Your Shout

13 December 2007

Mike Clapperton

Andy Clapperton, Languages teacher at Bexley Grammar School

In The Language Instinct, even Pinker discusses a widely cited case where a Japanese official inadvertently wishes Bill Clinton the very best of luck in the coming erections.

I certainly chuckled at this amusing language error, but whilst Pinker highlighted this embarrassing slip to argue the case for humankind's innate linguistic abilities, I would rather take the opportunity to draw attention to our linguistic, cultural and, potentially, racial narrow-mindedness.

It is easy enough to jest about egg-flied lice when you visit your local Chinese takeaway, but how many of us have ever considered what it might be like the other way round? After all, it only takes one mispronounced tone to call your best friend's mum a horse if you are attempting to converse in Chinese.

A friend of mine observed that the owners of his local takeaway would probably have a heart attack if he went in and asked for a "number 53" in Chinese, let alone if he actually knew the name of the dish in the foreign tongue. He's not wrong, and that I find both shameful and worrying.

So, to conclude, is Chinese actually any more difficult than the other languages we tend to offer at school in this country?

Well, it is a step or two further removed from English than your romance languages, of course, but at the end of the day you are just as likely to end up speaking "Spanish" with a broad Welling accent as you are Chinese.

So why then is everyone so nervous about giving it a try? There are worse things you could call your best friend's mother, after all...