Is bilingual fluency not the same as fluency in Chinese plus fluency in our mother tongue?

[Pengyou]

I am teaching in a Chinese public school now and have to constantly switch between Chinese and English - many times in ten minutes. I find it to be much more difficult to speak Chinese now than before, even though I am speaking very simple Chinese - i.e. line up,draw horizontal lines, etc. Does the brain function differently in a bilingual environment? or is something else going on? I have been teaching for 23 years....

[Guest realmayo]

Sorry if this sounds flippant or obvious, but could it simply be the effects of tiredness/stress? I'm often really surprised how difficult I find it to speak Chinese when I'm tired, either sleepy or because I've come off a really busy day. For me, it makes much more of a difference than I'd expect.

[johnk]

I am not sure if this is a 'Chinese' problem per se.

I have met more than one person in the UK, who after a lifetime of teaching primary school, then speaks to everyone as though they are an 8 year old. I avoid one of my friends' wives for this very reason.

I suspect that your Chinese is deteriorating because you are mainly using it in a very limited environment and you have been doing so for a long time.

[gato]

I suspect that your Chinese is deteriorating because you are mainly using it in a very limited environment and you have been doing so for a long time.

I don't think he's saying he's been teaching Chinese children for 23 years.

[li3wei1]

Pengyou, are you experiencing difficulty in the classroom, or outside it, when you don't need to be switching back and forth? or both? and what sort of difficulty is it? remembering the vocab? making mistakes? blurting out English?

[renzhe]

Code switching is really really hard. You can be fluent in a foreign language but still struggle in situations which require switching back and forth.

It is a sign of true bilingualism when you can switch to a language instantly and be at your 100% straight away, and can keep doing it all day long without any problems. This typically requires a very high level.

[Pengyou]

Thanks for the input! yes, please be honest. No, I have only been teaching in China for 15 years and only the last few years have I had to use Chinese to communicate in the class. Outside of class I can go to Starbucks with Chinese friends and spend most of the evening chatting with them. We begin in a mixture of Chinese and English but after about half an hour we default to mostly Chinese and I do pretty well. Yes, I can understand that stress is a part of it. I am not trying to rationalize my Chinese but rather find a way to help improve my classroom situation. I find it difficult to find words when switching back and forth, even to find English words Code switching...I will google that. I have heard from a couple of other foreigners that have had the same problem. If it is a big enough issue, I would like to consider doing a thesis on this topic, if I can ever get to a masters degree.

[tooironic]

As someone who uses Chinese and English every day both socially and in a training context (translating and interpreting, specifically) I totally get where you're coming from. All I can say is that it gets better over time. The more you do it the easier it gets. And your level of self-confidence, caffeine and sleep all have an effect on your performance.

Indeed, in many cases it does feel like a performance, since here you are a non-Chinese speaking Mandarin to a group of Chinese people. You do feel a bit like a performer. It can be nerve-wracking and this can make it more difficult for you. At least for me, I have pretty high expectations for myself (/am a perfectionist) so I do put a lot of pressure on myself to speak *perfectly*, which is of course not always possible. If I make the slightest mistake I get embarrassed, go red, etc. It's something I'm trying to work on, and it is getting better.

One thing I've noticed that's interesting is that after I've spoken English or Chinese for a few minutes I kind of get "in the zone" (进入状态) and everything seems easy. Communication flows, and everyone's happy. But, for example, if I speak English for a couple of hours and then someone suddenly pops a Chinese word on me with absolutely no context, I can struggle to understand them. The other day one of my students, after speaking English for most of the day, asked me "how do you say 抗日博物馆?" Now this is not exactly a difficult word, but since we had been using English that whole time and there was no particular context this phrase caught me completely off-guard. These situations are frustrating because - unfortunately - I have the flaw of being overly concerned about losing face... I want to look *professional*... but there you go.

Wow, I wrote quite a lot. In summary, I'd suggest the more practice you get the easier it'll be for you. You may wish to compile a list of important expressions that you need to use in your classroom and memorise them in advance so you feel more confident on the day. Also, I've found it particularly helpful to meet up with people who are really good at code-switching - having interesting conversations with them that suddenly go from English to Chinese can do wonders for developing that skill.

[Pengyou]

I love this forum :)

[renzhe]

Wow, I wrote quite a lot. In summary, I'd suggest the more practice you get the easier it'll be for you. You may wish to compile a list of important expressions that you need to use in your classroom and memorise them in advance so you feel more confident on the day.

Absolutely.

Rehearsing difficult conversations ahead of time is the best way to get the most out of these conversations AND to really learn how to say things.

Look up all the tricky words you'll need ahead of time and come up with some sentences that will be useful. Just the fact that you've thought about these things will improve your speaking immensely when the time comes.

[Guest realmayo]

This is a little bit almost off-topic but it strikes me that one (the only?) advantage of studying Chinese at a Chinese university where most of your classmates don't speak English is that it quickly becomes completely normal and natural to speak in Chinese all day, and what makes it natural is that they're not native speakers so their ability isn't miles above yours. Instead you're all at similar levels, with a similar grammar knowledge and vocabulary range, so you don't have either party really struggling or, on the other hand, having to be patient, meaning there's none of the stresses that you can get when you've got people of substantially unequal language abilities talking together.

[dnevets]

Pengyou, what subject(s) do you teach? I only ask because most foreigners are employed as teachers of English, and if this is the case then there should rarely (never?) be a need to speak Chinese in class.

[Guest realmayo]

if this is the case then there should rarely (never?) be a need to speak Chinese in class

Who told you this?

[roddy]

Your standard TEFL training will teach you to not use the students' L1 in class, the theory being that a well-trained teacher can explain pretty much anything without doing so - mime, the board, gestures, blah blah. What would you do if you had a class of 12 students, with four different languages between them, and you don't speak any? Do that, even in a class with the same L1.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it can be done.

[tooironic]

I agree that when it comes to TEFL most instruction should be in English. But dropping the odd Chinese word or sentence can do wonders for students - to keep them awake, learning, interacting, etc. It can also save a lot of time, especially in explaining key concepts or strategies. But code switching in class is a skill in of itself. Some teachers do it without any context, or with terrible pronounciation, and that can be pretty counterproductive, since students end up getting confused. And speaking as a student, I've had plenty of incidences where the Chinese teacher has inserted random English words into their teaching with all the best intentions but I seriously had no idea what word they were trying to say.