Why acting warm and cuddly won’t work
By the time you read this, I will have sat my first closed exam for 29 years. The prospect of walking into Central Hall armed only with my pencil case is nothing short of daunting. I’m cursing myself for not working more consistently throughout the year, for not consolidating what I’d learnt after each lesson, and for leaving revision to the last minute. And the cause of all this angst? My attempts to learn something that is, literally, foreign to me – Mandarin Chinese.
I decided to learn Chinese for several reasons. Foremost, perhaps, is the fact that there is a sizeable Chinese population on campus, and I’m PVC for all students, not just the ones who come from a similar liberal intellectual middle-class British background as myself. I wanted to be able demonstrate to everyone that (to the extent that a PVC represents that amorphous beast, ‘the University’), the University takes its international population seriously.
Secondly, I wanted to gain some insight into the causes of interpretational difficulties across the divide between Indo-European and Asian languages. It certainly hasn’t taken long to find them – a language system comprising of no tenses, no articles, no alphabet and a completely different way of constructing sentences creates monumental problems for any beginner, let alone a student trying to express complex analytical ideas at degree level.
And thirdly, as my ageing brain atrophies, giving it a thoroughly rigorous workout once a week hopefully keeps it on its toes.
So I think it’s fair to say that I’m well and truly outside of my comfort zone here – not an easy thing to admit to the student population as publicly as this. But it is worth saying, if only so I can make the major point of this little ramble; the VC has asked me to champion the strand of ‘Inclusivity’ in the new University Plan for 2009-19. And so it seems to me that I can either say ‘Let’s all be warm, cuddly and inclusive and love one another’, or I can point out that to achieve inclusivity requires EVERYBODY to get out of their comfort zone and start making a real effort to understand and debate differences, and to decide where the extents and boundaries of toleration lie. And of course, the latter is the only honest approach. Toleration is a central tenet of this University and it is hard to put into practice. It requires a breadth of imagination and empathy that really stretches us, and a firmness of purpose that says that some actions are anti-social and cannot be tolerated on an inclusive campus. I’ll leave you to think about how we can achieve that – and doubtless Nouse will provide a comments section on their website, so I look forward to hearing some of your thoughts.
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I lived in Taiwan for four years and speak mandarin at an advanced level. The lack of understanding of Chinese art among art history students is shocking. Understanding of other aspects of Chinese culture are not much better with the wider university population here.
A section of the paper dedicated to the cultures with the most representatives at York would be a good step to inclusivity and dissemination of knowledge.
Absolutely fantastic piece. I hope that all students follow the advice and strain their comfort levels in the attempt to improve the lives of other students, whether we can do it by taking responsibility as a STYC for the “loners” in their group, trying to help get international students more engaged, actively seek more information on lifestyles we don’t understand or something further afield. We all need to work together and I hope that YUSU, over the next ten years, will put as much effort into it as Jane herself (though I’m not suggesting that all Sabbs learn Mandarin)
Disclaimer: talking as individual, not as officer.
Its great to hear that our PVC is learning Mandarin!
I would like to see a student newspaper in Mandarin, it would truly show that our Union acknowledges our huge international community, especially our Chinese students.
But surely, if we produce one in mandarin, then we should be doing a newspaper in every other language too?!
Point well made: though it would be good to see some pages in Nouse or Vision written in other languages. Hard to get YUSU to check it but it would still be pleasant! Or if there were enough translating volunteers to get a few copies printed in other languages – I’m sure that YUSU would increase Nouse’s budget to cater for changes of that description.
Pages printed in other languages? Isn’t that the definition of cliquey? Surely every YUSU spend money on should be available for as many students as possible.
The official language of the University of York is English. Students who choose to study here know that, and must adapt to that reality (even if it takes help from dedicated programmes like CELT).
Just like I would be expected to learn french if I chose to study at a french university.
Whilst it is true that foreign students studying here should learn English, it would be pleasant for people to show respect where possible. Obviously it’s not possible to translate the entire paper into Turkish but it would be good to try and engage people who aren’t brilliant at speaking written English.
I don’t see how printing in other languages is anything but the opposite of cliquey, either. Oh and it would probably be the ISA that would fund extra papers instead of YUSU, now I think about it. Though there’s a chance that the ISA is paid for by YUSU anyway.
Obviously it would not be practical to have a newspaper in every language.
However we have over 550 students from China, plus more from other countries that would speak Mandarin. Thats over 5 times more than the next biggest international community which is Americans at around 100. (Figures are all from the international office).
It is possible I think to produce a newspaper (not on the size of Nouse), but more like a newsletter to accomadate this large number of international students.
I understand that these students are at an English university so are expected to be fluent in our language, however lets face it, the university accept students that often dont have a stong enough grasp of the english language to integrate fully.
Rather than discouraging international students from furthering their English skills, I feel a Mandarin newsletter would go a long way in bridging the gap between domestic and international students and also in stopping international students feeling homesick, which as an ex-welfare rep I have witnessed first hand.
Even if only termly it would be something, and who knows, if it is successful then we could branch out into other languages, either one page updates or electronic newsletters. Most international communities have a society that would be more than happy to get involved, along with the ISA and YUSU’s welfare department.
“however lets face it, the university accept students that often dont have a stong enough grasp of the english language to integrate fully.”
The solution is to offer more teaching and training in English when international students get here then.
We can’t just force people to learn English and cope with it. Whilst we should be helping them to integrate, we should also be helping them in other ways. I think that having a non-English newsletter is a fairly good idea, whether made by the University or the SU. Maybe Jane Grenville could translate Grapevine for us
This is ridiculous. If we have to translate a newsletter in order for people to read it, then how on earth are they studying for a degree here?!
“Though there’s a chance that the ISA is paid for by YUSU anyway.”
First of all, this is incorrect. The ISA is independent from YUSU, in the same way that the GSA is independent. That is, both financially and constitutionally.
“The official language of the University of York is English. Students who choose to study here know that, and must adapt to that reality (even if it takes help from dedicated programmes like CELT).”
As a matter of fact, they do. Generally speaking, the level of English is reasonably high: http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/uao/ugrad/admiss/internat/englishlang.htm
“The solution is to offer more teaching and training in English when international students get here then.”
This is already offered.
“But surely, if we produce one in mandarin, then we should be doing a newspaper in every other language too?!”
This is exactly the reason why any such project can’t be funded by the ISA – it would either be too exclusive or too impractical.
“If we have to translate a newsletter in order for people to read it, then how on earth are they studying for a degree here?!”
They don’t need to and we don’t have to.
It’s known as ‘respect’ – of course we don’t have to and of course students should be competent at English. It is just a pleasant gesture that may or may not, depending on belief, be worth it. No need to rant though, George – you are much better at English than most international students, after all. We should hear from them. Anyway, it was only a thought and not a policy!
I wasn’t ranting Jason. My argument here is that international students have a fairly decent understanding of English anyway – this is one of the formal academic requirements for all courses lest we forget.
Nevertheless, I think that some of the comments on the ‘newspaper/newsletter’ idea were misguided and needlessly aggressive. As you’ve said, this was just an idea – it’s neither a policy nor a necessity.
I learnt Mandarin Chinese at college before coming to University – or at least the basics. It was one of these after school classes. Then the justification was, China is the rising power of the world, those who can speak Chinese will have a step ahead etc.
However the few times I’ve attempted to show off my (admittedly very limited
) grasp of Mandarin, I’ve been embarrassed to learn the people I were talking to spoke Cantonese and not Mandarin (I was since told by someone from Hong Kong, that Cantonese is the better language to learn, as it’s more widely spoken in HK and Coastal Regions vs. Mandarin which is more often spoke by those in mainland China and thus the average Brit is less likely to come across someone who speaks Mandarin vs Cantonese).
I have to say though, I very much enjoyed speaking Mandarin and would like to do some more – but who here can honestly say that even if they knew Mandarin fluently would walk up to some Chinese students and start talking away to them? Maybe it’s just my sometimes painful shyness that puts me off approaching other students (maybe exacerbated by a sense of worry about offending other people’s cultures by barging in on them?) but the idea of approaching someone or a group of students and attempting to start a conversation in (what I presume to be) their language is cringe-worthy to me. I just imagine myself playing the part of Derrick Trotter, wooing his friends with his ‘grasp’ of the French language.
Maybe it’s just me, or maybe English reserve has played a part in not wanting to intrude on other’s cultures and language – it’s almost a taboo. I guess that’s what PVC Jane Grenville means when pushing ourself outside our comfort zone (but I do still worry about causing unintended offence, heh).
zhong guo ren you zhong shuofa: “hao hao xue, xi tian tian xiang shang”
Middle kingdom people have a-kind-of saying: “good good study, day day up”
This is a product of Chairman Mao but it is consistant with ancient chinese cultural respect for life long learning and that difficult tasks may be achieved by the application of small acts over a sustained process and long time. Everybody knows this to be true but interacting with our zhong guo tong xue (chinese course mates) is a direct route to sharing the reiteration of it.
Wo xihuan zhong guo!
I like China.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to take an LFA course due to the demands of my other commitments at University. However, in the future I shall definately learn pu tong hua (standard speech, mandarin) and obtain some certificates.
Any body can learn any skill. Just look at all those other people who can do it. They’re only human you know. Relearn learning at York!
Beside using foreign language learning as a (rather poor) metaphor for inclusiveness, why not discuss how body language and bad attitudes on the part of the university staff can contribute to the unwelcome atmosphere? More than once has the person in the information office rolled her eyes at me as I walked up to her desk… I was an international student, I had just arrived, and, yes, I had multiple questions that needed answering. She should be reminded it’s her job to answer questions, not make people feel awful for asking. I have also witnessed university staff impatiently speaking with foreign students when a situation wasn’t clear. Impatience towards your students by your staff should be not tolerated. But since I also experienced Dr. Grenville’s impatience at a meeting she agreed to have with me, I am not surprised that her attitude sets the tone for the rest of her staff – you’ve head the story: the boss yells at the dad, the dad yells at the mom, the mom at the child, and the child kicks the dog. Check your tone Dr. Grenville, and perhaps relations on campus between everyone will improve.
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