Monday, December 14, 2009

English teachers across Asia....

English teachers across Asia, this post is for you. Before I run the risk of offending any of you, I should say that I'm just as guilty as the next Colombian outfitted foreign teacher to let my speech slip into the understandable at the cost of authenticity. However, recently I have noticed how often we as foreign teachers say the word "maybe" when talking with our students. Now, maybe I'm overly sensitive to the over-use of words. Or maybe it's just the foreigners way of softening the definitiveness of what we say. But just maybe, it is a trend of sloppiness that has started somewhere in the foreign teacher realm and has continued to spread across Asia, passing from one foreign teacher to the next, on to our Chinese colleagues, and finally taking root in the speech of our students, creating a language of indefinite maxims. So, if you are a foreign teacher reading this, maybe you have also noticed the tendency to cushion your conversations in "maybe's." Perhaps we can join together in cutting down on our use of "maybe's" for the sake of preserving an authentic language that most of us desire to teach our students.

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Maybe I am a little guilty of this, but I think this may be a difficult habit to break. I'm not sure, but maybe I picked it up from students. Maybe, just maybe, if I try really hard, I can break it.

bitsyinchina said...

Hey, Portia. Good thoughts! But before you blame the foreign teachers, listen to how often "maybe" and "possibly" come up in Chinese... how often do you hear 也许、可能、应该是、应该有 etc in Chinese and consider-- which came first, the Chinese kids directly translating or the foreign teachers saying "maybe" too often. Let me know what you come up with! ^_^