ENGLISH is no longer alien in the world's most populous country, with the language in common use from Beijing boardrooms to the back streets of Baoshan.

But it’s not the same as conversing with native speakers, according to two winners of a big English language competition for undergraduate students in China.

“We say, ‘long time no see!’” says Shen Jiahui, 20, who placed second in this year’s 21st Century Cup competition.

“That’s Chinglish. People are not speaking like this [any more].”

Ms Jiahui is on a study tour of Sydney with fourth placegetter Wang Taojun, courtesy of competition sponsors Navitas English.

This year’s competition attracted nearly 10,000 entrants from 850 universities in China and others in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

Now in its 18th year, the competition was established in the wake of Beijing’s failed bid to stage the 2000 Olympic Games.

“One reason Beijing failed was that there were not many English speakers at the time,” says Shen Gang, deputy editor in chief of the English language newspaper 21st Century.

He says the competition was created to encourage Chinese university students “to open their mouths and use English as a language for communicative purposes, not as a language only learnt in classrooms”.

China now has more people learning English as a second language than any other country, Mr Gang says, with lessons mandated from the third year of primary school.

But in practice this only happens in the cities because there aren’t enough English teachers in rural areas. And the vast majority of teachers are Chinese-born.

“There’s a term called ‘mute English’ in teaching and learning cycles,” Mr Gang says.

“A lot of students can only read instead of open their mouths and communicate with English. The [main] reason is there are not many foreign language teachers in China.

“Most English major students get their first native speaker teacher when they reach first year in university.”
He says learners use tapes and videos to imitate pronunciation and intonation.

“That’s one reason President Barack Obama is very popular with teenagers, because people can download his speeches for his pronunciation.”

Mr Gang says English now dominates as the foreign language of choice and the only one required by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

“French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and others – these languages are regarded as third languages, but English is always second.”

He says young people have started to mix Chinese and English as “kind of a fashion trend”. The term “nihao are you?” – a fusion of the English greeting with the Chinese nihao – is commonly used in Beijing, especially to address foreigners, after it was popularised by a Radio China International announcer.

Mr Taojun, who prefers the name Daniel while in Australia, is studying translation and interpretation as a third-year student at Sichuan International Studies University.

“English is a little bit like the working language in multicultural working environments,” says Daniel, 21.

“In big companies, many documents are in English. So young people who want to find a better job in giant companies, they’d better speak good English.”

Daniel and Ms Jiahui, who go by the names of Lily, are on their first trip outside China. They’re attending English classes between visits to Sydney’s tourist attractions.

“The teaching method here is quite different from what we have in China,” says Lily, a second year international business student at English-speaking Guangdong University of Foreign Affairs.

“Teachers have more interaction with the students, and the students are engaged in the whole process. It’s quite different.”

Daniel says the local courses explore topics never covered in China, such as the history of pop music. He says the students are from all over the world and are forced to use English because it’s the only common language.

The total immersion continues after class, with many students staying in homestays. Lily says chats with her host family have improved her proficiency.

“You don’t learn [some] words from your books or academic English. You can only learn from daily interaction.”

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