Language Mixtures

Language Mixtures

Abstract

A language border is a border that separates two language areas and they occur where two languages are not mutually intelligible. Chinglish is a mixture of English and Chinese which is often spoken by Chinese. The Americans see it as broken or limited English sine it lacks the fluency that the normal English has. It, however, contains both languages that are, English and Chinese vocabulary. It is a language that attempts to speak across different cultures and barriers that separate different people, especially through language. It breaks the language barriers that people have or else it links two different cultures. Borders influence the way an individual speaks based on the mother tongue he or she first learns. Language crosses boundaries in many ways such as migration of people, marriage or even trade and this explains how border finally affects the way people communicate and the language they use to communicate.

Analysis

Chinglish is a combination of English and Chinese language that originated due to trade between the British people and the Chinese in the 17^th century. The Chinese didn’t know any English and they pronounced them wrongly which acted as a barrier and they spoke pidgin English which later spread to shanghai and other ports (Zhang & Ji, 2015). It was later the language that the Chinese used as the basic education language. It leads to wrongly translated dictionaries and words in other texts. It was the root of the Chinglish words that most Chinese use. Tan (2006) says how her mum who is of Chinese origin had limited English that most people especially Americans saw as broken. Chinglish is therefore not English or Chinese but a language that Chinese use to influence their culture and language.

The process of using the knowledge of the first language to learn a second language, which is known as mother transfer, is the cause of Chinglish and many malformed English. Mother tongue transfer may cause a positive or negative transfer. A negative transfer is a situation of interference of the second language and it hinders learning the language while a positive transfer means that the mother tongue leads to the learning of target language (Zhang & Ji 2015). Therefore, an example of a negative transfer is Chinglish since the target of the language was for Chinese to learn English but they, however, form their language that has a deficit in terms of the ingredients that English has: it doesn’t comply with the Standard English rules. Due to Chinglish’s lack of standard, it has a negative influence on the way people communicate in their day to day lives although it may not affect how they write. Tan (2006) explains that her mother had limited English that she understood since it was her native language but that most of her friends didn’t understand. The language limited her to speaking to people or even expressing herself to the bankers who took her as a joke. Therefore speaking Chinglish in New York or California is a misuse of a language or speaking broken English.

Chinese people who speak English may either have a positive or negative transfer. A person writes as he or she thinks or the way he or she understands. So sometimes even if we are speaking the words we may be speaking a different language because the underlying language assumptions and meanings are so different. A survey by Wang & Wang (2012) shows that the proportion of mother tongue thinking decreases with the writer’s second language development. It shows that when an individual whose mother tongue is Chinglish or Chinese the English language will develop only if the thinking of Chinglish language decreases. Writing in Chinglish in academic writing, therefore, may affect a person whose mother tongue was the language since he or she will have a difficult time developing and writing English. However, the language may have a positive transfer to a person if they improve their English competence and understand the difference between Chinese and English in terms of the language structure (Wang & Wang, 2012). Tan’s personal story explains this since her language that is her mother tongue first influenced the way she spoke and wrote in her school works. She couldn’t write perfectly until she understood and improved her English speaking: she says that her mother tongue had a possibility f limiting her possibility in school and life (2006). Therefore the teaching procedure and exposure to English and will change the way a person writes his or her English.

When people wrongly pronounce English it creates special characteristics of Chinglish pronunciation which changes the interpretation by the listeners. People speak Chinglish at a different level and every level creates a different meaning. Wang & Wang (2012) explain that there is a lexical and syntactic level. At the lexical level, Chinglish expresses the use of many approaches such as transliteration and loan translation while at the other level Chinglish speakers use a different structure and order to make sentences. Chinglish develops and continues spreading use to the education system and learning of mother tongue. A child’s first language transfers from the parents to the kid and that is what the child continues to use even in the future. In Hong Kong, the schools are taught in Chinglish and most of them are strict about not using the language. Also, the students are not taught the difference between Chinglish and the actual English and this causes difficulty when a person moves across the border since he or she has to speak proper English or else English that is unlimited.

Although Chinglish is a language that most Chinese use its only favorable when they are within their boundaries. Schools in Hong Kong and china promote it by making sure that it is taught in school and it, therefore, becomes a difficulty when students go to study abroad since Chinglish becomes a foreign language and most foreigners disregard it. It all affects their academics at large. Tan (2006) explains how her English was poor and how she had a hard time getting grades. She says that the language she spoke in her family affected her academics especially the results on achievement tests. I.Q tests, and the SAT. although she performed better in math and sciences since they are based on facts. Chinglish, therefore, is a language that many scholars consider it as a language that should not be in the academic system.

Conclusion

Chinglish is English with Chinese characteristics. It is a combination of English vocabularies and Chinese vocabularies that has its roots from the 17^th century during the British and Chinese trade. The Chinglish language is an improper language that the Chinese use and which non-Chinglish speakers see as irrelevant and limited. Chinglish lacks the standards of proper English although the Chinese still use it In schools which increases their possibility of using Chinglish more than English. Learning Chinglish as the mother tongue influences the rate at which an individual learns English. It either has a positive transfer or negative transfer to an individual. When it has a positive transfer a person it doesn’t affect the target language. When it has a negative transfer it affects the person’s second language since he or she uses the knowledge of the first language to learn the second. There are also two levels of Chinglish; syntactic and lexical level. Chinglish affects the second language a person learns and may affect the way a person speaks as well as writing.