XPost: soc.culture.asian.american, misc.education, nyc.general   
   XPost: soc.culture.china   
   From: hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu   
      
   In article <1133048153.878114.92310@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,   
   Ira Humperdink MD  wrote:   
   >why can't chinese learn to speak english as well as the indians?   
   >chinese must   
   >be the world's MOST INARTICULATE race, next to the silent bowing   
   >japanese.   
      
   The Indians have been speaking English all their lives,   
   even taking much of their education in English.   
      
   Also, the sound system of the languages in India are   
   not all that dissimilar from Western languages; those   
   of Chinese are quite dissimilar.  This means that   
   Chinese have a fair amount of difficulty in distinguishing   
   phonemes which we find easy.  BTW, this occurs for other   
   languages as well.  Many sound combinations in English   
   are difficult for Chinese, and vice versa, and this is   
   not only the case for those languages.   
      
   Also, the grammar of Chinese is missing many of the features   
   of English, and English may well be the easiest outside of   
   Chinese in this respect.   
      
      
      
   --   
   This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views   
   are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.   
   Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University   
   hrubin@stat.purdue.edu         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558   
      
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