HSK Exam - Language Pledges -

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roddy -

Sudden bout of curiousity: How many of you out there have at some point made a pledge to only
speak in Chinese, even to other foreigners? How successful was it? Did you manage to stick to the
pledge, or was it only when you were being observed? Did you wind up having fewer and less complex
conversations? How did you cope with people who just spoke to you in English? And does posting on
English-language forums constitute a breach?

It's not something I've ever done. However, a couple of obviously foreign girls did stop me once
and ask directions in Chinese for a local cafe. I replied in English, and only later realized I'd
probably caused them to break a language pledge. So if you're out there, sorry, and I hope you
enjoyed your sandwich.



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xianu -

I've done language pledges. They seem to work really well for the most part, although it is really
tough for the beginning students to do it. The more advanced students tend to do a lot of helping
out with vocabulary. I think if people aren't super totalitarian about it, and some Chinglish is
allowed, it can work well, and everyone's language improves. What I found was that even though for
the most part we spoke English once we left the school, the fact that we all engaged in a Chinese
environment together made it easier to slip into Chinese outside of the language pledge area.
Whereas it sometimes feels awkward to speak a mutual second language with people who also share
your first language, because we had the pledge, it was actually kind of natural.










FSO -

Roddy, in my program (basically CET, but all one-on-one instruction) we observe a language pledge
to speak only Chinese during the school day (i.e. from 0800 until 1500). That includes lunch and
breaks, so we students (all gringos) spend a considerable amount of time speaking to one another
in the target language. We are all fairly advanced students, so I agree with Xianu's point about
things probably being a bit more difficult for new beginners. The language pledge has been
particularly helpful in improving my casual speech - something I was sorely needing when I began
the program.

I think common sense is the key to observing language pledges. My colleagues and I go home to our
families every night, so we don't speak Chinese there. Also, when dealing with non-chinese
foreigners, we use whatever language is most appropriate. You don't want to cheat yourself or your
colleagues, but you also don't want to take the pledge to the point of absurdity. Anyway, that's
my view of it.










crow610 -

I just try to hang out with non-English speakers which is actually really hard when a lot of the
Chinese students are so eager to practice their English, and it seems apparent that they don't
want you to speak Chinese with them. With my English speaking friends, we usually speak English
but if there is a non-English speaker among us then we just stick to Chinese out of respect. It's
especially hard at times when you can tell the other person is so eager to speak English that
speaking Chinese might break their heart..haha










redmini -

interesting topic, ive definitely tried a number of times before to have language pledges with my
english speaking friends and originally they all probably lasted only for two seconds.. we tended
to have long silences when the parties involved were trying to construct what they wanted to say
in their heads, and then out tumbled half english half chinese grammatically incorrect sentences
that were met with confused looks and head shakes. then because no one understood, it was an all
too natural reaction to switch to english to explain.

getting a lot better though.. the pledges are lasting up to days now










adrianlondon -

I'm also curious to know if it worked.

I recently spent a semester living on campus in Beijing, learning Mandarin. I had quite a few
Chinese friends, and we'd spend some time chatting in English and some in Mandarin. However, this
wasn't a formal arrangement.

When I was chatting with my flatmate and his friends, all Indonesian, at the beginning we'd try to
use Mandarin, but I soon discovered that most of their tones were wrong and I was scared that I'd
end up learning the wrong tones. From experience, once you've learnt the wrong tone it's very
(very) hard to relearn it. So from that discovery on, I decided to chat in English with other
foreigners unless they were totally accurate in their tones. Limited vocabulary was no problem,
but bad tones scared me

Was I right to have done what I did?










heifeng -

My first six months plus out here I was super strict in my own personal language pledge:
- no English, (only exceptions lost tourists asking for directions)
- no English tv channels or movies
- no mandarin dubbed movies (too unnatural and not enough background noise)
- limited English news reading
- no falling into traps, thus avoiding any type of English teaching/ tutoring, 'teach me English'
psuedo friendship scenario.
- If it wasn't Chinese it was silence. (This will make you pretty proactive to go find a local
Chinese to chat with otherwise risk insanity.)


Then after the first year in China, I had a Chinese network and could relaxed the pledge a bit.










Ge-lin -

I din't think a language pledge is important if you have the will to learn--you'll end up speaking
the language. Why force it upon yourself? If I were to do such a thing, though, I would break if
for the foreigners that look really lost (I have saved a few from serious confusion); that's just
a kind thing to do, I think. Usually everyone in Taiwan outside of Taipei naturally speak to me in
Chinese (in Taipei they always speak English first)... If they do, and it annoys you, you could
say, "bu hao yi si, ke yi gen wo shuo zhong wen ma? Wai guo ren you bu yi ding hui jiang ying
wen.." (and that way you don't have to lie about not being able to speak English, just give them a
hint) or something
anyway, that's my two cents










<<恒心>> -

I've done it, and I think it worked very well. After getting my B.A. in Chinese, I spent a year
and a half at Beida and took a no-English-ever approach from the outset. When I arrived, I was
given a choice of roommates, so I picked a Japanese guy from Nara. He had studied English of
course, but he was too embarassed to use it, so we had no choice but to communicate in Chinese
only. I soon entered his circle of (Japanese) friends and with them as well, English was not an
option, either.

If I was on campus, I hung out with them, and if I was off campus, I hung out with Chinese
friends. I made friends with the employees and managers of the local internet cafe, and they were
all non-English speakers. Since most people figured I was a non-English speaker myself (rumor had
it I was German or something) the whole question of speaking English just never came up that much.

My Chinese got a lot better, faster, than my English-speaking classmates, and I also picked up a
fair amount of Japanese in the process, too. Also made friends with a lot of great people that
might not have otherwise.










crow610 -

Arg...maybe I'm just too nice but a majority of the people I meet on campus are ones who are eager
to learn English! Even when I speak mostly Chinese they will usually respond in English. Now those
of you who have this "pledge", how would you avoid this situation?
I actually sometimes prefer talking to the 服务员cause a) most don't know English and b)
they're not constantly talking about grades/school/finding a job..bla bla....












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