Who would explain grammar best?

AuntySue
March 02, 2008, 03:13 AM posted in General Discussion

A hypothetical question: If you were getting help or instruction specifically for Mandarin grammar, would you prefer a native Mandarin speaker, or a native speaker of your own language to explain the grammar? (Assume both are equally excellent teachers.)

 

I've been thinking about this and I can see reasons for both. What do you think?

 

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mark
March 02, 2008, 04:40 AM

I would prefer a native speaker of Mandarin, because they will have a better "ear" for what sounds right. I sometimes explain English grammar points to Chinese friends on the same basis; it is easy for me to mentally test possible constructions for correctness.

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rich
March 02, 2008, 02:28 PM

Both are good, I have to say from experience. And that is why I really enjoy hearing John and Jenny go at it with questions, answers and grammar/culture points. With all due respect to even my very intelligent Chinese friends, they just don't see the difficulties we have in learning Chinese. Even Jenny seems stumped when John asks a question like "So I can I say such-and-such" and she is like "Why would you ever say that??" yet I was thinking the very same question (or thinking John should point that very grammar-problem out and then he was reads my mind) When I attempt to answer someone's questions, pulling from my long experience of what I've learned, I admit that a Chinese correction/verification is crucial to anything I write/say, or at least greatly appreciated and welcome. I don't think Chinese people, no matter how well they know the west and western languages, can or should teach Chinese on their own... it has to be a cooperation, from books to the actual teaching, even though, as I just stated on the other User post about the LA Times article on the guy teaching Chinese in LA, there is an understandable trend for native speakers to teach Chinese. I do wonder what an actual classroom experience would be like, if ever a school would even allow which is highly unlikely (what? pay two teachers??), if it was done the way the Ken/John and Jenny way was done, where a westerner and Chinese were teaching a regular high school/college class together. Hard to imagine, but I believe that even the interaction between the two teachers would be something entertaining to the students. The only problem would be the two could get into conflicts on agreement or understanding.