Cultural awareness
What’s the meaning of these colours in the Chinese
context? What kind of implications do they have?
Red, white, black, yellow, blue
What’s the meaning of these colours in the English
speaking world?
Red, white, black, yellow, blue
Cultural awareness and common errors in
English
LAI Fungkuen, Eva
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Compliments
 Compliments are intended to create a positive effect on
interpersonal relations and English speakers confirm solidarity
with the previous speaker by agreeing with their assertion, e.g.
A: It’s getting a bit chilly today.
B: Yes, it’s dropped to 15 degrees.
 Leech’s (1983) Politeness Maxim states that people agree with
the speaker and their response to an utterance is an agreement
to it. Leech’s Modesty Maxim, on the other hand, states that in
some eastern cultures including the Chinese culture, people try
to avoid self-praise.
Politeness Maxim and the Modesty Maxim
 Cher (2001) reported a research showing 46% of Chinese used
non-agreement or scale- down type of responses to
compliments while only19% of British people used this kind
of response. On the other hand, 50% of the responses to
compliments of English speakers are of the agreement type
while only 25% of the Chinese falls into this category. This
can be explained by looking at the conflict between the
Politeness Maxim and the Modesty Maxim. When there is
conflict, the Chinese take modesty as the overriding maxim
and they tone down or reject the compliments. But the English
speaking people treat agreement as polite and they accept the
compliments readily.
•An example of the differences between the Chinese and the
English speaking people regarding the Politeness Maxim and
the Modesty Maxim.
After a class observation, the visitor said:
It was really wonderful, very good indeed.
Chinese teacher:
I feel embarrassed, showing off.
English speaking teacher:
Thank you. I am so glad you liked it.
 Even after a short meeting, English speaking people would thank
their new friends, e.g.
It was a delight to meet you and share your vitality, enthusiasm and knowledge.
Thank you for taking the time to meet with us. I would have liked to spend more
time with you, and learn more about your work. Next time.
I’m back now, in a cold, bleak-looking Auckland.
A Chinese way in taking compliments.
 Here is the well-known joke about a Chinese lady’s rejecting
compliments.
 A Chinese lady went to a dinner party where foreign guests
were present. She was wearing a very nice Chinese dinner
dress and some English speaking friends greeted her with
compliments when they met her.
 “Hello, Lily. How nice to see you again! You look really very
beautiful!”
 “Oh, where? Where? “(那里, 那里! She translated the Chinese
disagreement directly into English.”
 “Oh, …everywhere.” (The English speakers were puzzled by
her response and hesitated a bit before answering taking the
question literally.)
Points for Chinese learners to note
 What should we say when English speaking people praise you
then? Just say Thank you nicely. Or you can return the
compliment, “Thank you. You’re looking gorgeous too!” If
people praise you for something you have done, you can say,
“Thank you. I am so glad you like it.”
 Another area of cultural awareness is to do with offensive
statements/ acts. For the Chinese, being old is good and is
respected. So the word old is used freely. For English
speaking people, they consider age something private and has
nothing to do with being respected or not. We should not ask
others their age. In fact, they avoid using the word “old” and
call old people “senior citizens”.
The Politeness Maxim for disagreeing
 The Politeness Maxim in terms of agreeing to an earlier
statement also plays a role in discussions when people reject
points raised. Instead of expressing disagreement straight
away, English people would say something positive first like
this:
 “That’s a very interesting point, but given the economic
downturn, it may not be a good idea to implement such drastic
changes.”
 “You have a valid point there and I can go along with you to a
certain extent. But I’m afraid the young people do not like
dark colours these days.”
Errors made by Chinese learners
 An analysis of texts produced by Chinese learners of English
shows that the rate of errors is 0.06 and in general it is
declining as the learners’ proficiency level becomes higher
(Gui, 2001). It would be useful if teachers pick out the
common errors and explain to students the proper usage to
help them get rid of them. They can then communicate more
effectively in English. The rest of this paper is to explain how
some common errors can be eradicated.
A little story to share
 First, let me share a true story with you. A teacher was
annoyed that her Secondary One students were very much
below average in English standard. She exclaimed, “They
don’t even know the 26 alphabets!”
 As a matter of fact, this teacher had made a mistake herself.
There is only one English alphabet and it consists of 26 letters.
The problem lies with the misguided translation:
= 字母表 and letter = 字母.
alphabet
Common errors among learners
 If our teachers as well as our students can get rid of common
errors, then native English speakers can understand us better
and communication will be more effective. The following list
of common errors come from Chinese learners of English. The
errors occur because of direct translation from Chinese to
English, a wrong concept or insufficient exposure to English.
What’s the difference?
 Mind your head.
 Mind your business vs Mind your job?
See the difference?
 The sign “Mind your head 小心碰頭” on a bus is used to
warn tall passengers not to bump their heads against the stairs
or the door. But if our learners say “Mind your job” meaning
“小心工作” then it is completely wrong. We do have “Mind
your business”, but not “Mind your job”. Mind your business
means 少管閒事 as in “Mind your business, and keep your
nose out of mine!”
Is this correct?
 “Please teach me some listening skills, for example, which word in a
sentence should be concentrated on.”
English words with the same Chinese translation
A student asked me to teach him some listening skills. He said,
“Please teach me some listening skills, for example, which
word in a sentence should be concentrated on.” Here he
should say, “I don’t know which word I should focus on when
I listen to an English sentence.” The word concentrate 集中is
more often used like this:
 With so much noise outside, I can’t concentrate on my work.
In a shopping centre in a Chinese city, there’s a notice which
reads
Notice the security!
注意安全! Can you see how wrong it is?
Funny may not be “funny”
 An office worker once told me, “I in charge the Finance Department,
but it is funny that our Department has only two people which has already
included me.”
The mistake here is that “in charge” is not a verb. There must be
a “verb to be” to go with it. The sentence should be ““I am in
charge of the Finance Department.”
The latter part of the sentence should be “It is funny that there
are only two people in our department including me.”
The word “funny” is often wrongly used and hence we have to
be particularly careful. In the previous sentence, “funny”
means 古怪 more than anything else. But “funny” can mean
these:
 That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. (有趣)
 I feel a bit funny today—I don’t think I’ll go to work.(不舒服)
Funny vs interesting
Some learners get confused between “funny” and “interesting”. They
wanted to praise someone’s presentation as 有趣and said, “Your
presentation is funny.” But the listener would be offended if he/ she
interpreted that to mean 古怪 which was not the intention.
It is better to say:
 Your presentation is very interesting. Thank you.
 Transport or travel
The transport time for home to office is 40 minutes. *
 Rest room or Common Room
If there is a rest room for staff to eat their lunch, it saves time.*
 My English is not well. vs My English is not good.
Happy, sad, bitter, unhappy
Some students don’t know the opposite of “happy” 樂 and say bitter 苦.
But it should be “unhappy” or “sad”.
Happy:
 She is a happy girl as she enjoys life.
Unhappy:
 I am unhappy about the new house. It isn’t what I expected.
Sad:
 His death has made us all very sad.
But the word “bitter” shows a different kind of 苦, for example,
Failing the university entrance examination was a bitter disappointment.
He pushed Sarah out into the bitter cold.
Some more easily confused words:

Another example of this kind of error: “Except the Youth
Centres, our Recreational and Cultural Department also sets up many
sports programmes for young people.”
 Here the student thought “except” meant 除此之外, but it
should be “In addition to managing Youth Centres, our
Recreational and Cultural Department also sets up many
sports programmes for young people.”
Try to fit the meaning in : (strange) (dishonest)(amusing)
 He told us funny stories and we all laughed.
 I had a funny feeling that something had gone wrong.
 There was some funny business going on here.
Can you detect any errors in the following?
A final year student wanted to apply for a job and he wrote as the
start in his application letter:
 “Having attended the recruitment talk, your company impressed me a lot
and I would like to apply for the post of management trainee.”
Here is a very common error even among native speakers. The
phrase “Having attended the recruitment talk,” must be
followed by the subject of the sentence. Here the student
attended the talk, not the company and hence it should be
“Having attended the recruitment talk, I was most impressed
by your company…..”
Check and see:
 “The mother tongue of Hong Kong people are Cantonese.”
Again many students get confused and they thought that after
people we should use “are”. But in fact, it should be “The
mother tongue is Cantonese.” “of Hong Kong people” tells us
a bit more about the mother tongue.
 A managing director from a company wrote to our centre with
this sentence in the last paragraph: I will be in Hong Kong
between the 7th to the 11th of April and hope that your Director
can find time to see me for 30 minutes in order to equate
myself with your centre and discuss equipment trends in Hong
Kong. “to equate myself” = to acquaint myself?
See the difference?
 Still on semantics, we have to be very careful with English
words, no matter how simple they may look. For example, once
a student said “Serve you right” to praise his friend because he
thought it meant 為你的服務是對的. But in actual fact, this
saying is very negative and it means 活該 or 抵死 in Cantonese.
 Another pair that can easily confuse Chinese learners is “at last”
and “lastly”. While “at last” can mean 最後, it has the
additional sense of 終於, but “lastly” means 最後 in a series of
steps. For instance,
 Now at last attention is turned to the real problem.
 Lastly, check that the four layers are firmly in place.
See the difference?
 Great
Many urban areas had not really benefited to any great extent.
Tiger Woods is one of America’s great golfers.
 Large
A large family needs a large house.
Obviously what is helpful and what is unhelpful depends to a
large extent on the circumstances of the situation.
 Big
He’s big enough to go out without his parents.
The time has come to find a solution to prevent Britain becoming
one big, dangerous rubbish tip.
See the difference?
 Give
A third and important principle is that you should give yourself plenty of reward for
your success.
 Give out
There are radiators in the attic but they do not give out much warmth.
The band used to give out their addresses and phone numbers without hesitation.
Her patience finally gave out.
 Point out
Then you can write a piece for me which will point out the problems.
 Express
Mrs Singh had already expressed alarm at the number of notes she was going to have to
write to the school.
 Excuse
 Each student has a separate excuse for not doing homework.
 But there is no excuse for school textbooks to contain gender-biased language.
 knowledge
 From experience comes knowledge.
 Did the children gain a deeper knowledge and appreciation and love of the mass?
See the difference?
 Idea
‘I'm terribly sorry, but I really have no idea what you're talking about.'
However, most of the time we have little or no idea what action results from
articles in the Journal, or whether members would prefer other ways of
getting involved.
 View
There are indeed certain aspects of the marriage system of such societies
which support this point of view.
Their view tended to be that they were always `ready for action'.
 Opinion
In my opinion another hopeful tendency in contemporary music in Russia is
connected with using rich theatrical traditions and avante garde art from the
beginning of the 20th century.
 Impression
Well, that's the impression I get, listening to you talk.'
A very common error in Hong Kong learners
I suggest to go to the Guest House for our meeting.
 Often they will suggest calling in other experts such as
structural engineers or woodworm/damp specialists.
 We will suggest that these functions are still performed
to an impressive and significant degree.
 May I suggest that your readers lobby their MPs on this
subject?
 I suggest this as a purely private exercise.
Would you mind?
 Would you mind to check the schedule first?
 Would you mind telling me where you have just been,
and where you are going?'
 Would you mind answering some questions?
 Would you mind if I had the piano tuned?
 In fact, would you mind if I postponed the coffee just a
few moments more?'
Can you recall what errors we talk about in the
following?




 At last, Eva Law presented a souvenir to Prof. George.
At last at last it's reached you.
I feel that at last justice has returned to the Happy Valley.
Lastly, there are the libraries at the colleges, ranging from
Oxford and Cambridge to the most recent mergers of teachertraining and technical colleges.
She then sorts all the vests and folds them up and puts them in
the box, then the pants, then dresses and lastly cardigans.
Can you detect any errors in the following?
 Notice in a hotel during the SARS outbreak:
During this period, for the safety of all our guests, all staff and
visitors and all public areas are being disinfected regularly.
 Advertisement in UK newspapers right after SARS:
Hong Kong will take your breath away.
 Advertisement in HK newspapers for a teacher:
King’s International School
Two Year Old Class Teacher
 On the shop window:
Sale 50% UP 半價起
An interesting advertisement
)There was a beautiful poster with fireworks displayed
over the Victoria Habour and the description went as
follows: Hong Kong will take your breath away –
intended to mean 香港令人目不暇給.
But unfortunately, this poster was put up when Hong
Kong was experiencing SARS with everyone putting on
masks everywhere they went. So the sentence Hong
Kong will take your breath away could take its literal
meaning 香港令你窒息
) On the Chinese highway: 歡迎再次光臨
– Welcome the next time
The 5C Principles in business communication
 Concise: use plain English, get rid of irrelevant information or
unnecessary sentences.
 Clear: give concrete information as far as possible, don’t use
jargons, use conversational sentences.
 Courteous: be polite and considerate, do not use words that
can be offensive to some people
 Complete: provide all necessary information for the readers
to take action, answer all questions the clients asked
 Correct:check spelling, grammar, usage and tone to make
sure the text is appropriate for the situation, check numbers
and dates to make sure they are accurate
Turning negative “we” to positive “you” writing
 I want to send my congratulations on your success.
 We will ship your December 1, 2003 order today.
 We don’t refund if the returned item is dirty and not salable.
 To avoid further delay and inconvenience, we are sending this
report by Speed Post.
Read these and see how you feel
 Congratulations to you on your success!
 You should receive the 20 copies of The Cambridge
Encyclopedia of the English Language you ordered December
1 on or before December 30, 2003.
 We refund when the returned item is clean and re-salable.
 To enable your to get this report as soon as possible, we are
sending it by Speed Post.
 Try this:
 This information is being sent to you now so that we will
avoid later misunderstanding about how our university works.
This letter has violated all the 5C Principles. Rewrite it:
Have you emptied your safe deposit box? If you have, sign the
enclosed cancellation form and return it with the keys to the
box.
If you are using the box, send us your cheque for $400 to pay the
rent from December 1, 2003 to November 30, 2004.
Now take a look at this. How does it compare
with yours?
This is just a reminder that the rent on your safe deposit box has
expired.
If you wish to use the box for another year, please send in your
cheque for $400. You will then be paid up to November 30,
2004. If you have no further use for the box at this time, just
sign and return the enclosed form with the keys.
Whenever we can help you with any of our other customer
services, please let me know.