不是你的错

It's Not Your Fault

> By Li Xiaolai · 2008-01-07 · [Original (web archive)](https://web.archive.org/web/20111113133554/http://www.lixiaolai.com/archives/259.html) (Chinese)
> Our translation from the Chinese original.

It's usually not that Chinese students can't speak English, nor that they're unwilling to speak English, still less that they're unable to speak English; basically, they don't dare to speak English. Why don't they dare? Many reasons. One of them is the most common: fear that their pronunciation isn't standard. But isn't it perfectly normal for second-language learners to have inaccurate pronunciation? Even with our native language, it took us all a long time to be able to speak basically clearly. How old were you when you could express yourself clearly in your native language? Then on what grounds should a person be able, from the very start, to express himself clearly and accurately in a second language? And with "standard pronunciation" on top of that?

In fact, the pronunciation of the vast majority of native speakers isn't standard. If you don't believe it, you can first examine yourself, and then see how many people around you don't distinguish flat-tongue from retroflex sounds? How many people don't distinguish front nasals from back nasals? Even if you are in Beijing (said to be the heart of the motherland; the "standard pronunciation" of Chinese is said to be based on the Beijing dialect), you can still hear all kinds of accents every day. As an ordinary person, how many Chinese people do you know who can, like the announcers of the Central People's Broadcasting Station, achieve 100% "standard" Chinese pronunciation?

Every language in the world is like this. Every language has all kinds of accents. [Translator's note: the original writes 每种由于 ("every kind because"), a slip for 每种语言, "every language"; translated by the intended sense] English is perhaps the language with the most accents on earth. In the United States, the accents of Southern California and Northern California are already very different, roughly equivalent to the difference in China between how people from Shandong and people from Shanxi speak Chinese. [Translator's note: the original writes 山东人之间山西人 ("among Shandong people Shanxi people"), a slip for 山东人和山西人之间, "between people from Shandong and people from Shanxi"; translated by the intended sense] The pronunciation of New Yorkers and Detroiters is of course also very different. In London, the difference between the eastern and southern accents is already very obvious. Not to mention there are also the "Scottish accent," the "Canadian accent," the "Australian accent," the "New Zealand accent," the "Indian accent"…… [Here's a link; you might as well take a look](http://alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml). This website has many sound files reading the same text, but in many accents, including Indian accents, Southern US accents, Western US accents, Midlands English accents, Canadian accents and so on. Listen to them, and then think carefully: is it really necessary to be "standard"? And even if it really were necessary, which "standard" should be used?

In fact, the pronunciation of the vast majority of second-language learners is inevitably influenced by their native language. [Translator's note: the original writes 影像 ("image"), a slip for 影响, "influence"; translated by the intended sense] In natural multilingual environments, for people who have used several languages since childhood, each of their languages is more or less influenced by the other languages they use. For example, the citizens of Luxembourg use Luxembourgish as their everyday spoken language, and from kindergarten on they use French on odd-numbered days and German on even-numbered days. So both their French and their German inevitably carry, more or less, a Luxembourgish accent. Many ethnic minority areas within China also have good bilingual environments, for example the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. In Yanji, many people are bilingual from childhood, and often, as a result, both languages have some special accent, but this in no way affects effective communication with each other.

So, as a user of English, first of all, you needn't feel inferior because your pronunciation isn't standard, isn't pleasant to hear, or isn't clear, because that is normal, natural and almost unavoidable. Second, language use has communication as its purpose. You should know that merely having standard pronunciation doesn't mean that when you speak you'll certainly communicate effectively. Effective communication also requires word choice, grammar, logic, content and many more factors, and every one of these latter factors is more important than "standard pronunciation." Just imagine: when the United Nations holds a meeting, does every country's speaker use "standard British pronunciation"? Or "standard American pronunciation"? You're joking. Every country's speaker can speak in English, and they all speak English mixed with their own particular accents, and in the vast majority of cases this in no way affects effective communication.

As a user of English, don't be misled by English teachers either. As a teacher, part of an educational product, he will of course stress "correct," "accurate" and "standard"—whether or not they themselves are really "correct," "accurate" and "standard." Sometimes, thinking about it, it's quite sad: most teachers have to raise the demands on themselves not out of a desire for progress, but merely to satisfy the "consumers'" expectations, which are in fact unreasonable. English teachers are people too, so most of them have the same psychological limitations—or, you could say, limitations of human nature—as most other people. When a person can't do something, he pretends, and keeps pretending until he himself believes it—after that he no longer needs to pretend, because he has reached the state of "sincere hypocrisy." Those teachers who keep stressing "standard pronunciation" in class (even if he himself, surprisingly, really is "standard") haven't actually thought seriously about the side effects of what they do—they scare the students, and they themselves win "respect" or "awe," and afterward these students have a serious psychological barrier to speaking English for the rest of their lives.

There is another important worry behind not daring to open your mouth and speak English: being mocked by the people around you. This is indeed annoying. Would a normal person mock a baby's tottering steps? No. Would a normal person mock a disabled person? No, and they shouldn't. Then look again: is it reasonable that someone who speaks a foreign language with non-standard or unpleasant pronunciation should invite mockery? Is it reasonable that someone who speaks a foreign language with an accent all their life and can't change it should invite mockery?

Everyone surely has people around them who like to mock others. But mocking others is stupid. If one could mock another person merely because one is better, or does better, than the other in some respect, then in the end this person too will be mocked by others—who could possibly be better than others in every respect? Mocking others is always destructive for the others, and can't be constructive for oneself either, because mocking others doesn't in itself raise one's own level; at most one gets some illusion of pleasure.

Truly civilized people don't mock others. Civilized people may, out of anger, use coarse language or swear words, but they don't casually curse people, still less casually mock others, because they have long since learned constructive criticism, and know how to respect others and respect themselves. [Translator's note: the original writes 处于愤怒 ("located in anger"), a slip for 出于愤怒, "out of anger"; translated by the intended sense] Only uncivilized people mock others. People who casually mock others are shameful—more uncivilized than spitting on the ground.

So you really can not care about mockery from others. If you've made a mistake, just correct it. If you can't correct it, it's fine as long as you haven't hurt anyone else—in fact, you simply can't hurt anyone with English that merely has a bit of an accent. If your English pronunciation is a bit worse, or your accent a bit heavier, it is simply not your fault, and you have never hurt, and are unlikely ever to hurt, anyone else because of it. The person who mocks you deserves to be mocked by you; it's just that because you are a civilized person, you can't stoop to his level, that's all. [Translator's note: the original writes 而异 ("and differ"), a slip for 而已, "that's all"; translated by the intended sense] If, of all things, you do care about mockery from others, then you've really let them succeed, because you're hurt and he's gloating. If you don't care at all, he'll lose interest, because he can't get any pleasure from it—and the fragile fellow can only get angry by himself, or get angry at himself.

Go and do whatever you should be doing; don't let others affect you so easily. Years ago there was a film called *Hard Boiled* (《辣手神探》), in which, in one scene, Tony Leung roars angrily at Chow Yun-fat, "I know I'm rotten, but that's my style!" Right—so what if your pronunciation isn't good? That's not called a shortcoming, it's called a characteristic; that's not rotten, that's style—especially when you have never given up working at it.

The previous piece said: read, read; reading too little is your fault. This piece says: speak, speak; speaking badly is no crime.

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