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Problems for learners in ChinaProblems for learners in Asia and China specifically can very challenging, especially in the area of pronunciation. I myself have studied Mandarin for three years and have an understanding as to what parts of the english language are problematic. When it comes to pronunciation, the obvious problems are 'r' vs 'l'. As well as being able to distinguish 'sh' and 'ch' sounds. The basic word order in english as well as chinese is Subject Verb Object, however chinese has no true tenses like romance languages and learners? comprehension and ability to differentiate tenses can at first be a major hurdle to true language acquisition. This paper will focus on issues of tenses and those of pronunciation. The problem of tense differentiation can be better understood when one understands the formation of time conceptions in chinese This is obviously an issue for more advanced learners but it is a significant challenge and is rooted in the chinese expression of time that is incomparable to romance languages. chinese does not use different forms or tenses of the same verb to express time, but rather adverbs and context associated with either the past, future, or present (Fat). Take for example the verb ?to go? in chinese is CHU ? , because chinese is formed by ideograms one cannot simply alter the character to change the tense, it would become a different word all together. Instead to express ?went? or that the subject has ?gone? in the past one would say CHUGUO ??? ? has not meaning unto itself but is a grammatical indicator, signaling that the action preceding it is complete, and depending on the context of the sentence, an approximate tense can be deduced. This is a simple example but there is quite a bit to equating tenses in a tenseless language. For a chinese student learning to conjugate verbs is literally a foreign concept, to them altering a word and forming a finite tense makes no semantic sense. I personally have many chinese friends and they all said one of the hardest struggles after pronunciation was conceptualizing and forming proper tenses. For the teacher of chinese EFL students this poses a unique challenge. The next task, that of pronunciation, is a constant struggle even for advanced learners of english coming from a Mandarin chinese background. According to MiddleKingdomLife.com,part of the problem of pronunciation stems from the ideographic nature of chinese (?Difficulties Faced?). So pronouncing an aggregation of sounds based on our alphabet is a new skill. Compound this with the ?stressed/unstressed? meter of english and the problem gets more complicated. chinese syllables are stressed equally which can result in awkward or monotone sounding english when spoken by chinese learners. This at first may not seem like an important characteristic to a native speaker, but try to communicate with chinese or Asian student who may know all the right words but cannot stress them properly and communication can break down very quickly. The stereotypical ?R? vs. ?L? phenomenon stems from the lack of these sounds in Mandarin. Mandarin has many fewer consonant sounds than does english and new sounds are frequently dropped by chinese EFL students (Fat). The problems of tenses and pronunciation described above merely scratch the surface of the challenges faced by chinese EFL students. I know this because of the myriad of information available on the subject and because I have been in their shoes in reverse. The two languages could not be further apart in pronunciation and the concept and expression of time are likewise on opposite poles. While these challenges may be daunting, they are not insurmountable. I was lucky enough to have excellent teachers of chinese and hope to bring a helpful and insightful perspective to chinese EFL students in the future. Works Cited "Difficulties Faced by chinese EFL Students." Middle Kingdom Life. Web. 28 May 2011. . Fat, Manfred. "Problems Faced By chinese Learners." TELUS Internet Services - Member Services. Aug. 2004. Web. 01 June 2011. .
