony, English was the language of government, […]

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Culture, Prose

Teaching in China: How not to learn Mandarin

by Emily Smith Last summer I was fairly determined to leave the UK. Taking advantage of that gloriously low effort skill of speaking one’s own native language, I headed to Nanchang, Jianxi in China where I taught English to high school and university students. I learnt a lot, but one thing I really didn’t learn […]

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