Ningbo Engineering Business Class 10/04/09

If you're reading this you obviously found the site with no problems, so welcome aboard.

As you will have seen, I write for many of my classes and, though the topics might not all be concerned with the English language, they contain vocabulary words that may be new to some, insight into Western cultures, information of writing reports or essays as well as other things that may be of use.

Please feel free to click onto any article which appears in the menu at the left. At the top left you'll also find a short list of sites in English that might be of interest. You can click directly on the links if you would like to view any of them.

Many people say that one of the problems they encounter in language learning is that they don't get enough practice. I'm afraid I can do nothing much about this...but you could get together with colleagues once a week at, perhaps, lunchtime, and have a period where everyone must spend the whole lunch break talking in English. Or greet others from the class always in English. Or even just talk into a tape recorder and play it back to yourself!

But, if you can't get much practice talking, least keep reading English. Of course you will find words that you are not familiar with. I am always happy to help with pronunciation if you make a list of new words you have found during the week and bring them to class. It will benefit your class-mates too.

Right. Well our first lesson was mostly involved in getting to know each other and in learning how to say hello. I know that you have spent years being told that the "Hellohowareyou?" "I'mfinethanksand you?" approach is the one to use. While I'm not saying that is incorrect, the point of this class was to introduce you to the way real foreigners greet each other. Not the way they do it in textbooks!

The thing about the above greetings was that they are automatic: you say them as if they are simply a longer way of saying "hello", rather than actual questions.

"How are you?" is a question. Not a statement. It is asking the other person whether they are in a good mood or a bad one. If they are feeling healthy or not. Are they happy? Is everything in their world o.k.? Are they nervous? Sad? Stressed? Unwell?Joyful? Excited?

Although the answer to all of these questions CAN be 'fine', we are human beings, not robots. Of course we are not going to be 'fine' every minute of every day.

So, for a start, the answers to 'How are you?' can vary a lot. A real foreigner may reply "Not so bad", or "Terrible" or "I've had better days" or "Terrific" or "Scared stiff" [an expression that means apprehensive, nervous or, of course, scared] or "never better". Remember, they have not read your text books. They don't know they are supposed to answer "Fine thanks and you?"

So, the first thing to remember is to LISTEN to what they reply. It's amazing how many students don't do this. When they ask the question I have sometimes answered "Bloody awful." or "I feel lousy"[terrible; bad] and, sometimes, just for fun, have even said "Absolutely suicidal"[ready to kill myself].... but they will still respond with "I'm fine too"!

Also, of course, people will not always use the exact words: "How are you?" They will say it in other ways like "Howya doing?" "How'r things?" "Howya going?" . You can still answer 'fine' though more common is "good, thanks' or "I'm well, thanks." (The "thanks" is always used. Even with 'fine': - "Fine thanks."

But the main point of the lesson was that, over the last few years, we have moved away from greeting people with "How are you?" It is much more common to ask the question "What..." than "How...". In other words to ask WHAT are you doing right now, rather than how you are feeling. In this case the answer "Fine" is not appropriate.

That's why its important to LISTEN to whether you are being asked How or What.

Much more usual now is to greet someone by saying "What's up?" [Wassup] "What are you up to" [Wotcha upto] "What's going on?" [Wossgowenon] "What's happening?" [Woss hap'ning], or What are you doing" [Wotcha doowen].

In all these situations the quick and easy answer is not 'fine' but "Nothing much" [Nuthen much].

If you are just being introduced to a whole lot of people as a matter of courtesy - say at a business meeting - there is no need for question and answer greetings. Much more efficient is to a) just repeat the person's name or b) simply say "Its good to meet you" [Gootameetcha] "Nice to see you" [Nicetaseeya] or simply "Hello", "Hi" or "Hey".

However, the whole point about greeting someone usually is to start a conversation. Simply standing around telling each other that you are in good health doesn't make a conversation.

So the quickest and easiest way to get a conversation happening is to answer whatever their initial question was: e.g.

"Howrya?": -..... "Actually, I'm a little bit nervous about meeting you. I'm afraid my English might not be good enough". or: - "I''m o.k., but I'm exhausted[really tired] by all these meetings"

"Wassup?": - ..... "I'm on my way to my English class" "Nothing at all. I'm just grabbing[quickly taking] a few minutes to chill."[relax]

"Howrthings?": -...... "Hectic [Crazily busy] at the moment with the monthly figures to do" , "Absolutely perfect. I just got married!"

As you can see, answers like these give the other person the chance to respond. They can ask another question ("Really? When did you get married?") agree with you ("Yeah, our department always seems to be having meetings these days. They really put us behind with our work.") or disagree ("There's no need to be nervous. You should hear my Chinese!").

But if you really can't think of anything to say try paying a compliment. Comment on their earrings/shoes/glasses/jacket (But NEVER, NEVER ask a foreigner how much something cost, or tell them how much you paid for something). This will relax them and you may both get into a conversation about shared likes and dislikes.

Or ask them a question: "So. Have you been busy at work, lately?"

DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER!! This has become a sort of joke, and we regard 'weather talk" as the last refuge of the truly boring person. Unless, of course there is/has been some unusual weather like an earthquake or hurricane.

English speakers are very lazy. We don't bother very much with unimportant stuff[dong shi] like asking long, often meaningless questions. We don't even bother pronouncing all the letters in a word. You already know this, of course: for example, we long ago stopped pronouncing the "k" in "knife" or 'knee". So we often don't pronounce the "g" in "ing". That's why "Doing" often sounds like "Doowen" and "Going" like "Gowen".

Also, oral language - any oral language - is always spoken a lot faster than we expect. This results in words being spoken without a pause between them. In Chinese, for example, the two words "shen" and "ma" are not separated, but sound like "shemma". So many English words that are often said together sound like one word when spoken. We will deal with these a little more fully in our next lesson.

While some of you may not found it easy to actually speak English like this, it doesn't matter. The foreign person you are speaking to understands that you are trying to communicate in a language that is rather difficult. However, unless they are a teacher, they will not realise how different the oral language sounds from the written. They have probably never even thought about the English language and how it sounds to other people.

It is for this reason that we are exploring the way common words and sentences sound when spoken by a native speaker - even if unable to imitate this way of speaking, you must be able to recognise just how different the language sounds when spoken by a native speaker.

Just like people from most cultures, they will probably not think to speak slower and to separate their words: they will just repeat them louder and louder as if you were deaf! I hope this class gets you used to hearing how different the oral language sounds and so to understanding it better.