The Linguist_A personal guide to language learning

01. Introduction. Zhuangzi's Crooked Tree

Huizi said to Zhuangzi, \that it is useless for lumber. In the same way, your teachings have no practical use.\

Zhuangzi replied, \could rest in the gentle shade of its big branches or admire its rustic character. It only seems useless to you because you want to turn it into something else and don't know how to appreciate it for what it is. My teachings are like this.\

Zhuangzi, the Taoist philosopher, is supposed to have lived in China over 2,300 years ago. He encouraged people to achieve their potential through effortlessness, by not resisting their own natures.

His famous story about the crooked tree appeals to me for many reasons. Being in the forest industry, I know that a crooked tree is not suitable for making standard commodity lumber products, but it can make high quality decorative products which feature its natural beauty and individuality.

Such a tree has grown to a ripe old age by adapting itself to its environment. Whereas the trees in the industrial forest are straight and look alike, the crooked tree grew alone, or with a mixture of other trees of different ages and species. This kind of tree will resist wind and disease better than the more uniform

trees of the plantation forest.

And so it is with people who follow their natures and pursue their own path to self-fulfillment. They are more independent and more secure. A true language learner must be like this crooked tree of Zhuangzi.

That is why we chose a crooked tree as the logo for our new language learning system called The LinguistTM.

02. Introduction. Are You a Linguist?

Respect gods before demi-gods, heroes before men, and first among men your parents, but respect yourself most of all.

-Pythagoras, 6th century BC

As I see it, everyone is a potential linguist. By that, I mean that everyone can be fluent in another language. You do not have to be an intellectual or an academic. After all, a linguist is defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary in very simple terms:

Linguist: n. Person skilled in foreign languages.

Even speaking one foreign language qualifies a person as a linguist. To become a linguist is a matter of choice, and requires a certain state of mind. A linguist enjoys foreign languages and

appreciates the different ways that ideas are organized and expressed in different cultures. A linguist is at ease with people of another language and confident when learning new languages.

The first step towards becoming a linguist, towards learning a second language, is to realize that success depends not on the teacher but on the learner. Each learner must discover the language gradually in his or her own way. The teacher can only stimulate and inspire. Enrolling in a language school or taking a course will not ensure fluency. If the learner does not accept this simple fact, time and money spent on language programs will be wasted. Language schools and language learning systems may teach, but only the learner can learn.

Growing up in the English-speaking area of Montreal, a

predominantly French-speaking city, I remember that until the age of seventeen, I only spoke English. I was not interested in learning another language, although I had been taught French at school from the second grade and was surrounded by the French language. Yet today I can speak nine languages and have derived immense satisfaction and reward from being able to speak Mandarin Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Swedish, Cantonese and Italian.

In order to try to understand why this happened, I began writing down the history of my own language learning. I realized that it was only when I had a genuine desire to communicate or learn something meaningful in a new language that I was able to learn. When the subject of study was based on the details of the

language itself, I resisted. When teachers tried to impose abstract principles of grammar and then test me on them, I remained passive. But once I decided that I needed the language to connect with real people or a new culture, I would throw myself into the study of the language with passion and commitment. And I needed passion, because for me language learning was very hard work.

It was while learning Cantonese at the age of fifty-five that I became aware that language learning had become easier. Modern electronic technology and the Internet have revolutionized language study. First of all, the Internet provides a vast range of interesting and authentic second language content for learners to choose from, in both audio and electronic text formats. Second, content in electronic format allows the reader to access instant dictionary software and link to new context based learning systems. Finally, the Internet can serve as the hub for a community of learners and native speakers.

As I wrote my own story, I decided that I should try to develop a new approach to language learning based on the principles that worked for me, but taking advantage of modern technology to ensure that a new generation of language learners can learn more easily than I did. Under my direction, a small group of language learners and computer programmers immediately started developing these ideas into a comprehensive new language learning system. The more we worked on this project, the more excited we became about our potential to increase the number of real linguists worldwide, by making language learning

affordable, enjoyable and effective.

The word \intensity of international exchange that we are experiencing today. Some people declare themselves in favour of globalization, and others are against it. To me, globalization is an irresistible trend, an Inevitable direction of the evolution of our world. It is somewhat pointless to be \inevitable. It is more useful to invest time and energy in being able to enjoy and profit from globalization, by becoming a linguist.

I do not think globalization needs to lead to the domination of one language, such as English. Rather I see it as an opportunity for all people, including English speakers, to become better acquainted with other cultures. Paradoxically, now that the world seems a much smaller place, we are seeing a general renewal of interest in regional languages and identities. There is an increasing demand for effective methods of language learning, not only for dominant languages like English, but also for languages spoken by fewer people. The cost of preparing learning materials for these languages and the effort needed to learn them can be dramatically reduced by using The Linguist approach.

I am confident that this book and the methods described in it can help people to become linguists. I will be working hard to make it happen.

03. Introduction. About Learning English

English is well established as the most useful world language. The largest demand for second language instruction in the world is for English. Whether we like it or not, English dominates in business, science, travel and popular culture, not to mention the Internet. English is a rather clumsy language, combining the influences of Old English, Latin, Norman French and natural evolution. As a result, English has all kinds of inconsistencies of grammar and spelling to frustrate the learner. Yet English dominates, whereas artificial international languages like Esperanto have never had any following.

Two thousand years ago, or even five hundred years ago, it would have seemed ridiculous to suppose that the language spoken on a small damp North Atlantic island would one day be the world's most widely used language. Certainly Chinese, Latin, Greek, Arabic, or even Mongolian would, at various times in history, have seemed more likely candidates. Who knows what languages will be spoken in another five hundred years? As Spencer Wells explains in The Journey of Man, A Genetic Odyssey (Princeton University Press) \lingua franca of the Silk Road - in much the same way that English is the language of commerce today, by the twentieth century all dialects were extinct but one.\

If you are not a native speaker of English, then I encourage you to read this book in English. This may be the first book that you read in English, but you can do it. Perhaps most of the English content you have read up until now has consisted of short texts or articles. Perhaps the thought of reading a whole book in English is intimidating to you. It should not be.

This book, which contains over 4,000 of the most common English words, is presented in a mixed media format that is at the core of a language learning system we call The Linguist. By reading this book in conjunction with our system, you can be sure that these 4,000 words will become part of your active vocabulary.

This book is printed on paper, the most comfortable and intimate format. Books are portable and convenient. But I have also recorded the contents on a CD so that you can hear the language and allow it to stimulate those neural networks in your brain which respond to the spoken language. Finally, the book is available in electronic format so you can look up words using dictionary software and take advantage of the many functions you will find at our web site, www.thelinguist.com.

04. Introduction. About this Book

This book is divided into three sections that may be read in any order.

- A LANGUAGE ADVENTURE describes my experience in acquiring eight languages in a variety of environments and at different stages of my life. I include personal observations reflecting my curiosity about culture and history. These

observations may seem unrelated to language learning, but they are not. A linguist needs to be a curious adventurer.

- THE ATTITUDE OF A LINGUIST describes the attitudes that are essential to successful language study. More than any other factor, your attitude will determine your success in language learning. The description of these attitudes will reinforce conclusions that the reader will make in reading the autobiographical section.

- HOW TO LEARN LANGUAGES is about the nuts and bolts of how to learn languages. You may wish to read this section first; however, you should still read the whole book to fully understand what is required to become a linguist.

All languages are equally worthy of our attention. At The Linguist we hope to continue to expand the number of languages we offer. We are confident that when you see how easy and enjoyable it is to learn one language, you will want to learn another.

Once you are a member at The Linguist, you can use our site to learn as many languages as you want. Commit yourself to becoming a linguist!

05. A Language Adventure. The Start of the Journey

Happy the man who, like Ulysses, has made a fine voyage, or has won the Golden Fleece,

and then returns, experienced and knowledgeable, to spend the rest of his life among his family!

- Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560), French poet

Language learning is a form of travel, a journey of discovery. I started traveling when I was very young and have always found travel stimulating. A true linguist needs to be adventurous and to overcome the fear of the unknown. To illustrate this, let me tell you my story.

I was born in Sweden in 1945 and emigrated to Montreal, Canada as a five year old with my parents and older brother Tom. My memories begin in Canada. I have no recollection of having spoken any language other than English as a child, although I know that I spoke Swedish first. It is possible that having to learn a second language as a child helped me to become a better language learner as an adult. However, I know other people who emigrated to Canada as children and did not

become linguists. I also know people who were born in Canada and grew up only in English but have become excellent linguists. I attribute my success in language learning to a spirit of adventure and a willingness to study with a great deal of intensity. I believe others can do the same if they are prepared to embark on the exciting journey of language discovery.

One of my earliest memories of Montreal is an incident in 1952. A group of us six-year-olds had a favorite hiding place for our baseball bat. After school we always retrieved the bat and played baseball. One day the bat was gone. Immediately we deduced that it was the new boy from Estonia who had stolen the bat. It was obvious to us that it was him. He did not speak English well. He was the outsider. The only problem was that he had not taken the bat. He probably did not even know what a baseball bat was used for. In the end it was all settled amicably. I guess that I, after one year in Canada, was already accepted into the in group. Thereafter the boy from Estonia was too. This incident has always remained with me as an example of how people can unthinkingly stick together and resist the participation of an outsider.

But acceptance is a two way street. Insiders may initially resist a newcomer, but it is also up to the outsider to be adventurous and make the effort to be accepted. In most cases, when I have overcome my apprehensions and made the effort to be accepted by a different language group, the response has been more welcoming than I could have imagined. I think there are far more examples of newcomers hesitating or not making the effort

to join and thereby losing opportunities, than of newcomers being rejected. A language learner is by definition an outsider, coming from a different language group. You must take risks in order to be accepted. This is a major principle of language learning: be adventurous. It worked for me, and French was my first language adventure.

06. A Language Adventure. Two Solitudes in Montreal

The life of an English speaking Montrealer growing up in the Western part of the city in the 1950s was not very different from the life of English speaking North Americans elsewhere on the continent. To show their commitment to our new homeland, my parents decided that they would speak only English with my brother and me. I went to English school, had only English friends, listened to English radio and watched English television. As a result, by the time I turned seventeen in 1962, I was effectively a unilingual English speaker.

Of course we had French at school. I passed all my French classes with good marks, but I could not function in French in the real world. Most of the one million English speaking Montrealers of that day were not interested in communicating with their two million French speaking fellow citizens in French. English was the language of business and the dominant language of the North American continent. I was no exception to this general attitude. We were hardly aware of the larger French speaking city surrounding us. This all seems extraordinary now, but in those

days it was quite accurate to talk of \

I should point out that the reality of Montreal has changed in the last forty years. English speaking Montrealers are now among the most bilingual people in Canada. French has been made important and meaningful to them because of political changes in the Province of Quebec. As a result, Montreal is a vibrant city with a unique atmosphere of its own.

There is an important point here. Obviously it is an advantage for a language learner to live in an environment where the second language is spoken. However, this does not guarantee language acquisition. You must have a positive attitude towards the language and culture you are trying to learn. You cannot learn to communicate if you rely on a classroom where the focus is on trying to pass tests. Only a genuine desire to communicate with another culture can ensure language learning success.

At age seventeen, I entered McGill University. One of my courses was on French civilization. It was an awakening. I found the course fascinating. I suddenly became interested in French literature and theatre. With that came an interest in French singers, French food and the ambiance of French culture. I was suddenly dealing with the real language and real people. Our teacher was really French, not an English speaking person teaching French, as in high school. The texts we read were real books, not French text books specially prepared for language learners.

Perhaps because it was new to me, French culture seemed more free and spontaneous than the English speaking North American culture I had grown up with. It was an exotic new world. I suddenly wanted to learn French. I went to French theatre, made French speaking friends and started reading the French newspapers and listening to French radio. I became aware of the issues that concerned my French speaking fellow citizens and, through attending meetings and discussions, my French language skills improved naturally. I also gained an understanding of the aspirations and grievances of the French speaking Quebeckers.

The six million or so French speaking Quebeckers, descendants of a few tens of thousands of French settlers in the 17th century, had developed into a conservative and inward looking society as a means of self-protection against the growing influence of English speaking North America. The French language and the Catholic religion were the pillars of their identity.

Their conservative attitudes towards education and modern society had left them at a disadvantage in competing with English speaking Canadians, even within their own province of Quebec. Of course the English speaking minority in Quebec was only too glad to take advantage of this weakness to dominate in all areas of economic activity. Even though they controlled the politics, the French speakers were second class citizens in their own home.

A major sore point was the low status of the French language. Starting in 1960, a growing nationalist movement based on

French language rights and a constructive program of secularization, modernization and political activism brought about significant change in the province. Most of this change has been positive, even if there are examples of excess in defense of the French language. The French speaking society of Canada, and Quebec in particular, has its own specific characteristics. Efforts to preserve its cultural identity are justified. New immigrants are joining this French language community and bringing fresh influences as the nature of that society continues to evolve, just as immigrants are joining and redefining English Canada.

French was the first language I started to study seriously. I was not sure of just how fluent I could become. I cannot say that I was confident that I could succeed in speaking almost like a native speaker. That confidence would come later. Much later, when I started to learn other languages, I always had the confidence that I could learn to be as fluent as I wanted. Once you have mastered one new language you gain the confidence necessary to master other languages. You build up your confidence as you learn.

I became fluent in French by giving up the traditional approach of trying to perfect my grammar. Perfection did not matter anymore, only communicating did. I no longer disliked language learning. I read what I liked even if I did not understand all of it. I spoke with people who interested me, struggling to understand and to make myself understood. I was mostly interested in connecting with the culture. I also started to appreciate the sound and structure of the new language. When you move from

an attitude of resisting the strangeness of a language to an attitude of appreciating its unique ways of expression and turns of phrase, you are on your way to becoming a linguist.

07. A Language Adventure. I Take Charge of My Learning

I took charge of my learning, and stopped relying on my teachers. The teacher was only one of many resources available to me in a city like Montreal. All of a sudden, with no tests, no questions from teachers, and no grammar drills, my French skills took a great leap forward! I had achieved my first language breakthrough. I could feel the improvements in fluency,

comprehension and pronunciation. This made language learning exciting. I was speaking and listening to French in situations that interested me. I spoke to myself in French, imitating proper pronunciation as much as I could. Even when I did not understand what was said or had trouble expressing myself, it did not frustrate me. I was committed and I was enjoying the experience of communicating. There was no turning back. By taking my language learning out of the classroom, I had made it real.

I have held onto this central principle: learning done in real situations is always far superior to artificial contexts such as exercises, drills, or material specially designed for learners. Time spent in genuine and interesting conversation is a better learning environment than the formal classroom. I also discovered

another important principle of language learning: the learner has

to be in charge, seeking out the language, the people, the content. As the learner, I have to discover the words and the phrases that I am going to need. All too often it is the teacher or text books who decide which words you should learn. These words have no importance, and as a consequence are quickly forgotten.

08. A Language Adventure. Off To Europe. My Adventure Begins

The success of my efforts in Montreal made me more committed to mastering French and so I decided to go to France.

Commitment leads to success and success reinforces commitment.

In June of 1962, I quit my summer construction job and went to the Montreal docks to look for a working trip to Europe. For three days I climbed on board oceangoing freighters, asked to see the Captain and then offered to work in exchange for passage to Europe. On the third day I got lucky. A small German tramp steamer, the Gerda Schell out of Flensburg, had lost a sailor in Quebec City and needed a crewman for the return voyage. I was on my way.

Aside from the hard work and constant tossing of the small tramp ship on the North Atlantic, the voyage was an opportunity to experience just how inaccurate cultural

stereotypes can be. The crew was half German and half Spanish. Contrary to what I had been conditioned to expect, the

supposedly industrious Germans were laid back and often drunk, whereas the supposedly temperamental Spanish were

tremendously hard working and serious.

We arrived in London after ten days at sea. I ate as much as possible of the free food on the ship in the hope that I would save money by not having to eat for the next day. In fact, that strategy was not so wise and I ended up feeling ill.

London seemed an oddly exotic place to me, since everyone spoke English and yet it was so different from home. Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park has stuck in my memory, as has the old money system of shillings and pence and quids and bobs and guineas. I also remember that I spent one night sleeping on a sidewalk to get tickets to see Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare's Othello but then had trouble staying awake during the performance. I stayed in London for one week and then pressed on for the continent to pursue my language learning adventure.

I took the ferry from Dover in the United Kingdom and arrived in Ostende in Belgium after nightfall. A Flemish Belgian on a motor scooter gave me a lift to the medieval city of Bruges. I was young and ignorant and had not read the history of Flanders during the Middle Ages. Nor did I realize that the same kinds of language tensions that existed in Quebec were also burning in Belgium between the Flemish speakers and the French speakers. I would return later to Bruges to explore the well preserved medieval atmosphere of that town. But I was a young man in a hurry then, and the following day I hitchhiked on to France.

The French have a reputation for being rude, but the people I

met were friendly and hospitable. Outside of Lille in Northern France, I was picked up by two school teachers who allowed me to spend the night in a schoolroom, since this was the period of the summer vacation. Then they invited me out to dinner, where I met some people who drove me to Paris the next day. I can still remember the feeling as we drove down l'Avenue de la Grande Armée towards the Arc de Triomphe, which I had seen so often in film. I could not believe I was really there.

My French friends invited me to stay two weeks in their modest apartment in the 20th Arrondissement, a working-class district of Paris. I was given a short term job in a travel bureau doing translations. I lived and ate with these people for two delightful weeks, as I explored the city on foot and via the Metro (subway). My new friends included me on picnics to chateaux outside Paris and other social occasions. I was sorry when I finally decided to move on south.

I realized very early in my stay in France that even my less than perfect French enabled me to make friends and deal with people in a relaxed manner. I was not self-conscious nor concerned about how I sounded, I just enjoyed being able to communicate. Of course, I occasionally met Frenchmen who were not so friendly. It is true that many public employees take a particular delight in saying \is available, you are treated to a litany of rejection: \alors là, non, mais s?rement pas, mais cela va pas, non!\secret to survival in a foreign country or culture is to make light of the unpleasant and focus on the positive. My French was far

from perfect, and it was sometimes an uneven struggle against the more arrogant and impatient French fonctionnaires (officials) and shopkeepers. But today I do not remember too many unpleasant incidents because I did not attach much importance to them. I do remember, however, a case when my lack of French got me into trouble.

At one point in my first year in France I had an American girlfriend whose parents were working in Alicante, Spain. We decided to hitchhike there during the Easter holidays. I brought along a gift, a record by Georges Brassens, a popular French chansonnier. Being a converted Francophile, I took great pleasure in listening to his songs even though I did not always understand the words. Unfortunately, I did not realize that his words can be quite spicy, if not outright pornographic. When my hosts listened to the gift that I had brought, they were shocked. I think they were concerned about the kind of company their daughter was keeping.

I stayed in France for three years. My first year was in Grenoble, an industrial city in the French Alps. Unfortunately, I never had the time to ski. If I wasn't studying, I was working. At various times I pressed bales of waste paper and drove a delivery van for a printing shop, was busboy in the Park Hotel, hawked the France Soir newspaper in the major squares and cafés of

Grenoble, and taught English. I even managed to play hockey for the Grenoble University hockey team. An added attraction of Grenoble was the presence of a large contingent of Swedish girls

studying French. I was able to recover quite a bit of the Swedish I had learned and forgotten as a small child.

09. A Language Adventure. Sciences Po

I was lucky enough to get a scholarship from the French

government for my second two years and moved to Paris where I entered L'Institut d'études Politiques (the School of Political Studies). \Germain Cathedral in the heart of the medieval part of Paris, just off the Quartier Latin, or students' quarter. Sciences Po boasts many illustrious alumni, including former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

The teaching culture at Sciences Po was different from North America. The emphasis was on learning facts and being able to organize them quickly according to a time-honored formula. I still remember when a Law Professor told me that \more important than the content!\

The method for organizing your thoughts at Sciences Po was simple. Whatever you wanted to say had to fit into the following formula: Introduction, Part One, Part Two, Conclusion. It was important that Part One and Part Two were about the same length. Ideally, Part One presented one point of view or Thesis, Part Two presented a contrary position or Antithesis, and the Conclusion presented a resolution or Synthesis. Voilà!

words are combined in the natural phrases of the language they achieve force and clarity. It is not grammar and words that need to be learned, so much as phrases. New vocabulary is more easily learned together with the phrases where it is found, and even pronunciation should be learned in the form of phrases. Phrases, however, cannot be easily learned from lists. Rather it is when the same phrases are frequently encountered in audio and written contexts and then systematically studied and used that you are able to retain them.

19. A Language Adventure. Pronunciation

We are all capable of correctly pronouncing the sounds of any foreign language. All humans have the same physiological ability to make sounds, regardless of ethnic origin. However, mastering the pronunciation of a new language does require dedication and hard work. Chinese at first represented quite a challenge.

When I wanted to master pronunciation I would spend hours every day listening to the same content over and over. I worked especially hard on mastering Chinese sounds with the

appropriate tone. I tried to imitate while listening. I taped my own voice and compared it to the native speaker. I practiced reading in a loud voice. Eventually my ability to hear the differences between my pronunciation and that of the native speaker improved. I would force my mouth to conform to the needs of Chinese pronunciation. I would also work on the rhythm of the new language, always exaggerating and even

accompanying my pronunciation with the appropriate facial expressions and gestures. Eventually I was able to achieve a near native quality of pronunciation.

Once I was able to pronounce individual words and phrases satisfactorily, I would find it easier to understand content not designed for the learner: in other words, real authentic material. As my Chinese improved, I particularly enjoyed listening to the famous Beijing Xiang Sheng comic dialogue performer Hou Bao Lin, with his colourful Beijing rhythm of speech. In recent years, to maintain my Mandarin, I sometimes listen to CDs of famous Chinese storytellers, like Yuan Kuo Cheng, narrating classic novels such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The storytelling art in China is highly developed and when I listen to one of these CDs I thoroughly enjoy being transported back to a bygone era.

After struggling though the frustrations of confronting such a different language I was soon able to enjoy my learning. Within eight months of starting my studies, I could appreciate essays by intellectuals and novels by Chinese writers of the 1930s like Lao She and Lu Xun. I also became familiar with the writings of Mao Tse Tung and the polemics of the Cultural Revolution. There were many words I did not understand, but it was not my purpose to learn every new word. I was just reading for pleasure and training my mind to the Chinese writing system. I was working to develop my ability to guess at meaning, an important learning skill which develops gradually with enough exposure to a language. I was also absorbing an understanding of the culture.

The world of the thirties in China was far removed from the reality of China in the late 1960s. Pre-Liberation China was full of tragedy, poverty, and uncertainty. China was torn apart by internal rivalries between different political forces and selfish local warlords, while fighting off foreign invasion. These were cruel and hard times. Yet to me, China was fascinating and even romantic. With enough distance in time or space, periods of warfare and struggle can seem heroic. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the epic Chinese novel, or the glorification of the knights of Medieval Europe, are but two examples of how legend and literature romanticize periods of terrible human suffering. Chinese society was looking for its place in a world where foreign influence had all of a sudden collided with a complex, brilliant and previously self-contained Chinese civilization in decline.

The Chinese intellectual class that had been one of the main supports of traditional China was now searching for its new role. Some Chinese intellectuals were defenders of Chinese orthodoxy, some were champions of the new revolutionary thought of Marxism, and yet others, like Dr. Hu Shih, were extremely sophisticated explainers of Western philosophy and its relevance to the new China, and even of its relationship with Chinese philosophy.

The historic evolution of China was different from that of Western Asia and the Mediterranean. The power of the Chinese central state proved more durable than the power of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece or Rome. As Chinese culture and people spread and mixed with local ethnic groups in South China, no

permanent separate states sprang up as was the case in Europe with the interaction of Romans and other peoples. In the North of China, constant invasions and settlement by Turkic, Mongolian, Tibetan and Tungusic peoples were a dominant feature for 2,000 years. Yet throughout this period, the prestige and power of Chinese culture was not permanently challenged. This is in part because of the flexibility of the Chinese writing system, which could be used to represent meaning even if words were pronounced differently. China was able to maintain its unity while absorbing diverse cultural and ethnic elements in different regions of the country.

It is impossible to look at the refined scenes from Chinese paintings of the Tang or Song periods without admiring the high standard of living and sophistication of Chinese society of the time, compared to the lower level of culture at the same period in Europe. It is interesting to speculate what this technically and culturally sophisticated Chinese society would have created under different historical circumstances. But then, change is the only constant of the human condition.

We in the Western world do not learn enough in school about the involvement of Chinese civilization with other parts of the world. The beneficiaries of Chinese culture were not only neighboring East Asian countries, who borrowed heavily from Chinese culture, but also Western Europe. The introduction of Chinese technology to Europe in the Early Middle Ages was instrumental in stimulating progress in technology and navigation.

20. A Language Adventure. Crossing Into China, Canton 1969

In 1969 I was finally able to see the China of my imagination, and to use Mandarin in an environment where it was the national language. I crossed into China from Hong Kong at the Lowu bridge near a small village called Shen Zhen. From the waiting room of the train station I could just make out the rows of low traditional peasant houses behind the posters with slogans exhorting the people to greater revolutionary efforts. Today, this quiet village has become one of the largest cities in China, a vast urban sprawl of modern skyscrapers and thriving capitalism, and a leader in high tech, fashion and more.

As a foreigner, I was automatically seated in the soft seat section on the train to Canton (today's Guangzhou). This entitled me to a cup of flower tea, which was regularly refreshed with more hot water by an attendant as the train rode through Southern Guangdong Province with its hills of red earth and green rice fields. I strained to listen to the constant political messages being broadcast on the train's public address system.

In Canton I stayed at the Dong Fang Hotel, a Soviet style hotel which accommodated the European and North American businessmen. The Japanese and Overseas Chinese stayed elsewhere, according to the arrangements of the Chinese authorities.

China was caught up in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

百度搜索“70edu”或“70教育网”即可找到本站免费阅读全部范文。收藏本站方便下次阅读，70教育网，提供经典综合文库The Linguist_A personal guide to language learning在线全文阅读。