Eric's Beijing Diary

China is not an English speaking country. Once you leave the big cities, you are in trouble if you cannot speak Mandarin. In fact, if you go to the countryside, it is hard enough to find someone who speaks Mandarin. Most of the children speak Mandarin now, because it is required in school. But the older people in the villages don't really speak it comfortably. And they definitely don't speak English.

But you don't have to go to the villages. I live on a university campus. My students speak English, albeit with varying levels of proficiency. But if I step outside the West Gate, I am confronted with a plethora of small, storefront restaurants, and businesses. And they don't speak English. I like to go to these restaurants, because the food is tremendous. But I can't there alone. Part of that is because at a Chinese restaurant, you don't order individual meals. You order a few dishes together, and share them as a group. If you go alone, the cost is significantly higher, and you have too much left over. But the real reason I can't just go to those restaurants any time I choose, is more basic. I can't read the menu. I don't have any idea what dishes are available, or what they are called. And the servers can't help me, because none of them can speak English.

When I first got to China, I met an American businessman who had a bunch of business cards from various businesses that he carried around with him. Whenever he wanted to go to one of those places, he just showed the business card for that establishment to the taxi driver. I don't want a bunch of cards like that. If I had them, I would burn them. If I am going to meet someone somewhere, and they start giving me directions, I always stop them. The directions don't help me, because I don't drive in this town. I always ask, "How do you say it in Chinese?" That's the only question that matters. Most of the cab drivers are home town boys. They know this city like the backs of their hands. So if I can manage to tell them where I want to go, they will get me there. But it's still very frustrating for me to get into a cab, and sit quietly all the way to my destination. I usually get a lot of education from cab drivers. Not here. They don't speak English.

In Beijing, the teaching of English is being moved downward. They are starting in the first grade now. Good idea, but it will take another generation for the results of that policy to be evident. Meanwhile, among the young university graduates, the world will continue, for some time, to be divided between the haves and the have nots. Those who have English proficiency, and the hiring preference which accompanies it, and those who do not, and have to take second place, or accept a position at a lower salary.