Canadian English the Standard In China

[TheCommodoreAfro]

I know there are a couple of posters who are currently in, or spent some time in China teaching, but it's interesting to note that a new Canadian produced textbook will be distributed in mind-boggling numbers to a whole lot of Chinese students. They remarked about Canada's relatively friendly relations to China as a key in getting the deal done.

You need how many textbooks?

This is a pretty good way to expose your country without spending a tonne of dough. Now if you could get a CalgaryPuck mention in there in the hockey chapter that would be great. One can only hope that JohnnyFlame didn't have a whole lot of input into this otherwise we could get a whole bunch of kids learning to insert the word Fart into sentences at random. A truly frightening cultural revolution. :unsure:

It's also an Edmonton based company making the sale. Any guesses as to how many West Edmonton Mall references the average Chinese student will have been exposed to by high school?

[I-Hate-Hulse]

"But Canadians never pose any economic or cultural threat to China, so they prefer Canadian English.".

Our 12 ship 5 canoe Navy probably has them quivering in their boots too.

Excellent, I look forward to hearing "zed' not "zee", references to chesterfield and generations of Chinese finishing off their sentences with "eh?"

Although China being the guardian of copywrite that it is, I'm sure about 95% of the texts will be pirated in about 2 months time, complete with PDF's of the pages. Engrish anyone?

[Tron_fdc]

I work with a few Chinese guys that have mentioned on many occasions that Canadian English is much easier to understand and to speak (less slang?) than most other forms and dialects (Newfie talk obviously not included). When I was over there earlier in the year, I watched some game show (can't remember the name) but it was hosted by a Canadian guy that learned to speak Chinese while living there, and apparently spoke better than most Chinese residents.

I tried to learn some, but the extent of my Chinese included things like "get me another beer" and some form of F-off. Not exactly anything one would use on a daily basis.

[CaptainCrunch]

Our 12 ship 5 canoe Navy probably has them quivering in their boots too.

Sorry dude the canoes are in the shop til Wednesday did you want a claim ticket

[scottie]

Does anyone have a link to a webpage that succinctly describes the differences between Canadian & British (or American) English? I'd quite like to know how to spell things on here so as not to look like a heathen! (Not that a lot of you care about spelling, it seems!!! )

Cheers!

[octothorp]

Originally posted by scottie@Aug 16 2004, 03:23 PM
Does anyone have a link to a webpage that succinctly describes the differences between Canadian & British (or American) English? I'd quite like to know how to spell things on here so as not to look like a heathen! (Not that a lot of you care about spelling, it seems!!! )

Cheers!

http://www.cornerstoneword.com/misc/cdneng/cdneng.htm

This site has a fairly good synopsis. I studied journalism when I was younger, and we used the Canadian Press handbook, which seems to be the most respected word in what, exactly, is proper Canadian style. As the link above notes (quoting Leacock), we tend to use something close to English for literature, and something closer to American English for spoken conversation.

[scottie]

Sweet. Thanks!

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Originally posted by plett22@Aug 16 2004, 11:58 PM
I work with a few Chinese guys that have mentioned on many occasions that Canadian English is much easier to understand and to speak (less slang?) than most other forms and dialects (Newfie talk obviously not included). When I was over there earlier in the year, I watched some game show (can't remember the name) but it was hosted by a Canadian guy that learned to speak Chinese while living there, and apparently spoke better than most Chinese residents.

I tried to learn some, but the extent of my Chinese included things like "get me another beer" and some form of F-off. Not exactly anything one would use on a daily basis.

Umm...I could see myself using "Get me another beer" on a daily basis. Don't sell your language skills short!

[HOZ]

If the text doesn't have these Canadianisms then it's truely not Canadian.

They need to end all sentences with "eh"

Answering in the affirmative"You betcha...eh!" or "No doubt eh."
Exclamation form...." F'ing eh"
Negative form: " No way...eh"
Talking about a big fight or hard work they must use this form..."Jusssst Giv'ner eh!"

[flamingchina]

Ehh, honestly the students seem to want to learn "american" English the most. that said, they don't speak it at all, they speak more like 1930's proper English incredibly badly.
this tesxtbook might help, but probabl y not, when you have high school kids in china reading Shakespeare in the same grades we do, after only studying English for 4 years. (Shakespeare is used as an example of good English for them..)
that being said, It is said the Canadian English is the cleanest form of currently spoken English, due to the least about of slang and such.