香港英語教育出了甚麽問題？

iodine

A person with poor verbal English does not necessarily mean his writing, reading & listening are poor.

If a mute person can be a professor and a stammering author can be famous, I cannot see why a social worker must speak "good" English unless his clients are mainly foreigners.

motherotk

I believe a social worker needs to have basic bilingual competence as social workers need to communicate with people verbally with all kinds of people, including both Chinese speaking and English speaking clients.

Without basic communication abilities, how can he handle the work challenges he is facing as a legislator..facing the public and clearly presenting his point of views. Don't waste public's time in listening to messages that we don't understand, this is his responsibilities!!!

Of course, this is not a personal attack, does not diminish his personality, but as a social worker and a legislator, he should meet basic bilingual communication skills to meet his work requirements. He is not a writer or having a job working with mechines, he is a social worker working with people (need verbal communication)..no excuse at all without good bilingual communication skills.

From the Utube, I cannot understand what he is saying, he cannot communicate himself well, not doing his job well..He is not a social worker now, he is a legislator, he needs to be responsible to the public!! Knows his own  limitations and find someone capable to help him out to communicate clearly.

hk_packychan

我自己本身英文都唔太好，所以我覺得都係要比一個好D 的學英文環境個仔。。。。而家佢未可以出外讀書， 唯有揀學校時找Native English Teacher 的學校同language centre 去學。。。廢事教左D Chinglish 出黎。。。。

motherotk

Having "Chinglish" is ok, at least is clearly understood by people. I believe a lots of civil servants are presenting themselves with "chinlish", that's pretty understandable as we are living in a Chinese context, no shame at all for that.

But at least you need to have people understand what you said if your job require you to do so.

I would suggest this legislator to ask for a translator to translate for him next time when facing the media or working with his clients, at least people understand. This should be more responsible than saying something that people don't understand, waisting people's time!

天天譯

真係好難想像可以差成咁。
唔用英文發言可以接受。
但夾硬在傳媒面前講成咁，真係唔識諗。

iodine

bookreader 發表於 12-1-31 10:41
But as parents, I do want my children to learn good English. Because I want them to be able to read first hand the latest global economic trend, academic and scientific breakthrough, and the most innovative ideas, and successful stories of people around the world.

Are you kidding?
Do you know what is the first hand information in science?

iodine

There are many many many many jobs that involve social workers. For example, native english speaking is a must if an international school is hiring an in-house counsellor.
But what I was talking was the general requirement of a social worker.
This standard is set by professional and academic bodies, not anybody in a forum.
1. I am not a social worker, can someone enlighten me whether a mute social worker will be removed from the SW register of HK or overseas?
2. Google "social working IELTS", you will find the university language requirements. 6.5 is usually required by overseas universities.

iodine

bookreader 發表於 12-1-31 14:48
回復 iodine 的帖子

I am now reading a book by Richard Dawkins. You can google about Dawkins and fin ...

I do not know which Dawkin's book you are reading but in general they are called "popular science". You may ask your CalTech friend whether Dawkin's book is "first hand scientific knowledge". I must emphasize I do not think popular science books are no good and contain nothing original.

I guess you meaning of "first hand" is books in original language and not a translated one.

In academia, there is no terms like "first hand scientific knowledge" but if you speak to a faculty, he will ask you to read original research papers in peer-reviews journals.

ngsmum

回復 bookreader 的帖子

對不起的確說得太遠又表達得不好。

不過我也不是說強國人有錢大晒就不用學好英語。不是的，英語當然重要。但是，是否一個人英語口語不濟就要被人上綱上線到其他能力都有問題呢？

另一方面，卻好像從來沒有人會說，一個人無論中文口語或書寫不好，他的其他能力一定都有問題丶不可靠。我是覺得這種這態度有點偏頗盲目，無助我們真正學好英語或其他語文。

會不會，我們太過盲目重視英語，而忽略了學習母語，在母語語言運用方面學得廣而深，反而有助我們學習英語呢？

至於現今本港”精英＂英語口語不濟，我也覺得是語言環境問題；如非工作上需要常用英語口語跟人溝通，（特別是要運用日常社交生活用語而非只限工作範疇的），我們實在很少機會說英語，這方面的能力自然不濟。

闗於學好英文，因家有幼兒，我也是摸著石頭過河，望大家多多交流指點。

motherotk

Not knowing what he was saying when he described the incidents...indicating his poor communication skills when using English. This is the facts we all observed..

He should ask for help next time, at least find a translator to help him to communicate clearly. He needs to have awareness that as a legislator, communicating clearly to the public is important as well as a social worker or a customer service representative....or as a teacher or as .....