香港大學圖書館昨晚辦了一場題為「Poor
English: Why should Hong Kong care?」的講座。講題雖然老土，但栗卻很有興趣知道，講者如何老調新彈，所以報名去參加。
因為碰上大堵車，所以遲了半小時才抵達會場，錯過了前半段的演說。但就後半段的內容，講者不過是抱怨港大生英文寫作能力不佳，文法錯漏百出，於是他寫了一本小書，教學生如何改善英語寫作能力。至於方法，不外乎是注意文法，以及別故作高深。
聽完陳腔濫調，便到聽眾交流時間。一位在新界區任教英文的中學老師提到，有些學生家長把英語視作只適用於上流社會之物，活在低下層的人不應高攀。栗聽罷不禁搖頭嘆息。為甚麼他們以為活在低下層，便一定要作「下流」人？雖說學好英語並不能保證優質生活，但這是給孩子看世界的一扇窗，為何要剝削？
另一位銀髮女士提到，語言的國際地位，跟國家經濟發展有密不可分的關係，這點栗十分認同。英語之所以能成為國際語言，除了因為它會吸納各國新詞，化為己用，還因為操這種語言的人，均來自操控世界經濟的國家。看西人現今一窩蜂地去學普通話，不難想像未來英語的地位，大有可能被取代。
有一位港大生提問，每日只有24小時，如何分配時間學好英語。聽到這樣的問題，教栗嚇傻了眼。父母不是從小便教孩子如何分配時間的嗎？如果你著意某件事情，自然會擠出時間來把它做好，何用別人指導，要花某個數量的時間？今日大學生的質素，真的淪落至此？
(多謝Teacher介紹！)
我未聽過有學生問如何分配時間打機囉
回覆刪除[版主回覆09/11/2010 20:33:00]打機是 inborn，學英文要 acquired 嘛 那位港大生問問題時，極之力直氣壯，真的替他覺得羞...
西人現今一窩蜂地去學普通話 This bunch consists of mostly businessmen who wish to attain perhaps a P1-level of proficiency so they could ask for location of the public toilet, or the nearest hospital, and understand the answer, and those supertrendy lanugage buffs, like my old neighbor DH, who would learn as much as they could, until they reach secondary grad level, if they don't get bored earlier. That's a minute 窩 of 蜂 .
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I agree with you about that kid's question. There were several stupid questions asked that night.
[版主回覆09/11/2010 20:34:00]Not just businessmen, Teacher. Many high school students in the UK learn Putonghua too. I did a unit about this some time ago.
Yes, the high school and college kids in the west belong to the "supertrendy" bunch. They learned that China has the second largest economy without knowing that the per capita figure (the only meaningful statistic) is still well below 100th. So they act like the latest 潮流 foreign lanugage is 煲冬瓜. Their efforts are wasted, but that's another subject, for another blog.
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I think I know where that other kid was coming from. He thought he was going to learn some shortcuts to writing good English in this book talk. When he found out that the answers were practice and immersion, he was disappointed. He was just whining about not having the time.
[版主回覆09/12/2010 07:51:00]I didn't know anything about the per capita figure you mentioned, Teacher. Will you explain in your blog entry as well? That U student reminds me of my F5 student. They think everything has a shortcut. Sigh.
per capita is the economic term those econ 佬 like to use for population average. It divides the total economy, or anything, of an area by its population. I am sure you've encountered the term in The Economist. The total figures, unadjusted by population, are bascially meaningless, because the EU actually has a larger economy than the US. But North America, with Canada, US, and Mexico together, total greater than the EU, etc.... See what I mean?
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Yeah, this may be worth a short blog....
Chestnut Gal, who was the speaker of the talk? Was it conducted in English?
回覆刪除[版主回覆11/07/2010 09:18:00]Yes, it was conducted in English. The speaker was Mr Barry Kalb. He wrote a book called 'You can write better English'. 見到都唔想買