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English as a global language

English, China, and the Olympic Games

By August 20, 202158 Comments5 min read5,918 views

The rise of China has been one of the defining characteristics of the early 21st century. The increase in China’s economic, geopolitical, and military clout has been accompanied by a linguistic paradox, though: the language that has most profited from China’s substantial investments into education and human resource development has been English.

The phenomenal expansion in English language learning among China’s growing middle classes has been so intense during the past three decades to warrant the label “English fever.” As a result, China today has more English speakers than the United Kingdom, and – after USA, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan – China is home to the fifth-largest national population of English speakers on earth.

How did this paradox of the connected rise of China and English come about?

A new book by our executive board member Dr Zhang Jie traces the complexities of this paradox: its history, its lived experience, and its future. Published by de Gruyter under the title Language Policy and Planning for the Modern Olympic Games, the book takes the 2008 Beijing Olympics as its focal point to show how English became central to this mega-event, which also constituted a key plank in China’s efforts to showcase its national progress to the world.

Based on a wealth of data including policy documents, media reports, English language learning textbooks, signage in Beijing’s linguistic landscape, and interviews with policy makers and Olympic volunteers, the book meticulously traces the complex intersections between Chinese national ambition and English language learning. In the process, the author also brings Chinese sociolinguistics to an English language audience in an illuminating overview of “language services” research.

Jie Zhang, Language Policy and Planning for the Modern Olympic Games

Chapter 1 The Modern Olympic Games as linguistically complex events
Chapter 2 Remaking China in the Olympic spotlight
Chapter 3 Researching the LPP for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Chapter 4 Beijing’s commitment – international language environment
Chapter 5 Assessing Beijing’s foreign language environment
Chapter 7 The linguistic landscape of the Olympic city
Chapter 6 Imagined communities and identity options in Beijing Olympic English textbooks
Chapter 8 China’s Olympic language services – legacy, transformation and prospect
Chapter 9 Conclusion

第一章:作为复杂语言事件的现代奥林匹克运动会
第二章:奥运聚光灯下的中国申奥之路
第三章:2008年北京奥运会的语言政策与规划研究
第四章:北京奥运会的承诺—国际语言环境
第五章:评估北京外语环境—英语与国际城市
第六章:北京奥运英语教材中的想象共同体与身份选择
第七章:奥运会主办城市的语言景观
第八章:中国奥运语言服务的传承、转型与展望
第九章:结论

The modern Olympic Games as national investment

To regain its rightful place among the great civilizations and powers had been China’s aspiration ever since the humiliations of the 19th and early 20th century. The 2008 Beijing Olympics provided the perfect opportunity to showcase what had been achieved. Therefore, China invested significant resources into its Olympic bid. This included linguistic resources, and Zhang Jie shows how the country went about making that investment: by ramping up English language capacity on all levels of society.

Beijing 2008: Showcasing China (Image credit: IOC)

Once the 2008 Olympics had been awarded to Beijing, the ambition was to make it not only perfect but spectacular. In addition to getting the games themselves right, this meant getting the environment right by transforming Beijing into a global city.

The meticulous planning and immense resources that went into that transformation are staggering. Zhang Jie shows how the language capacities of a population of many millions were carefully assessed and improved. Between 2002 and 2007, the percentage of Beijing residents with foreign language proficiency – mostly in English – rose from 22 percent to 35 per cent. In absolute numbers these are well over five million people whose language capabilities were systematically upgraded.

The lived experience of linguistic transformation

However, Zhang Jie digs deeper. She not only shows language planning and management for the Beijing Olympics in exquisite detail but also how individuals experienced their transformation into English speakers and global citizens. Most threw themselves dutifully into the effort to improve their English but they were not motivated by a desire for English and the Western cultural values associated with it, as much previous research has found. Rather, they were motivated by a desire for the rewards associated with passing English language tests: university admissions and job prospects.

Not everyone could compete on equal terms, though, and turning performance on English language tests into a gatekeeper for social advancement brought existing inequalities to the fore. Outside of China’s metropolises, the material conditions to do well on English language tests – qualified teachers, up-to-date textbooks, or media libraries – simply were not available in many cases.

2022 Winter Olympics logo (Image credit: Wikipedia)

The single-minded pursuit of English also led to the devaluation of other languages, as Zhang Jie shows with reference to Russian. Russian, which had been learned to high levels, particularly in the northern border provinces, and was of high practical value there in trans-border exchanges, became worthless almost overnight, as university admission was tied to English. As one Olympic volunteer, who had studied Russian throughout her secondary education mournfully complained to the researcher: “There were a great number of Russian people in our county, thus I had never thought of learning English. I didn’t realize English is so important elsewhere until I left my hometown. Now, learning Russian has become such a disadvantage!”

That was in 2008. But that is not where this study ends.

Having successfully conducted the Beijing Olympics and continuing its economic and geopolitical rise, language policy and planning have been reevaluated. As China now gets ready to host the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the meaning of “globalisation,” as we have traced here in the Language on the Move COVID-19 archives. This time, China follows a comprehensive language action plan that is quite different to the one for the 2008 Summer Games: there is now a recognition of an oversupply of English language capabilities and the focus is on strengthening language service provision in other languages. Beyond English, China has embraced a truly multilingual vision. There are now programs at Chinese universities in 101 languages – the official languages of all countries that have established diplomatic relations with China. Capacities in most of these languages may still be limited but, as this book amply documents, China has a track record of turning its dream into a reality.

The concomitant rise of China and English may well have come to an end.

Jie Zhang, Language Policy and Planning for the Modern Olympic Games

To find out more about Jie Zhang’s new book Language Policy and Planning for the Modern Olympic Games head over to the publisher’s website. To order the book and receive a 20% discount, click on the De Gruyter order page.

This blog post is a slightly revised version of the book’s preface: Piller, Ingrid. (2021). Preface: The paradox of the concomitant rise of China and English. In Jie Zhang (Ed.), Language Policy and Planning for the Modern Olympic Games (pp. V-VIII). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

 

Ingrid Piller

Author Ingrid Piller

Dr Ingrid Piller, FAHA, is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research expertise is in bilingual education, intercultural communication, language learning, and multilingualism in the context of migration and globalization.

More posts by Ingrid Piller

Join the discussion 58 Comments

  • Shiyi.ke says:

    Thank you for sharing this article ,Ingrid~

    With the improvement of China’s education level, the popularization of compulsory education, the promotion of quality education, the continuous deepening of teaching reform, English teaching has also paid more and more attention to practicality. More and more attention has been paid to the translation, which is concise, clear and easy to understand, and Chinese English has been greatly reduced. It can be seen from the announcement of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
    I think, the translation of English public signs for the 2008 Olympic Games fully pays attention to the following principles, and translates English public signs into a more standardized, concise, and elegant manner, and pays more attention to the awareness of cross-cultural communication.

    for instances:The theme slogan of the Olympic Games ‘同一个世界,同一个梦想’ is translated into ‘One World, One Dream’, which fully reflects the conciseness and clarity of the public signs, and also highlights the confrontation and fluency of the slogan-style public signs, which are catchy.
    Such slogans are Higher, swifter, stronger. Higher, faster, stronger
    New Beijing, new Olympics. New Beijing, new Olympics

  • Siyao says:

    Dear Ingrid,

    Since the opening-up policy was implemented in China in 1978, English has become the main foreign language in China’s education policy. In the past 30 years, due to globalization and China’s modernization and internationalization, the “English fever” has swept the country. In 2007, the English training industry created a market value of 20 billion yuan (about 3 billion US dollars). In 2008, there were more than 350 million English learners in China, and this number is growing at a rate of 20 million per year. In other words, one-fifth of Chinese people are learning English, and the remaining one-quarter plan to learn English in the future.

    Under the test-oriented education in China, students have invested the most time and energy in English learning. Many students have studied English for many years, constantly memorizing words and doing exercises, but they have not produced positive results. Most students are only good at reading, writing, listening and speaking are weak, and they can’t even test speaking English. Therefore, I hope that in the future, English teaching in China can fully develop students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, because the experience of studying abroad makes me feel how important listening and speaking are.

  • Kelly says:

    Thank you Ingrid for sharing this blog!
    From the authentic Oxford accent of China’s earliest situational English teaching program “Followme” was heard from every household more than two decades ago. From today, every young people in big cities in China can speak a few fluent English.The “English corner” that emerged in big universities and the “English for everyone” in mainland China is heating up again before and after the Beijing Olympics. Unknowingly, the “English fever” of the whole people has been hot in China for 30 years. As a Chinese, I have to admit that the “English fever” has gradually diminished in recent years. If the Chinese people were keen on learning English more than 20 years ago to learn advanced science and technology from foreign countries. Today, all Chinese people learn English to express themselves and China more to the world. But now 30 million foreigners all over the world are learning Chinese and 30,000 Chinese in China are gnawing on English. I think that in the future there will be more English-speaking Chinese than native English speakers. In the future, there may be a “China fever” around the world!

  • Phan Nguyen Quang Khai (Khai) says:

    Since Francis and Tram has elaborated on the English fever in modern Vietnam for work, education, and tourism, I would like to focus more on the very first English fever in Vietnam: during the Vietnam war, from 1955 to 1973, with the American occupation of South Vietnam, English became the most dominant and widely taught foreign language due to political support from the United States and extensive contact with US military personnel (Sundkvist & Nguyen, 2020). Although in the North Vietnam, the position of English remained weaker, the South truly witnessed a form of English fever. My grandfather told stories that Vietnamese soldiers would work alongside American soldiers in some unit and communicate with them in and out of combat. Vietnamese soldiers receive weapons, training, and supports from the American, similar to the situation in modern Afghanistan to some extent. Not only did the American invested in military power, but they also tried to built schools, infrastructure, a government reflecting American ideal. Various prestigious universities in Vietnam were establish in South Vietnam such as Can Tho university, Sai Gon university (which are still running present-time) applied the American education system and taught English to students (Le, 1991). There was always a strong sense to learn and use English to work, live, and study in the heavy American presences in South Vietnam. This had left some noticeable changes in our language, exemplified by the first wave of loan-English words used daily in Vietnamese (copy-quay cóp, salad-xa-lát, golf-gôn, radio-ra-đi-ô, modem-mo-đem, meeting-mít-tinh), the second wave of loan words would only come after the emergence of information technology around 30 years later.

    References:
    Sundkvist, P., & Nguyen, X. N. (2020). English in Vietnam. The Handbook of Asian Englishes, 683–703. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118791882.ch30
    Le, T. C. (1991). Higher education reform in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Comparative Education Review, 35(1), 170–176. https://doi.org/10.1086/447001

  • og says:

    Although lots of people think Chinese will replace English because of the economy, I think the English fever will last for a long time. The technology and soft power will make English fever last at least 50 years. Although China’s economy may be bigger than the USA in 10 years, China’s technology is still far behind, so Chinese will not be able to replace English for a long time in the future. Every country needs to use new technology to improve its productivity and economy, so they have to learn English. American dramas, films, music, and sports also attract the world. In China, the number of students who attend English skills tests is increasing every year.

  • Anaid says:

    Thanks, professor Pillar, for sharing this interesting article on English fever in China. This article made me think that this English fever has spread worldwide because of globalisation, and China has not been the only country that has experienced this fever. Colombia has also become part of the many countries promoting English as a lingua franca to success in life.
    In Colombia, the outlook for learning English as a second language is becoming more favourable. As a result, most Colombians consider a strong link between English with better education and thus with better job offers and better income like in China.
    However, most Colombians lack contact with English in their lives due to different contextual factors. Firstly, the English relationship may vary from one city to another in Colombia. Secondly, the teachers face economic and motivation challenges. For all these reasons, Colombia is still very backward compared to other countries learning English as a second language, such as China.

    Source:https://www.britishcouncil.co/sites/default/files/colombia_version_final_-_ingles.pdf

    • Thanks, Anaid! That English is the road to a better life is undoubtedly a worldwide misrecognition … (the privileges of English speakers are misrecognized as resulting from their language)

  • Frances Tran says:

    Thank you Ingrid for your sharing.
    English language was introduced nationally into Vietnam in 1986 when Vietnamese Government establish an overall economic reform known as Đổi Mới, opening the door of Vietnam to the whole world (Hoang, 2020). At the beginning, nationally, English became compulsory subject at universities and students must complete at least A2 level (in CEFR levels) to graduate and/or the adults learned at night language centres to get better job position. However, English wasn’t expanded much at beginning because during the 1990s, the French embassy, the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF) and The Francophone University Agency (AUF) provided sponsorships to develop French in Vietnam. Until the early 20s, English began to surpass French and was spread rapidly in Vietnam but mostly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, approximately 90% of students learn English. (Tyler, 2014)
    In my home town – Nha Trang city, the ‘English fever’ began in a decade. Before 2010, there were only 05 large-scaled English centres in Nha Trang city, English was graduation requirement at university and taught at high schools. But after 2010, English was required to pass education exams to get high-school certificate, taught at primary school and there are over 30 centres. For example, in my university, from 2016, each year, over 200 students enrol English linguistic major and this major has largest number of enrolled students and companies also require undergraduate students must know English when recruiting.
    In fact, there is no doubt that Vietnam has adopted English as important language in economic relationship but it can’t become official language in Vietnam in the future.

    Reference:
    Tyler, L. (2014), Francophonie in Vietnam, https://languagesinconflict.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/115/

    Van Van Hoang (2020), The Roles and Status of English in Present-day Vietnam: A Socio-cultural Analysis, VNU Journal of Foreign Studies 36(1):1-21, DOI:10.25073/2525-2445/vnufs.4495

  • Tu Nguyen says:

    After reading this post, I couldn’t help but think of the “English fever” in my home country, Vietnam. Similar to China, the English language has been gradually ubiquitous in Vietnam and has played the role of the dominant foreign language taught in the educational system since 1986. Among the seven foreign languages currently recognized for teaching and learning in Vietnamese public schools (English, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Japanese, and Korean), more than 98% of students choose English as a compulsory subject (Hoang, 2010). In addition, English has also made its presence in some domains of activities such as tourism, culture exchange, commerce, etc. However, even though a sizable percentage of Vietnamese people are learning English, the usage of English in public is still limited, and their English proficiency is still low. Thus, in my opinion, “English fever” has just started in Vietnam, and it may take a long time to prevail in Vietnamese society. In the future, I expect that the quality of English language teaching in Vietnam will be improved, and the younger generation can effectively use English as a lingua franca in intercultural communication.
    Reference:
    Hoang, V. (2010). The Current Situation and Issues of the Teaching of English in Vietnam, Ritsumeikan Studies in Language and Culture, 22(1), 7-18

  • Alicia says:

    It must be admitted that the “English fever” has been on the wane in China over the past few years. And in many countries, there is a growing “Chinese fever” in these years. Some people may wonder why more and more people are learning Chinese when it is so difficult to learn. In fact, it is the economic development that is the main reason for learning a language. It is not a question of whose language is easier to learn, but how strong the country’s economic development is and how influential the country is in the world. As China’s development and influence increases, both the government and the people are becoming more and more able to look at the issue of learning English calmly. Although there will not be the same enthusiasm for learning English as in the past, English is still a very important language for Chinese people and is still the primary language to be learned in foreign relations.

    • Thanks, Alicia! If, when, and how Chinese will replace English will definitely be interesting to watch (alas, probably not in our life time …)

      • 张洁 says:

        I agree. With the improvement of China’s economic strength and geopolitical influence, the international status of the Chinese language has been improved, but Chinese is not yet a language of cross-cultural communication in many international affairs, and Chinese is not taught as a main foreign language in schools and universities in many countries , so Chinese or other languages will not be able to replace English for a long time in the future.

  • Tram (Sarah) says:

    I can see how the “English Fever” in Vietnam is quite similar to China. Besides the mother tongue, English is widely taught across Vietnam since kindergarten. Most people hold on to the belief that English is a way to a brighter career. Indeed, as there are plenty of multinational enterprises that invest in Vietnam these days. Nevertheless, people incline to the scores or English certificates (IELTS, TOEIC) but have forgotten the foremost goal of learning a language is to communicate and understand each other. According to EF English Proficiency Index 2020, Vietnam ranks 65 (low group) out of 100 countries in the world. What this tells us is that Vietnamese people predominantly pursue the glorious, fantasy outside look. There are plenty of English centers where they would teach you tricks or tips to gain the scores that you want. Cultural and “real” linguistic aspects are totally excluded from these classes. Hopefully, this trend would end up soon and Vietnamese people may change their study mindset.

    Source: https://www.ef.edu/epi/

    • 张洁 says:

      Over the past half century, many Asian countries have experienced the English boom due to historical and economic reasons. In this English boom, the English proficiency certificate (rather than the English proficiency itself) has become a gatekeeper for admission to schools and universities, employment and promotion. In recent decade, many Chinese scholars are reflecting on this phenomenon, and the Chinese government has begun to reform its foreign language education policies. For example, last month, the Chinese government announced the “double reduction (shuangjian)” policy. The policy package aims to decrease the amount of time children in grades one through nine spend on homework and extracurricular classes. It is reported that English will be “kicked out” of final examinations in primary schools in Shanghai. This is a huge blow to China’s English education industry.

  • Yuxuan Zhang says:

    This article makes me trace back to the memory of my English-learning journey. It actually started before the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. Because in 2008, I was in Grade 6 already. I cannot remember when the policy was made in terms of Chinese students’ English learning should begin before Grade 3, but actually, I started learning English when I was in my kindergarten. That is to say, before 2008, China has recognized the importance of learning English. I think this is because China has an ambition of learning English, which is for more cooperation around the world for its economic growth. However, just like the article mentioned, from my experience, we do focus more on passing English exams, we learn English especially for passing the college entrance English exam, and once this purpose achieved, for some Chinese, they may no longer learning English. Even though it is true that nowadays, there are more Chinese recognise the importance of learning English, however, majority of Chinese still neglect it. I wonder this is probably because they don’t know the benefits of learning English or they just don’t think someday they can use English. Anyway, I believe English education still has a long way to go in China, but, I think we should change students’ ideas of learning English. We should emphasis on the advantages of learning English from different perspectives, such as economy, technology, science rather than only for getting a high score in English exams.

    • 张洁 says:

      Yuxuan, thank you for your comment. in 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a policy statement entitled “The Ministry of Education Guidelines for Vigorously Promoting the Teaching of English in Primary Schools,” requiring a lowering of the threshold of compulsory English education from the first year of junior high school to Grade 3 in elementary school. As you said, many middle-class families living in cities will let their children learn English much earlier. English is undoubtedly the most important communication tool in the world today, but it is better for students to have more choices in language learning.

  • Ness says:

    I would say that nowadays, mastery of English is considered to be a currency in several nations in the world. Just like it has become a gatekeeper for social advancement in China, the same occurs in many countries where being proficient in this “universal language” is a synonym of status and opens academic and professional doors for people whose desire is to level up and achieve their career goals.

    The world supremacy of English, propelled and established by economic and political power in modern times, is further supported nowadays by how technology overcomes physical borders to bring the world close together. As English has been occupying the first place in the list of most widely spoken languages in the world, the same reflects on the world wide web, where English is the most popular language online and most of the available information on the internet is in English.

    Mastery of English in countries where it is not a second language (particularly in low-income countries) is an absolute privilege. I believe that most of these countries are far from becoming invested in multilingualism since reaching their goal of becoming bilingual nations is far from being reached. Inequality and poor quality of education are giant obstacles in the way of these nations being proficient in English.

    As a consequence, I believe that English fever will continue to have an enormous influence on these nations in comparison to those which, like big cities in China, have been able to increase proficiency levels and are wealthy enough to “open themselves” to different cultures by placing efforts and funds into helping their inhabitants become proficient in several other languages. These nations, more similarly to Chinese provinces far from metropolises, will continue to strive for achieving English mastery. That is, unless another language manages to replace English at the number one spot.

    Would some type of “invasions” (figurative or literal) or economic/political “defeats” need to take place for English fever to cool down? Or will the changes on the concept of globalisation be enough to give multilingualism the number one spot, like China is?

    • Thanks, Ness, for these important comments! Reminds me of an article about English in Peru that is titled “English is like the dollar” – which speaks precisely to the association of English with economic privilege that you mention. The association between English and economic advancement is, more often than not, a false association that allows for the illusion of meritocracy – a misrecognition of the value of English, as Bourdieu would call it.

      Will English fever cool down? Who knows … throughout history lingua francas often reached their greatest reach AFTER the political power that had given rise to them had waned (Latin after the Roman Empire, Greek after it had become a Roman colony, Persian under the Moghuls, etc.)

      Niño-Murcia, M. (2003). “English is like the dollar”: hard currency ideology and the status of English in Peru. World Englishes, 22(2), 121-141.

  • tviq says:

    Thanks for sharing!
    When I was a primary school student, I experienced the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Looking back now, I have a deep understanding of the “English fever” in China mentioned in the article. In the years since Beijing won the bid for the Beijing Olympic Games, there has been a great effort in Beijing (Even the whole China ) to increase the understanding and learning of English (and the study of English culture). Enthusiasm for English exists in various fields (students, competition volunteers, government agencies). Even in the years after the Olympics, the popularity of English has continued to increase.
    In 2019, I participated in the China Open as a volunteer, and English proficiency was required during the selection process (because my job required me to contact with athletes ). When I applied for the volunteer of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the organizing committee had more strict requirements on English proficiency (not only IELTS and TOEFL, but even interpreting and translation certificates).
    I think the wave of English fever in China will remain for a long time to come(in many fields:Economy, politics, international relations and so on ). It is also worth noting the rise of other languages, such as German and Spanish, in China.

    • 张洁 says:

      Thanks,tviq, for volunteering for both Beijing 2008 and Beijing 2022. In fact, Beijing was short of advanced English speakers, multilingual speakers and speakers of foreign languages other than English during the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Olympic organizer realized that not all “English speakers” are qualified interpreters and translators. Especially venue volunteers who will interpret for athletes, coaches and judges need to have translation and interpretation experience.

  • Adam Cameron-Taylor says:

    English Fever can be seen as a reflection of the importance that English has as a language of business and international relations around the world. The smilarities to previous languages of governance and commerce are very interesting. The changes that occurred in the English language in the middle ages, where the language of law, the church and commerce was conducted in French and Latin, were typified by enormous borrowings from those languages. This process mirrors, to some extent , the use of Classical Chinese in Vietnam, Korea and Japan that led to similar changes in vocabulary with up to 60% of Korean vocabulary having its origin in Sino-Korean.

  • Suyeon says:

    Thank you, Ingrid!! It’s so incredibly fascinating to know about English fever in China especially that it was related to the Olympic games. I would like to mention the English fever of South Korea, which is very similar to China’s. English fever in Korea is an ongoing phenomenon and has originated from a mixture of the Confucianism entrenched from our long history and new western egalitarian ideas of advancing oneself through hard efforts. Around the 1980s, at the time of the Asian Games of 1986 and the Seoul Olympics in 1988, early English education started to catch on in Korea. Then, since the 1990s, English fever has been accelerated by English becoming the most powerful tool to achieve success, such as attaining upward social mobility and having economic prosperity in Korea’s competitive landscape.
    One of the trends that is significantly characteristic of English fever is sending children overseas for English education. Those parents who wanted to give their children the advantage of having good English skills began to send their children to English-speaking countries. There has been an increase in the number of elementary school students going abroad for study, mostly alone or with a single parent. This has led to the term ‘a wild goose daddy’, referring to the husband who is working back in Korea, living a far away from the rest of the family to give financial support. This negatively affects the daddies because they often suffer from loneliness and depression and sometimes ended up committing suicide. Also, it has had an impact on children’s emotional wellbeing, and has led to linguistic and academic difficulties. In fact, I have personal experience of this as I was one of these children who studied overseas without my family as a result of the English fever trend. I stayed in Cairns when I was 11 for 6 months and I had some emotional problems and academic difficulties after I came back home.

    I would also like to add some comments on the systemic inequality of the entrance exams for Korean universities connected to English fever. Generally, if student wants to go to university for any major, then one should have satisfactory scores in a whole range of the SAT (Suneung) subjects including compulsory subjects like Korean, Math, English and others like science and sociology according to personal choices. However, at some colleges, the English department and other departments not even directly linked to English, accept students without considering the SAT result. For these colleges, students can apply by only submitting a high score of Toeic (Test of English for International Communication). I think at least so long as universities continue this English-centered entrance criteria, English fever will continue in the society.

    Reference
    Park, J. K. (2009). ‘English fever’ in South Korea: its history and symptoms. ‘Education fever’ drives the demand for English in South Korea today, 25 (1), 50-57. http://doi.org/ 10.1017/S026607840900008X -Retrieved from https://www-cambridge-org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/core/journals/english-today/article/english-fever-in-south-korea-its-history-and-symptoms/9BBA3AF0F8D34F57B5CB5D5A48545E77

  • Ian P says:

    Hi Ingrid,

    Literally two weeks ago, for one of my assessment tasks, I used a reading that focused on English fever in China (Fish et al. 2017) so it’s interesting to read even more information about this. In the reading by Fish et al. 2017, it talked about how China perceives the English language as a tool to help the nation become an international competitor. The knowledge of English can be seen as some sort of social or economic tool for people to have a better job = better social status. The government has spent billions of dollars to create language centers around English, be it public or private. It is quite unbelieveable. But there are still contemporary cultural constraints such as very high academic pressure in exams, the culture of not working in a group environment etc.
    I’ll attach the reading at the bottom because it’s a nice article (don’t need to read all of it).

    To answer the question; I think there could be some problems with ‘English fever’, perhaps English one day might dominate in China so much like in the Phillipines or in The Netherlands, where English is very widely spoken and almost is more popular than the native language. It could even change Mandarin very, very slightly and the younger generation might grow up communicating in Chinglish (mix of English and Chinese). Whilst English fever is a great thing for China to open its horizons and broaden global perspectives, it could affect the local language within China. Plus if ‘everyone’ will be fluent in English.. then what is the next goal from there? English could lose its value very quickly if a majority of the younger generation can speak it. Only time will tell I guess..

    Source: Fish, R., & Parris, D., & Trolio, M. (2017). Compound Verbs and Unproductive Entrepreneurship: The Rise of the “English Fever” in China. Journal of Economic Issues. Vol: L1, no. 1. DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2017.1287506

    • 张洁 says:

      Hi, Lan. Thank you for your comment and the source. “English fever” has prevailed in China for four decades and reached the peak during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, the year 2013 marked the beginning of a fundamental
      shift in the ways that China views the English language. At present, the Chinese government is gradually reducing the weight of English in compulsory education. I really doubt that English will dominate China one day, because English is still taught as a foreign language rather than a second language and it is not widely used in administration and people’s daily life. In addition, English teaching resources are not equally distributed in various regions of China. There is a big difference in English proficiency between people living in big cities and people in rural areas.

  • Monica says:

    I wonder if English fever as it has been experienced in China might result in variations of English that we haven’t yet seen. Anka discusses this in her post, and I think that this is a real possibility in a world in which language and culture contact happen easily. I feel like we can see this to some degree in written versions of English. For example, English as it is used in the natural sciences, particularly in scientific papers, has developed a very specific character that goes beyond the nature of academic writing, and which has most likely developed as a result of the wide range of language backgrounds of its users. I don’t think these changes and developments are bad, though. They simply reflect the way in which language is adapted to the needs of its users.

  • WAA says:

    I believe that a language is a power but I am not sure if my opinion is something that could be discussed. China is one of the major economic and military powers, however the Chinese language is limited to be used in China only. I feel like China have missed the opportunity to promote its own language and give it an important place at the global level, which reflects positively on China’s position at the world power level . Such big events include people from all around the world who do not necessarily speak English, so instead of promoting English, China could have taken advantage of this opportunity and worked on enhancing the status of the Chinese language globally.

    • Maybe the time is not ripe yet, and the promotion of Chinese as the next global language may still be on the cards, don’t you think?

    • 张洁 says:

      Thanks, WAA, for your comment. Actually, the Chinese government has been promoting Chinese via Confucius Institutes globally since 2004. However, this work is not progressing very smoothly due to various reasons. I hope that we can have more languages participate in global governance, rather than letting one single language dominates international affairs.

  • Alexander Genkin says:

    My country, Russia, seems to suffer from English fever less than China, although commonalities in our situations do exist. English is a compulsory language in schools from year 1, but grade 11 students rarely have above-intermediate proficiency. Yet, school-leaving examinations required for many university courses place an emphasis on English scores, which drives considerable demand for private language courses. Despite this, overall English proficiency in Russia is lower then in germanic and west-slavic speaking Europe, being close perhaps to French levels. The government has recently decided to drop English from the core set of compulsory school-leaving exams, of which it was previously part alongside Maths and Russian.

    • Interesting observation, Alexander! There is of course the fact that, not so long ago, Russian was itself a major lingua franca that was reasonably competing with English for global status. Incidentally, I started out my teaching career in East Germany as an English language teacher for Russian language teachers who were retrained as English teachers after the fall the of wall … until then East Germans had studied Russian as first foreign language and, basically overnight, the school system switched to English. See https://www.languageonthemove.com/multilingual-europe/

  • Roxie says:

    “English fever” has shown up in China in the last two decades, especially since Beijing Olympics Games in 2018. It causes social and linguistic consequences. Consequently, English serves as a mandatory subject in the universities and CET is required for students to get bachelor’s degrees. Moreover, graduates who gain a high level of English tend to find a better job with a good salary. Because English serves as “economic capital” and “social capital”, some parents believe that children with high-performing English can show their status in society and send their children to English speaker countries. However, it brings not only benefits but also weaknesses. Due to the fact that teachers focus on the results of tests, students do not have many opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. I remember when I was in China, we barely practised listening tasks in high school because we did not have listening tests. Therefore, some of the students still couldn’t understand English when they go overseas. We call it “Deaf English” in China. There is no doubt that China has made a big improvement in enhancing people’s English comprehension, however, I think we still need to work on it.
    Roxie

  • Xiaowen Xu says:

    As an international student, I found the fact that stated in this post was so true. And we should keep a critical eye on this. Our 90s generation was the first wave to experience this “English fever”. I started to study English in preschool, English was also a compulsory subject during my whole school life to university. English accounts for the same weight as Chinese and mathematics in one of the most important exams for the Chinese people – the university entrance exams. And the “fever” for English becomes even enthusiastic after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The 95s and 10s generations are not only required to simply know English but to master it, and try to use it as a native speaker. I once watched an interview about the English level among junior high school students in metropolitan cities. I attached the video link below. I was so amazed and surprised by the English fluency of these students, most interviewees can speak English as fluent as native speakers, they still modestly said they are “not good enough” or “I’m only average”. This increased competitiveness among young people in Chinese society. (We have a term called “内卷” for this social phenomenon, which means people are making more efforts but achieve fewer or even worse results). Globalization has exposed the young generation more to the international society and culture, this also devalues English and other languages to some extent, because English is considered no more as an advantage, rather than a skill that people should master. So, although “English fever” makes the cultural connection between China and western countries closer, I assume this excessive competitiveness might be one negative impact of it.

    https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1cv411E7ZB?from=search&seid=1781551993886832763&spm_id_from=333.337.0.0

    https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ly4y1s7d1

  • Lynn says:

    Thanks for sharing the story of ‘’English fever’’ during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It is easier to see how English is spread and English proficiency is enriched. This blog makes me recall the ‘’English fever’’ during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Even though this event took place in Brazil, it has significant influences on other countries, here I want to mention my country, Vietnam. As far as I remember, I was in high school at that time and I experienced a phenomenon called ‘’Challenge of Cosplaying Word Cup songs” of teenagers in my country. Those songs that were translated to different languages are We Are One (Ole Ola), La La La (Brazil 2014), Dar um Jeito (We will find a Way). I have to say, a large number of youngsters in my country could sing an English song very well. This also inspired them to have a positive attitude towards learning this language. As they were aware that English is a communication tool for them to exchanges joy, pride and mutual understanding of this big sport event. Especially, they also had opportunity to grasp other cultural values. The conclusion for these is that these kinds of sport events open a way for English and other languages to become viral. In the future, English will be more and more popular among different generations, I expect, as it plays an important role in globalisation and integration and it is an international language for all people all around the world to communicate and exchange cultures.

  • Jay says:

    Thank you for sharing this article, Ingrid. I will share my experience about my home country as it has similar factors which encourage people to learn English.
    Now-a-days, English has become the international language. It play’s an indispensable role in every field of life. It is believed that English speaker is like a magician in current era. English language plays an important role in the educational institute of Pakistan. To begin with English language is used as a medium of instruction in the educational institutions. For instance, the teacher delivers their lectures throughout in the English language at the universities.
    Moreover, English language is used as official language in the many countries of the world. As well as, English speaker have more opportunity for the best jobs in the private and government sectors in the Pakistan. In the same way, society gives pretence to English speaker as compare to speaker of other languages.
    As well as society give difference to that individual who is fluent in speaking English. Furthermore, English language is the first language of developed countries and Pakistan includes in the developing countries. Thus, English language is very important for the international relations.

  • Anka says:

    This is fairly true in my hometown and everywhere in China! There is one point we can stretch from is that there are dialects basically in every province in China. It could be fun to take a glimpse at the combination of English and local distinctive dialects. Two dialects from China are not strange to us, Mandarin in Beijing accent and Sichuanese, which have particular features of the sound simplification and ambiguousness between “n” and “l” sounds respectively. Since the “English fever” rushed into China in recent years, local people who had never learned this language before may find difficulty in pronouncing as native (or international) as possible, instead, incorporation of their mother tongue dialect could help a lot. Such integrations like “‘pʊ poʊ soʊ” for proposal and “loʊnliləs” for loneliness, are getting increasingly common in our daily life use. So as the cruise of English language is shipping around the globe and frequent contact is happening every moment, the language itself can be facing more risks of being altered and divided in the future.

    • Thanks, Anka! More food for thought for the discussion we had in class about what English will sound and look like in 500 years time … someone doing the lecture about language mixing in the formation of English in 500 will probably have to add Chinese to the main languages that have shaped future English. Or will they do the lecture in and about Chinese, and highlight the English influence on the formation of future Chinese?!

      • Anka says:

        For sure! That’s basically how my Chinese is influenced by English! One thing that has been amusing me for a long time is that I actually said “really 吗(ma, a question particle)?” while reacting to my friend’s astonishing experience told in Chinese. Even though I’m typing now, I still can’t hold my chortles!

  • Kim says:

    Reading this post, I could reflect on the role English played in the Korean society. Like China, Korea has more English speakers compared to the past, and learning English has become a mandatory education in schools. Korea used to be a country where the language people could speak was basically only Korean and those who could speak English were those who received high education or had experience living abroad. As a person who lived abroad, I used to consider my ability to speak English as an advantage against all the others because people regarded my command of English quite highly. However, it is no longer the case. The “English fever” in fact has emphasized the importance of knowing the language and with the help of globalization, more have started to get exposed to the language – whether through traveling or through the internet or Netflix! Today, I often find myself surprised to learn that some people who speak so fluently
    have never lived abroad and simply learned English in school or on their own.

    This leads me to speak about the Olympics event that was held in Korea and how this global event proved that more people are skilled at the language, and how English is in fact a strong language that connects people from all around the world. I was a college student when the 2018 Pyeonchang Winter Olympic (Korea) was hosted and I remember how almost everyone I knew applied to volunteer at the event. What is surprising about the voluntary work is that the most popular job categories were Interpretation and Language Services and Athlete Support, which in fact requires volunteers to be able to communicate with athletes from all over the world. Below, I have attached the link to a Korean news article that mentions the competitive application for these volunteer jobs. According to the article, out of 17 job categories, 8,131 applicants applied for ‘Interpreting Services’, which was only looking for 490 volunteers. What this tells is that there are many Koreans out there who can speak various languages – mainly English because it was the mandatory requirement – and also knows that they are good at it.

    Already seeing the difference between when I was young, where being able to speak English was an advantage against all, and in 2018, when the number of English speakers in Korea increased largely, I cannot help but imagine how the “English fever” will continue to grow with time.
    In fact, the advancement of internet technology now allows more “contact” than in the past when people had to physically travel to be surrounded by English speakers. With that, I believe that English will be more commonly used.
    —And speaking of “common”, it makes me wonder if the spread of English or this commonness may be de-valuing English. With more people being able to speak English, it may be treated with less value. I think it depends on how you look at it. But one thing for sure is that English has come a long way into influencing foreign societies.

    Source: https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201610041645931788

    • Thanks, Kim, for these interesting details about volunteering at the 2018 Pyeonchang Winter Olympics. I’m amazed that there were so many applicants for volunteer interpreters. Sounds very entrepreneurial! (in fact, Multilingua published a special issue about linguistic entrepreneurship not long ago, with contributions from Korea: https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/mult/40/2/html)

      I also agree with your point that English is under inflationary pressure. Soon, English will be like the ability to read and write – simply expected rather than a special skill …

  • Yidan Liu says:

    Lydia
    This is a fascinating essay, Ingrid. “English fever” has been growing in China, especially during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The average English proficiency. This not only leads to more Chinese speaking English, but their English proficiency has a noticeable improvement. In other words, both the quantity and quality of English for Chinese are enhanced.
    However, in my opinion, the purpose of people to learn English is to provide better service for foreign friends during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and for people to realize the benefits of learning English in China. For example, learning it for job prospects and university admissions. Before the Opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, the establishment of English education institutions and bilingual schools may provide people with more opportunities to learn and improve their English. Additionally, the ubiquitous English slogans and extensive English radio broadcasts are also suitable learning materials during this period. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games may have been a turning point for Chinese people to learn English, and the English fever did not fade after the Olympics. I believe “English fever” arises and continues because of the social requirements and consequences. Although the Chinese government focuses on strengthening language service provision in other languages during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, it is hard to achieve this goal in a short time. This is because other languages are not widespread and have more minor needs than English in China’s current social market.

  • Brynn says:

    The idea of “English Fever” was one I had never even heard of until last semester when I took Language, Learning and Community with Dr. Jinhyun/Jean Cho and Dr. Long/Kevin Lee. I felt simultaneously fascinated and a little horrified to learn about the enormous lengths that many people in Korea and China go to / must go to to learn the language that I was born into. The immense pressure put on students (at all class levels of society) made me wonder if I could have ever devoted myself so much to learning a language. What’s interesting in this post is that the English language learners in China “were motivated by a desire for the rewards associated with passing English language tests: university admissions and job prospects.” This certainly seemed to be a reason for people to learn English in Korea as well, but many Korean English language learners of the 20th century seemed to also want the American (and by extension American English) aesthetic and way of life.
    It certainly seems like English is here to stay (at least for now) as a powerful lingua franca, but I am glad to see that Chinese universities are offering and valuing other languages as well now. Like the Chinese Russian speaker, I sometimes feel like my second language (Spanish) was the wrong one to choose now that I live in Australia and almost never have a need to use it, but I’m still glad that I have it.

  • Rhonda says:

    Thank you for sharing this inspirational blog and book of Jie Zhang! I could recall back to my week 3 post regarding my comment about the 2018 Beijing Olympic game. Magnificent social events play a role as cultural and linguistic mediators because people gather as global citizens.

    I can also relate the concept of “English fever” to the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). AMEP is a government-funded free service in Australia to help eligible migrants with low English levels improve their English language skills. It is a manifest trend that an increasing number of the middle-aged population is eager to learn English as a linguistic and social consequence of migration. They have more free time during the week to attend the class, and they have the essential need to use English to run errands. More importantly, to communicate with their second-generation immigrant grandchildren in English. These learners sometimes experience difficulties throughout their settlement, such as cultural shock, language barriers, isolation, and other physical or mental health issues. Thus, learning some basic communicative English is an effective way for these learners to adapt to the new living environment to cultivate a sense of belonging (Hartley, 2016). The purpose of the AMEP program is to help them get to know the local environment and enables them to settle smoothly in Australia rather than achieve a higher degree of competency.

    Reference
    Hartley, J. (2016, July 18). Are we doing enough to support our ageing migrant population? SBS News. Retrieve from
    https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/health/article/2016/07/18/are-we-doing-enough-support-our-ageing-migrant-population

    • Thanks, Rhonda! The communication challenges related to aging in a linguistically diverse population are only just beginning to receive attention. They are also related to our failed language education – if home language maintenance worked better, older people with low proficiency in English could draw on their families more and would be less isolated …

      • Rhonda says:

        Yes! I agree with this point. This phenomenon makes me reflect on last week’s podcast series about passing home language to the younger generations. It is also one of the reasons that multilingualism should be well preserved in our society to avoid isolation in the older generations.

      • 张洁 says:

        As China gradually enters an aging society, gerontolinguistics has become a new interdisciplinary research field in China. With the process of urbanization in China, the children of many new immigrants in cities no longer speak their hometown dialect. Language shift from their heritage language to Putonghua has caused communication difficulties between the elderly and their grandchildren.

        • Thanks, 张洁! Also a huge issue in migrant societies like Australia, and – here, at least – directly connected to the failure of the education system to teach and maintain languages other than English. Interesting, that you have a term for it (“gerontolinguistics”). As with “emergency linguistics”, which we featured in our special issue of Multilingua devoted to “Linguistic diversity in a time of crisis“, I’m amazed how vibrant and innovative linguistics in China is; and how separate the discursive worlds of “Chinese” and “Western” linguistics are …

          • 张洁 says:

            Hi, Ingrid. I found this English term when I was check a Chinese literature. I thought it was introduced from abroad.

            • Just looked it up and what I can find on a quick search is that the term was first used in German in 1978 – how interesting is that?!

              Lütjen, H. (1978). Linguistics of ageing, linguistic Gerontology–Why?(author’s transl). Aktuelle Gerontologie, 8(6), 331-336.

  • Hee Won Song says:

    Hi Ingrid, it was interesting to see how English is perceived and used in China today. I would like to give an example about English in Korea and how this example shapes the way I think about English in a non-English speaking country.
    Korea is a very competitive society and competition especially in education is very fierce. Many, possibly all, high school students aim for admission into university, and in order to achieve this, they need to study extremely hard to receive top tier marks. Like other countries, mathematics and literacy are examined as compulsory subjects and among the compulsory subjects English is one of them. English is deemed to be an important feature of the Korean society. This is mainly due to the American influence since the mid-20th century until today. English has this sense of superiority in Korea. Personally I think this trend of the ‘English fever’ seems like it is going to be steady and stay like this for a long time. Interestingly, this fierce competition has resulted in parents of young children to send their kids to after school private institutions and even pre-schools that teach English.

    Just one more comment/critique I would like make about the education of English in Korean high school is that because of how the SAT examinations are formatted, many of the students have difficulty in communicating in English, even though they receive high marks. How English is taught in schools definitely hinders the student’s fluency in English, especially speaking, and although it may be difficult to change the curriculum, it should change in order to enhance the students’ fluency of English, so they can put their English into good use.

    • Thanks, Hee Won, for this insight into English fever in Korea. I’m wondering whether failure (studying so hard but still being told that you are not reaching fluency … etc.) is not an in-built design flaw that will keep people on their toes forever because it makes “perfect English” a goal that is forever just out of reach …

  • ‘Paradox’ is the polite way to put it; it rightly rears its head repeatedly in the ugly tale of how imperialism and Capitalism joined up to foist the gold mine language of Shakespeare on to the Chinese and now, nearly 200 years later, Xi and the Party are clueless, or are too scared, vis-a-vis putting the English genie back in the bottle😄 Paradoksa fiasko! Zillions of Chinese who foist it on to their kids deserve what they get! I too profited from their folly for a full decade as a teacher of English in their privatised universities. What a joke, except for a few linguists! The oldies rarely mastered English or Russian or even Japanese and still they push an impossibly difficult foreign language on to the young’uns while poltroons play politics.

    When will the Communist Party of China in its negotiations with the USA on matters of trade reckon on America’s language bonanza: China’s enormous expenditures for attracting English teachers to her shores and for sending legions of youngsters to America’s cash cow colleges to gain a suboptimal education in a language that’s beyond most of them amounts to the biggest failure to communicate since Cool Hand Luke: ‘What we got here is a failure to communicate.’ (Take a squiz (‘squiz’: English for residents of Australia, New Zealand and many nations in Oceania ) at YouTube!)

    • Jay says:

      Hi Paul,
      I am really intrigued by your response. You have concisely critiqued the capitalism and imperialism because the super powers has actually influenced the empires at many levels and language is one of the vital aspects.

  • 张洁 says:

    Ingrid, thank you very much for putting up this great blog post for my book! I really appreciate your support. Beijing is the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympic Games (the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games). Between the two Olympics, China’s national foreign language policy and language ideology have undergone great changes. As China plays an increasingly important role in global economy and global affairs, its foreign language ideology is gradually moving away from English-centric multilingualism to national language capacity-oriented multilingualism. It is foreseeable that intelligent language services will play a greater role in international competitions and events in the future.

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