English 2.0
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Be on the lookout for Chinglish subtitles in the near future. According to an article on Wired.com, the fusion of Chinese and English is on its way to becoming a language of its own because there are so few native English-speaking teachers in Asia. In fact, the article claims that by 2020, 85 percent of English speakers will not be native English speakers.
In Singapore and Taiwan, where Singlish and Chinglish have taken off, Asian-English hybrids are already used in movies such as I Not Stupid and books like Eh, Goondu!, as well in musicals, online, and in ads. The Hong Kong Museum of Art even did an exhibition in celebration of it. So in the near future you may have to brush up on your Chinglish as well as Mandarin if you’re headed to the Olympics this year. And forget teaching English abroad. We may need to ask Chinglish tutors to trek to the U.S. But best of all, an end to those mismatched voiceovers, at least in the case of English films viewed in China and vice versa. Chinglish has you covered on both sides.
Personally, I’m excited for the added musicality from changes like using a different pitch to change a word’s meaning, but articles and word endings like –ation aren’t ready to be buried just yet. A, an, and the are still good for clarity and emphasis; they help us distinguish between a rock and The Rock.
-Kathryn Robertson
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| Posted on June 25, 2008
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