Oh Now They're Banning China Spreading Chinese In The UK!
20903 Views June 26, 2022 58 Comments Guest Analyses amarynth
There is a concerted effort by the Western powers to contain the spread of Chinese and to prevent China from teaching Mandarin in the West
By Thorsten J. Pattberg for the Saker Blog
Much of the global media attention is on the sabotaging of everything 'Russian' in the West. However, at the same time there is a concerted Western attack on everything 'Chinese'.
The UK now is basically saying: 'Chinese' is the property of the West, and China has no business in teaching Chinese in the West. Something like that. It is definitely spooky.
A British Member of Parliament (MP), Alicia Kearns, recently delivered a strong message to China at the Palace of Westminster, which was attended by maybe 20 of her social mores:
"Our students, our kids, our under-18-years olds are taught Mandarin by the Confucius Institutes which are the arm of the Chinese state."
She goes on and bashes a 1.4 billion Chinese state just like that, for click-bait and going viral. So we believe MP Kearns is what the UK deserves, and want to promote her. She calls China "a genocidal regime" and demands the 30 UK Confucius Institutes to be punished or "banned." Wow.
Not knowing Mandarin, many British elites fear Chinese. Fear is a German concept: Angst. And Angst leads to Ohnmacht. Ohnmacht means "without power."
Did I just use a foreign language and it sounded like a political statement?
The MP knows the effect a foreign language has on fearful natives. To her, language is of course always politics. Therefore, China must not spread Chinese, because it's all politics.
She continued: "We recently discovered that Edinburgh University's Confucius Institute has representatives of the Chinese Communist Party's embassy on its board."
Oh there are Chinese on the board of the Confucius Institute for Scotland—is that it?!
But the director is a German woman, trained and funded all her life by the powers in Berlin, and Berlin wants Scotland to break off from the UK and join the EU. Think about that, MP Kearns.
British China Studies is heavy stuff, compared to German China Studies, I mean.
This has to do with the British having bombarded Chinese ports in Guangzhou in 1839, the capture of Hong Kong in 1842, the burning down of the Summer Palace in 1860, and the drugging of 30 million Chinese with heavy narcotics.
During the last 150 years of "exchange," the British meddled in Tibet, Taiwan, Peking, Shanghai and Canton, but never learned Chinese. Call it an "import ban."
So the past is the past, and now 'Global Britain'—the official UK slogan under MP Kearns—has this huge pent-up demand for Chinese culture, concepts and terms, right?
Those Confucius Institutes our British MP wants to ban are providing the most authentic, accredited and prestigious Chinese language training there is.
China has the best China Studies universities in the world, and the Confucius Institutes are the best places for learning Chinese outside of China. Period.
I know that many British imperialists still believe No we British are China. But sorry, you are not—China is!
Mastering Chinese requires thousands of hours of hard recitation, rote learning and love for China. Before the arrival of the Confucius Institutes in Europe in 2004, Western professors could not read or write Mandarin. Now they have to.
And the MP continued, that China is "undermining the integrity of the Mandarin education in our country."
Mandarin education in your country can keep up with China precisely because it cooperates with China, for instance the London School of Economics or the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Read the latter school's slogan—'SOAS, the world's leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East'.
Well, SOAS wasn't the world's leading institution in any of these things, and certainly not China. China has the world's leading institutions for the study of China. But now SOAS has a real Confucius Institute and things look much better.
Back to our MP's politics fear. She went on about how China's Ministry of Education is a threat to freedom because it only selects qualified teachers.
Think, what she is indirectly saying about UK teachers. She is saying that the UK does not vet its teachers! Just like that German director at Edinburgh University, got it? And just like MP Kearns, who doesn't know Chinese but wants to ban it.
The British MP must know that the Confucius Institutes are partly funded by China and partly funded by the host university, and that they generate tuition fees and partner up with British culture makers. All this is transparent, so MP Kearns demands more transparency. She could also have demanded more weather.
There are 100 million Mandarin learners in the world, and most will achieve proficiency when they visit China eventually. About 40% of them study Chinese not in China, and the best place for them to do that is with an accredited Confucius Institute. Britain has no expertness in teaching Chinese, China is best at that. Britain can teach… I don't know, Irish best?
British educators also fear its name—Confucius. Confucius lived some 2500 years ago, and this could indeed cause misunderstanding. We don't name European institutes the "Jesus Christ Institutes." Just saying.
Last, a fair criticism is spies. Britain indeed has a James Bond agent 007 obsession with spies, which is a fiction. Here is how it really works. Before 2003, there were at most 300 China Studies masters graduates in the UK, and MI6, MI5 and DI intelligence services recruited from those because they could read Mandarin, also in Edinburgh.
On the other hand, there were years with 100,000 Chinese students in the UK who could all read English, so everyone is paranoid now.
Well done, if the British MP succeeds in keeping China out of China Studies, this could cancel 'Global Britain' once and for all. And Scotland is probably on its way out too.
The author is a German writer and cultural critic.
Thorsten J. Pattberg
JGarbo on June 26, 2022 · at 7:41 am EST/EDT
The British again have missed the point. Chinese will probably be the next "lingua franca". Its traditional orthography is daunting, though its Latin syllabary, pin yin, is simple, accurate, and learned in an hour.
Its dreaded 5 tones (English has 6) are easy to master.
Oh, and it's easier than Thai, which has 46 consonants and about 125 vowels. I speak both, and Thai friends agree that Chinese is ง่าย ๆ – very easy. So relax.
Prof. Spudd on June 26, 2022 · at 10:09 am EST/EDT
Chinese has a very simple grammar so it's actually much easier for computer translators to handle it than Japanese or Korean.
Emmett Pierce on June 26, 2022 · at 2:48 pm EST/EDT
If we ban everything except English language then we can control the worldwide language & control the pronouns is the thinking of narrow minded people. Just maybe we could control mathematics, history, and even society's. Thinking like this is insane from my point of view.Also, Governments want to control weather, what next ?
Obsequious on June 27, 2022 · at 4:55 am EST/EDT
@JGarbo,
I think it's unlikely that Chinese will be the next lingua franca because it's just too difficult for non-natives to master. To be sure, the Chinese grammar is indeed very simple, and some people such as yourself may even find that the spoken form of Chinese is easy. However, the logographic, non-phonetic writing system would stump even the most fanatical learners of the Chinese language.
Plus, I think the position of English as the global lingua franca is pretty well entrenched and it would likely persist even after the end of the Anglo-American domination of the world.
Wim on June 27, 2022 · at 8:41 am EST/EDT
I spent some time learning Japanese. That uses part of the Chinese characters. Only people who start learning them as children can really master them. Adult academics must continually practice otherwise they start forgetting them.
So I have no illusion that Chinese will ever take the place of English. People with regular contact with Chinese will be able to speak it. But as only a few will ever be able to read it it is only good for verbal communication.
Tony Kaku on June 26, 2022 · at 8:17 am EST/EDT
Actually, there is a St Paul's School in London, and a few more in the US.
Gab on June 30, 2022 · at 4:55 am EST/EDT
Exactly… there are indeed institutes named after all kind of saints, named after Jesus Christ, named after famous ancient Christan scholars. Even the traditional banks' names are either Jewish surnames or Christian saints' names!
Jiri on June 26, 2022 · at 8:24 am EST/EDT
MP Kearns is merely reverting to the British Imperial past.
You see, the natives are not supposed to know anything about themselves. Everything they know about themselves must come via the British. What better way to control ?
This has worked out very well in India. The British were there ruling the place for 100+ years so they had time to get entrenched. One reason why India cannot openly support Zone B. As soon as it looks like India might go astray there is a riot somewhere, India gets a bad press, some human rights accusation etc.etc.
Omowale on June 26, 2022 · at 8:26 am EST/EDT
The White Supremacist System in Education of Western whites is so good for maintaining their mental health and feelings that they simply do not know what they have done historically and who they are. For instance, this lady thinks she is a champion in defense of Human Rights in the "Uyghur genocide" by China so denounced by BBC that in the same way has been defending the Human Rights of Nazis in Ukraine and fighting "China's racism against blacks".
Western Civilization is pathetic.
Cyberican on June 26, 2022 · at 10:04 am EST/EDT
The "Great Yellow Peril" has come back with a vengeance.
Holycow on June 26, 2022 · at 10:20 am EST/EDT
Mr Pattberg's mainland affiliations certainly makes him most qualified to judge on this topic.
Tollef Åsll on June 26, 2022 · at 10:21 am EST/EDT
Learning to read and write Chinese is easier than English, Japanese or Norwegian for nonnative speakers., depending a little bit on what one's first tongue is. Learning to read and write English or Chinese with functional mastery takes about as many years equally for school-age kids in Shànghǎi and Bĕijing or Hòngkōng as for children in Oxford, New Haven, or Melbourne.
Most comparative linguists who have mastered these languages would immediately agree on this..
For languages that are extremely hard and time-consuming to learn, try Japanese or Arabic for a turn.
Languages that are easier to learn than Modern English and Modern Standard Chinese: Check out Finnish, Faroese, Esperanto or Modern Hebrew!
I have been an official interpreter between Chinese, Scandinavian and English for some 35 years, and have taught English, Chinese and Japanese at College level for over ten (10) years in Oslo, Hángzhou and Tehrân.
bonks on June 26, 2022 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT
I'm afraid you can't speak for all because everyone has different experiences with languages. Personally Japanese is much easier than Chinese, but way below them is the English language, which I picked up within my first few years in primary school, while Mandarin took a decade.
Tollef Åsll on June 27, 2022 · at 4:23 am EST/EDT
Dear bonks;
Of course, everyone is different. But I base my statements on several scientific studies as well as years and years of teaching experience.
But first of all, the structure of one's mother tonuge (native language) has a lot to say for the ease or difficulty in adapting the next languages. For instance, Ethiopians (speaking Tigray or Amharic) find speaking Japanese far easier than Mandarin, due to sounds and word order and grammar having similar structures. Japanese hitch-hikers traveling up to North Cape (in Norway) had often built up a respectable vocabulary and passable pronunciation after less than a month in Finland. Sami people (or Sapmi, formerly called "Lapps") learn Finnish fast since the languages ar related.
Chinese and Vietnâmese and Thai are not related, but Vietnâmese and Thai students in China pick up both Mandarin and other regionalects very quickly. Chinese learn English faster and 2deeper" than North Americans or New Zeelanders learn Chinese.
Having secondary languages will often speed up learning tertiary languages.
But I was primarily addressing the issue of learning to read and write. Learning to spell English and Chinese are equally daunting tasks, but for native speakers easier than Japanese or French are for native speaking children
vientito on June 26, 2022 · at 10:30 am EST/EDT
That the British elites elect to do is a self defeating ploy. You only win a war by knowing first your enemy then yourself – quote from Sun Tze but that is just basic common sense, which they even have hard time to grapple with at the get-go.
Alex on June 26, 2022 · at 10:47 am EST/EDT
Meanwhile, at the Silk Street Shopping Center in Beijing the shops have 15 year old salesgirls who have no formal education but can speak 5 or 6 languages so they can barter with the tourists from around the world.
spooktme on June 26, 2022 · at 10:51 am EST/EDT
Took the statement of one MP and made it sound like the entire UK is behind this statement, gotta keep the cancel movement scary somehow I guess
ABC on June 26, 2022 · at 12:02 pm EST/EDT
Oh how alien we will always be, us chinks of sin.
The way of referring to Mandarin is Pǔtōnghuà which means "common tongue" or better yet, "speech of the common folk." Of course this person seeks to ban "Mandarin," since she does not stand for the people, but by the same corrupt elites that inflicted the centuries of humiliation on China.
Once a Saxon always a Saxon. Disgusting.
Seamus on June 26, 2022 · at 12:07 pm EST/EDT
Wow, the bias and stupidity in these comments far exceeds that of the execrable Tories. You do yourselves no favours, especially when you have the brass neck to use English. Furthermore, I doubt whether you know the meaning of the word shame.
known_unknown on June 26, 2022 · at 12:44 pm EST/EDT
"Furthermore, I doubt whether you know the meaning of the word shame."
I would ask the same of you. Those that you critique are commenting on the issue, yet you didn't even critique the article and/or issue there, that is why are the brits going down another rabbit hole of cancel culture? The author has a very valid point to make, who does a better job teaching Mandarin? Is it the brits? or would it be the Chinese?
I would suggest you should ask yourself why you're so offended by these remarks/comments? Maybe it's questioning your brit'ness….
Otter on June 26, 2022 · at 7:13 pm EST/EDT
And after Seamus replies, perhaps you would be kind enough to explain why you are so offended by him.
Prince Andrew on June 26, 2022 · at 11:04 pm EST/EDT
愚蠢的小白人男孩
Alabama on June 26, 2022 · at 12:16 pm EST/EDT
Some of these country's dont understand that their situation is being brought to its logical conclusion, and now they have more important things to learn, silly brits.
Tollef Åsll on June 26, 2022 · at 12:23 pm EST/EDT
The propaganda against everything of Russian origin in Music, Literature and Culture is nothing new, but something spawned and strewn all over the North Atlantis mindset for more than two hundred years by now. In the Napoleonic wars, my fatherland (in the Norwegian part of what was then The kingdom of Denmark) and Iceland as well as the Faroy isles also — was starved by the genocidal Brits who stopped delivery of cereals and corn from Continental Denmark. In the North of Norway, the fisheries were bad, and people there only survived due to the grain deliveries from Arkhangelsk — ordered by the Tzar himself!
This hatred against Russia started many centuries ago.
This hatred has lately been spawned from the seeds of Jewish Neo-conservatives in the US of North A and proponents of Western Christianity alike.
Now they are throwing works by Gogol(!) out of libraries in several Western European Satrapies since they believe it is Russian literature(!). Next will probably be "Quiet Flows the Don" (Sholocow) nd "The Cavalry Army" by a Jew from the Donbass also!
sovereigntea on June 26, 2022 · at 1:14 pm EST/EDT
Alicia Kearns Prior to being elected, I worked in counter-terrorism working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and then as an independent consultant across the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. Since joining Parliament I've been elected to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Joint Committee on National Security. I also launched the All Party Parliamentary Group on Geographically Protected Foods, for Bosnia and Herzegovina and for UK overseas territory Turks and Caicos.
What a tangled web we weave…
Name of donor: The Great Britain China Centre (executive non-departmental body of the FCDO, but also sponsored by HSBC, Prudential, abrdn and Arup)
Address of donor: 15 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PS
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Associated with participating in the Future Leader's Programme, for myself and a guest, three night's accommodation and food with a total value of £3,735.63
Date received: 9-12 November 2021
Date accepted: 9 November 2021
Donor status: company, registration 01196043
(Registered 3 December 2021)
members.parliament.uk/member/4805/registeredinterests
Even more amusing aside that we taxpayers paid for her leadership training and put up a guest of her chosing for a mere £3,735.63
Given her reported caustic outburst it seems fair to ask whether she was paying attention or just along for the taxpayer funded all expenses outing ?
The Great Britain-China Centre (GBCC) is an executive non-departmental public body established by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 1974 to support UK-China relations.
GBCC is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee operating as an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), receiving an annual grant-in-aid for core operations.
While aligning our work with the FCDO's strategy for relations with China, as an arm's length body GBCC remains independent from government with our own board of directors.
By improving understanding of how the Chinese system functions, we are growing a network of China-literate leaders able to coordinate and implement policy that serves the UK's long-term interests. GBCC draws on an extensive range of China expertise across the UK and globally to enrich the content of its intensive crash courses, masterclasses and its tailored programmes of China exposure for targeted stakeholders.
Our flagship capabilities initiative, the Future Leaders Programme connects parliamentarians, civil servants and business representatives in cohorts to enhance their capability to work with China across the full breadth of policy issues. The Programme combines knowledge building workshops, delivered in partnership with Oxford University China Centre, with bespoke engagement initiatives in China.
https://www.gbcc.org.uk/capabilities/future-leaders-programme
At the very least Kearns should apologise to the public for wasting our money and perhaps in the interests of diplomacy to China too.
Aussie Battler on June 27, 2022 · at 2:04 am EST/EDT
Good points,China will be the global economic powerhouse of the 21st century,that
ignorant Kearns is a typical moronic Brit,like many others in the conservative Gov,
getting out of the EU means that the UK needs all the trade it can get, but with this
mob of clowns China will put the UK at the back of the class with the dunces hat on.
The arrogance and stupidity is worn like a badge of honour.
Tollef Åsll on June 26, 2022 · at 1:53 pm EST/EDT
English — as i Í learned it in the "US" of´the North Atlantis as a 16-year-old aling Heigt.Ashbury during the false "summer of love2 in San Francisco 1967 — is of course the main instrumentl of Sodomites and Sin in our present World — languige-vice. , ideoloillogically and in practice.
A NORWEGIAN intellectual poet alrady wrote in 1962:
"The truth about the rose/
Is not sayable´le in any language /
soken by the good-ones./
Whoever says:
"Look at this rose"/
Lies about the desert /
where thornes are all the roses."
So M´Much for Georg Johannesen Bergensiensis.
I appeal to everyone to provide a good translation of his tirade.poem "Byen"('The City") from the early 1960ies!
Stephen Gurudev Gaskin on June 26, 2022 · at 3:19 pm EST/EDT
Bringing up the Summer of Love reminds me that the CIA drugged the ameriConned people in a massive way at the time … and not just running heroin out S/E Asia and Assramistan … crack from central america … even the opioid crush was a gov't scam.
The summer of love, besides being a commercial bonanza for clothing, candles that melted all over your Indian bedspread, rolling papers and records, was followed by the winter of speed, Charlie Manson, and other acceptable to the U$ administration pleasantries.
none on June 26, 2022 · at 1:57 pm EST/EDT
It's called Freedoms. One is FREE to enroll in whatever school one wants. If a Brit wants to learn Chinese, and can afford to enroll, then let them! If a Brit wants to learn French, then LET THEM. Why mess around with people's FREEDOMS?
Rhys Jaggar on June 26, 2022 · at 4:41 pm EST/EDT
The reality of 'language' is totally dependent on how your fit in in the society you grow up in.
If you feel grounded, settled, happily integrated into your local society, you won't have a driving desire to learn foreign languages (many in the UK, France and the USA feel like that), unless of course you live in a small country with an unpopular language globally and hence you learn more popular ones for career reasons (the Dutch are a good example of that).
However, if you are an outsider in your home society, new languages can be an intrinsic part of a plan to escape someday. You can develop completely different psyches when communicating in a new language if you are treated very differently in the countries which use that language. I personally never had any feeling of belonging at all in the UK, whereas although I was never the centre of life in German-speaking nations, I had an indelible feeling of belonging, being respected, politely welcomed etc etc. The effect was that my Germanic psyche was extremely optimistic, grounded and happy,, in total contrast to my UK psyche.
Of course, the last thing the UK wants is millions feeling closer to the Chinese than they do to the UK government. They don't want millions of confident Britons emigrating to China, so they will do what the US tells them to and scare people about China and Chinese. My advice to the young is to totally ignore them and get to meet some real Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Thai/Indonesian people. You'll find they are pretty like UK people, although their traditions will of course be somewhat different and family units may have different hierarchies and priorities sometimes.
In the UK of course, you need to be silent before leaving. As soon as you confront the limitations of your home society, you are finished. The UK is uniquely hateful of anyone addressing problems directly and overtly, because as a nation it is abusive, based on enormous amounts of emotional and spiritual repression, not to mention dog-eat-dog cultures of professional vandalism.
The way Britain works is that the power grabbers, who in the main are intellectual third/fifth raters, are experts at trashing those with the insights, which they steal with impunity whilst destroying the prospects of their intellectual superior.
It's not a very good way to organise society, but it is part of the consequences of being 60 years past the dissolution of Empire and becoming subservient to the USA.
Hajduk on June 26, 2022 · at 4:42 pm EST/EDT
This article is a nothing-burger. For a start eighty to ninety percent of British Chinese people speak Cantonese or Hakka so there are some Chinese language schools in the UK that actually don't teach Mandarin.
The Confucius Institutes are soft power organisations that are indeed full of state operatives, exactly like their Western equivalents such as the British Institute. The real problem is that the Confucius Institutes insist on peddling unscientific state mythologies like the notion of a single Han race, and they also brazenly suppress and exclude the work of Taiwanese academics. It is this discrimination which has actually led to their falling out of favour with Western Universities. In due course these discredited institutes will have to be replaced by new Chinese soft power organisations, perhaps Mencius Institutes (as he was in fact the superior sage).
The half-witted extremist in the British Parliament whose neo-con outburst led to the writing of this article can be found in every Western government. So what? If the author wishes I can easily find equivalent Bundestag halfwits who meaningless outbursts bring equal shame on the glorious Fatherland. As an ethnic German the author should also perhaps exercise some additional caution when lecturing other nations on their colonial history (verkafferung, vernichtungsbefehl etc.)
Dr NG Maroudas on June 27, 2022 · at 3:34 am EST/EDT
@Rhys: "If you feel grounded, settled, happily integrated into your local society, you won't have a driving desire to learn foreign languages "
True for myself, a happily grounded English speaker quite content to let AI translate prose reports from foreign tongues. Except for poetry: I learnt a bit of Italian, German, French and Ancient Greek to "hear in my minds' ear" how Dante, Goethe, Hoelderlin, Baudelaire and Sappho "sounded"; because:
"The poetry is what gets left out of the translation" — Robert Frost.
Luiz on June 26, 2022 · at 5:24 pm EST/EDT
These West politician have nothing to do except creating disagreement with the East?
Their countries are deep in corruption, misery and crisis and they keep forcing. The best way to hide internal problems is creating a fact abroad. That's the strategy.
Aaron on June 26, 2022 · at 6:26 pm EST/EDT
Global Boofoons marching into irrelevance. Or are they there yet?
Another silly British women in politics. Click baiter, photo opportunities accumulator.
National Health fix. 2 hard
Housing fix. 2 hard
Energy security fix. 2 hard
Immigration fix. 2 hard
Public transport fix. 2 hard
Terminal decline fix. Beyond the pale.
G7 = Boris on the way out, Canucks dude, on the way out, German what's his name, on the way out. Then the silly unelected blonde chick in mens cloths, hanging around like a silent but deadly fart.
Where is Liz for laughs?
When the German middle class is not employed, comfortable with savings in the bank, the serious trouble begins.
Hitler was a tumour and the German patient had cancer for 12 years and then it died.
The rest of Germanys history is full of science, engineering, design and beautiful architecture. Beer and football without the English thug violence.
That is the Germany the world will dearly miss.
Christian J. Chuba on June 26, 2022 · at 7:51 pm EST/EDT
I've heard the prattling over the 'Confucius Institutes' before. They promote Chinese culture, I'm shocked. How could something called 'Confucius' have an association with China?
I find it interesting that our leaders in the West believe that any exposure to the dreaded Chinese state will undermine our countries. Where have I heard this before? Hmm … oh yeah, China has been worried that allowing Christianity to spread in their country would destroy their state.
In short, the U.K. and U.S. have proven that they are as bad as the country they hate so much.
eddie on June 26, 2022 · at 7:55 pm EST/EDT
Prior to the 2020 Covid pandemic, there were just under 500,000 foreign English teachers in China.. A Chinese school or kindergarden with a foreigner on staff had a certain prestige, and so justified higher tuition and fees..
In general, it takes an average westerner 3 years to properly learn Mandarin..
Petrel on June 26, 2022 · at 8:02 pm EST/EDT
The irony here is that the United Kingdom spends a fortune on 'British Institutes' all around the world promoting the learning of English, English Literature and culture, while hosting lectures and weekends by British scholars of everything from Archaeology, Architecture . . to Zoology.
Mind you, the UK version is far behind comparable programs run by France, not to mention the Goethe Institutes financed by Germany.
Tommy Jensen on June 26, 2022 · at 9:22 pm EST/EDT
More suicidal policy. By owning and centralising all MSM, they thought they could control propaganda/lies on a global scale.
The problem is precisely what is mentioned. By working out so many lies and false narratives, they ended up in either believing it themselves or they worked so intense in an environment with the lies so they became lies.
I would think both China and Russia would know the universal rule about language and thus, are just waiting for the confusion and break down this would cause:
"Above all it is essential to refer to things by their correct names. If things are not referred to by their correct names, then language will not reflect reality.
If our language does not reflect reality, then our actions will not reflect reality, and will be exercises in futility." (Confucius, 551-479 BC)
China was/is only doing UK, US and elsewhere a pleasant favour. But nobody except Putin can fight stupid.
Louis Robert on June 26, 2022 · at 9:23 pm EST/EDT
So in the UK the Mandarin Peril has now been added to the Yellow Peril?
If that were not so petty and laughable, one would have to emphasize endlessly how unmitigatedly sick that was…
Like it or not, UK, this century already is the Asian century. Better get used to it… and fast! Incidentally, Chinese youth already knows English…
Karl luck on June 26, 2022 · at 10:27 pm EST/EDT
Well, 2 days ago I read an article that said the CIA was using online courses to learn the Russian language. I guess the British can also resort to that soon.
In comments above things that surprise me:
I always thought Chinese was the hardest language to learn and it seems more easy.
I think Russia has introduced Chinese as the main alternative language in schools. It doesn't matter that the west bans Chinese for Africa and south America are learning it. It is called the future.
The fact that in a shopping district in China (above) the people who serve the tourists know several languages says it all. That's their future but what's ours?
Louis Robert on June 27, 2022 · at 4:47 am EST/EDT
"What's ours?"…
American humorist George Carlin long ago answered that question most pertinently: "circling the drain"!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsFpm4yAoMQ
Zefplok on June 26, 2022 · at 9:59 pm EST/EDT
Kaspersky Labs discover a new Worm. It's called Tru-SS. It seems to come from the Maryland USA. It tend to reproduce itselfs on the machines in the "Comonwealth" workgroup.
It infect Boric Systems Computers running the Winston 19.14 "Galipolli" exploitation system, It erase the file c:\Winston\System32\Human_Right.sys , deprivate access to hardware ressources making the system unstable and resulting in a kernel panic and a system crash.
It is recomendent to apply the MNP.exe hotfix to delete the virus.
To prevent further attacks , it is also recommended to update your Boric computer with Winston version 19.16 "Ypres" or step up to major update 19.40 "Darkest Hours".
The Tory Trash should ban Mandarin- most Little Englanders have trouble speaking English let alone some Johnny Foreigner nonsense….toddle-pip!
Citizenfitz on June 26, 2022 · at 11:58 pm EST/EDT
Good Lord! It's about time for that noxious, self important island near to France to get humbled.
Avenue on June 27, 2022 · at 4:29 am EST/EDT
I'm not sure what the author has against SOAS but it's a fine institution, my daughter studied Chinese there. It teaches Mandarin in a strict and formal manner taught by native speakers and emphasises equally the written as well as the spoken language. You also spend a year at a Chinese University as part of the course.
You can also learn Cantonese if you want and one of the few places to study Tibetan, Nepalese, Malay, Indonesian, Hindi, Urdu, Farsi and other eastern and African languages in the UK.
The staff at SOAS are very well aware of the importance of China I wouldn't take anything that an imbecile like Alicia Kearns says at face value.
By the way the author could do with a few English lessons.
Chew Chow on June 27, 2022 · at 5:25 am EST/EDT
The "West" is in the stranglehold of Talmudist/Kabalist control. Satanist all.
Makedonia on June 27, 2022 · at 5:50 am EST/EDT
The greatest cultural crime of the 20th and 21st centuries was to make English the world's international language. An immediate result of this is the Anglo-Saxon thinking they are exceptional and culturally superior to the rest of the world. Even more disappointing is how easily other non-English speaking countries have adopted English alongside their own indigenous languages.
I think it would be a good idea that SCO, BRICS, etc, also include Esperanto as one of the official languages, though it would hardly be used but to give the impression that no one country has linguistic dominance over others.
joey_n on June 27, 2022 · at 4:35 pm EST/EDT
Esperanto also has the advantage of being phonetically consistent with its spelling. Each vowel has only one pronunciation. What you see is what you get.
* You know your system is screwed when you have things like 'I before E except after C'.
* When you can't spell 'danger' without 'anger'
* When the EA in 'head' and 'heat' unpredictably don't match. (There's another example here)
* When the letter A is pronounced as what other European languages call the letter E (e.g. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 baseball -> 🇪🇸 béisbol).
* When words like 'tomato' are pronounced differently depending on the region.
* When a word like 'color' is spelled in another region with an additional letter or two (in this case 'colour')
* When in one region the T in certain words sounds like a D (e.g. did he say 'ladder' or 'latter'? Or 'larrer'?)
All this works (or doesn't) to a degree that languages like Spanish, German and Russian, while not without their own flaws, look like more deserving languages than English IMHO.
Hajduk on June 27, 2022 · at 6:38 am EST/EDT
'She calls China "a genocidal regime" and demands the 30 UK Confucius Institutes to be punished or "banned." Wow.'
The use of the word 'regime' is Western propaganda but the Chinese genocide of Tibetans is a fact.
'Oh there are Chinese on the board of the Confucius Institute for Scotland—is that it?'
It is the use of 'embassy staff' to front an allegedly non-political organisation that is the problem. I've met many Confucius Institute staff and in many cases it was blatently obvious that they were military officers rather than academics. The PRC just needs to acquire some greater subtlety in this regard (in comparison British agents inside the British Institute always look the part).
'This has to do with the British having bombarded Chinese ports in Guangzhou in 1839, the capture of Hong Kong in 1842, the burning down of the Summer Palace in 1860, and the drugging of 30 million Chinese with heavy narcotics'.
The British connection to China is born of centuries of friendship and trade in Hong Kong and Malaya. The opium trade was a joint Chinese-Scottish criminal enterprise. The commander of the international force during the Boxer Rebellion was Graf von Waldersee.
'During the last 150 years of "exchange," the British meddled in Tibet, Taiwan, Peking, Shanghai and Canton, but never learned Chinese. Call it an "import ban."
Sir Thomas Wade, A.C. Graham, Joseph Needham; the list of expert British Sinologists is a very long one.
'Those Confucius Institutes our British MP wants to ban are providing the most authentic, accredited and prestigious Chinese language training there is'.
Unless you are a Cantonese speaker or a Taiwanese Mandarin speaker (using traditional characters), in which case the PRC's offerings are next to useless. Throughout this article the author incorrectly equates the Chinese language with the PRC's preferred version of Northern Mandarin.
'China has the best China Studies universities in the world, and the Confucius Institutes are the best places for learning Chinese outside of China. Period.'
The last place one should search for traditional Chinese culture is in mainland China (where it has been almost entirely eradicated). The PRC's version of Chinese culture is just a plastic Mulan figurine. The only places where traditional Chinese culture can still be found are in Taiwan and the diaspora Chinese communities.
'Before the arrival of the Confucius Institutes in Europe in 2004, Western professors could not read or write Mandarin. Now they have to.'
Chinese language isn't just Mandarin, and the notion that hundreds of British Sinologists couldn't read simplified Mandarin prior to 2004 is laughable nonsense.
'Well, SOAS wasn't the world's leading institution in any of these things, and certainly not China. China has the world's leading institutions for the study of China'.
SOAS actually specialises in minor languages and it was founded in 1916 (long before the author's beloved People's Republic).
'Britain has no expertness in teaching Chinese, China is best at that. Britain can teach… I don't know, Irish best?'
Yet more unsubstantiated opinion. For millenia one could become Chinese simply by fully acquiring Chinese language and culture, as happened to innumerable Central Asians. It is only the present day Maoists who have turned this civilisational term into a purely racial one.
'British educators also fear its name—Confucius. Confucius lived some 2500 years ago, and this could indeed cause misunderstanding.'
What I don't understand is the sheer gall of the Chinese Communist Party in using the name of a sage whose temple and relics they systematically despoiled.
'Before 2003, there were at most 300 China Studies masters graduates in the UK'
In addition there are nearly one million British Chinese people. The British intelligence services do indeed recruit Mandarin speaking British graduates, mainly for GCHQ, but their grasp of traditional Chinese culture is almost non-existant. If your knowledge and experience is entirely confined to the PRC then you will not have a decent grasp of Chinese civilisation.
Karl luck on June 27, 2022 · at 9:58 pm EST/EDT
What a warped understanding of history,but like the one Syrian, Iranian, Uyghur and some many more paid or with personal vendettas; you spout your hatred.
But let me tell you something and all your alikes; stay in Europe or north America where I soon will leave.
( Removed,MOD. Personal attacks violate the blog rules. Please stop making personal attacks.)
China spent a lot of money in the west promoting friendship, but never understood the depth of white racism/ supremacy beliefs. That has now changed.
Karl luck on June 28, 2022 · at 12:22 am EST/EDT
I guess personal attacks against Chinese or other coloured people are allowed. It's is time to start talking to the global south and leave the west behind.
Tomorrow is another day.
Many years ago I was a South African citizen, so my home is actually Africa, rather than Europe or America as you ignorantly assume. Aside from white South Africans and Namibians there are also white skinned Berbers who have lived in Africa since remote antiquity.
Your own understanding of history is clearly warped by an obsession with skin pigmentation. In my posts I never actually mentioned Chinese people, only the Chinese Communist Party. You interpreted this as 'personal attacks against Chinese or other coloured people' which indicates that you have an agenda of your own, that is unrelated to the content of my posts, or indeed to any kind of reality.
Wherever you end up I hope you take the opportunity to improve your education, because the truth is that all humans are brothers and sisters. Anyone who discriminates against others on the basis of their appearance is sorely lacking in education and intelligence (this applies equally to BLM activists and Klansmen).
Orisha19 on June 28, 2022 · at 2:57 pm EST/EDT
You are missing one key ingredient in your brotherly analysis and that is called power. Unless that is immediately addressed no rational call for brotherhood can be made.
William Wilson on June 27, 2022 · at 11:04 am EST/EDT
The chosen ones are busy having their piglets learning chinese — and inter breeding with chinese as well, their tried and true infiltration tactic.
Uncle Bob on June 27, 2022 · at 12:30 pm EST/EDT
By the British thinking China should degree that only Chinese be allowed to teach English in China. I wonder if they ever think about that.
RT on June 27, 2022 · at 12:35 pm EST/EDT
The "Confucius Institutes" are truly the propaganda arms of the Communist Party of China (CPC). And this "institute" is the tool in which CPC is using to infiltrate and influence the West through the guise of "teaching Chinese language and culture". The title of this article is very misleading because the UK is not banning the teaching of Chinese, rather, it is banning the propaganda arms of the CPC. The Confucius Institutes are here in the US as well and they serve the same purpose.
For any Americans or British that wants to learn Chinese, they do not have to go to these institutes. There are many non-Communists sponsored sources to go to to learn Chinese and you can learn Chinese in both the traditional characters (HK, Taiwan, oversea Chinese) or simplified characters (Mainland, Singapore). And even though nowadays simplified characters and pinyin system are becoming more popular and dominant, it is still good to learn the traditional Chinese characters. For someone who knows the traditional Chinese it is easy to learn the simplified, for someone who only knows the simplified characters, it is harder to learn traditional characters and the 2000 years of Chinese historical writings and literature (from 200 BC up to 1960s) are off limits to the people who only can read simplified characters. There's even a movement within Mainland Chinese to gradually go back and use more traditional characters.
In any case, UK is not banning the teaching and learning of Chinese. It is only trying to shut down these CPC institutes that have political agendas hidden behind the cover of language and culture. Besides, the great Communist Party of China was the single worst enemy of Chinese culture, language and heritage. The Great Cultural Revolution single-handedly destroyed more things Chinese than all the previous dynasties and all enemies of China could ever image!
So, learn the Chinese language, learn the Chinese culture and history, but don't learn them from the Communist Part of China.
SoTexGuy on June 28, 2022 · at 9:53 am EST/EDT
English being the 'Universal' language was a plus especially after it eclipsed German in science and technology.. But as in all things US and British our governments weaponized it. Controlling information and opinion. I'm handy with language but probably don't speak either French or Spanish as well as I imagine after a cognac or aguardentes! But my friends accommodate me. I know I'll never speak or read Chinese, it's probably genetic, or just plain stubbornness. What do I care if people speak or write in Chinese? A smile is universal. Cheers.
Digby on June 29, 2022 · at 5:04 am EST/EDT
English being the 'Universal' language was a plus especially after it eclipsed German in science and technology.
I'm not sure how it was – maybe you can explain why you think so.
If there's one thing going for German, while it's not perfect, at least (most) words in it are pronounced according to how they are spelled and vice-versa, unlike in English where it's unpredictable (e.g. the ea in words like 'heart', 'hear', 'heard' and 'head' aren't the same).