北京擬下調中高考英語分值引熱議

Could fear of losing touch with Chinese mean a backlash for English in China?

對漢字危機的擔憂意味着英語會在中國受到抵制嗎？

On Friday, Chinese television audiences watched the final of a national spelling bee competition that has both enthralled the nation and revved up cultural purists worried about the declining ability of many Chinese to write their own language. Now, officials in the Chinese capital are mulling a plan to elevate the position of Chinese in school curriculum at the expense of English.

上週五，中國電視觀衆觀看了《漢字聽寫大會》的決賽，這個比賽不僅吸引了全國觀衆，而且令文化純粹主義者更擔心許多中國人的漢字書寫能力正在下降的問題。現在，中國首都的官員正考慮一項計劃，以降低英語在學校課程中的重要性來提升語文課的地位。

Starting 2016, the Beijing government is planning to reduce the weighting of English in college and senior high school entrance exams, according to a report from Xinhua. English, Chinese and math currently have the same weighting. Public consultation on the proposal started Monday, said the report.

據新華社報道，北京市政府計劃從2016年起下調高考和中考中英語科目的分值。目前英語、語文和數學的分值相同。報道稱，政府於週一開始就這一計劃徵詢公衆意見。

Sources with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education said students in Beijing will only start to learn English in third grade, instead of starting English on the first day of elementary school, according to the report. Students can also sit their English exams more than once until they get the best score for college admissions.

報道稱，北京市教育委員會的人士說，北京的學生將從小學三年級纔開始學英語，而不是小學入學第一天。此外，學生可多次參加英語考試，取最好成績計入高考總分。

The move comes amid a surge in interest in Chinese as the CCTV show 'Chinese Characters Dictation Competition' has taken the country by storm since it started in August. As part of its stated mission, the show says it is hoping to reinvigorate interest in Chinese, in part because it sees writing skills deteriorating as young people increasingly communicate by smartphones with Western keyboards.

該計劃提出之際，正值中央電視臺《漢字聽寫大會》節目令人們對漢字的興趣高漲之際，這檔節目自8月份開播以來已經吸引了全國觀衆。該節目稱，其目的之一是希望能喚起大家對漢字的興趣，這在一定程度上是因爲看到年輕人越來越多的通過在手機上使用西方鍵盤打字來溝通，導致他們的書寫技能退步。

'The change highlights the fundamental importance of [the] mother tongue in the curriculum,' Li Yi of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

新華社援引北京市教委委員李奕的話報道稱，這一調整將突出語文作爲母語學科的基礎性重要地位。

Jiangsu and Shandong provinces as well as Shanghai are also mulling similar moves to lessen the importance of English in college entrance exams, the report added.

報道稱，江蘇、山東以及上海也考慮採取類似舉措，降低英語在高考中的重要性。

One of the most extreme proponents of the move to deemphasize English in Chinese schools is Wang Xuming, a former spokesman for the Ministry of Education. On his Weibo account, he has been repeatedly calling for English lessons to be dropped in primary schools.

中國教育部前發言人王旭明是最爲支持在中國學校中弱化英語教育的人之一。他曾在微博賬戶上反覆呼籲小學取消英語課。

'Save the children, save the Chinese language, save our culture!' he tweets frequently on his account, which has about 1.8 million followers.

他在微博賬戶上經常說，救救孩子，救救漢語，救救語文。

'I rarely give recognition to Beijing, but this is not just recognition, this is heartfelt praise,' Mr. Wang said on Tuesday in an interview with state media.

王旭明週二在接受國有媒體採訪時說，我很少表揚北京，這次不僅表揚，而且大讚併發自內心。

Xinhua was careful, however, not to trivialize the importance of English, which it said is important as China 'opens wider to the outside world.' It says that the new measures will simply shift the way English is taught, from a narrow focus on achieving high scores in tests to help students apply what they learn in real life.

但新華社較爲審慎，並未否認英語的重要性。新華社的報道中說，在中國進一步向世界開放之際，英語具有重要性。新華社稱，新措施只會改變英語的教授方式，從僅僅側重在考試中取得高分向幫助學生將所學運用到實際生活中轉變。

But any government-led attempts to play down the importance of English may not make much of an impact in China. It is, after all, a country where the thirst to learn English has spawned companies such as U.S.-listed New Oriental Education & Technology Group, which inspired the hit movie 'American Dreams in China'. Xinhua puts the value of China's English-learning industry at about 30 billion yuan ($5 billion).

但政府採取的任何弱化英語重要性的嘗試都不大可能在中國產生太大的影響。畢竟在中國，對學習英語的渴望已經推動締造了美國上市的新東方教育科技（集團）公司(New Oriental Education & Technology Group)這樣的公司，熱播電影《中國合夥人》(American Dreams in China)的靈感就來自於新東方。新華社稱中國英語學習產業的價值高達人民幣300億元左右。

'I have a friend who is the same year as me, who went to work for Standard Chartered after graduating because his/her English is ng the 2008 financial crisis my friend 'only' got a bonus of 500,000 yuan. I don't think there is any subject that is more important than English,' Zheng Chu, a columnist for China's Time Weekly magazine, wrote on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.

《時代週報》特約評論員鄭褚在類似推特(Twitter)的新浪微博上說，我有個朋友，跟我同一屆的，因爲英語好，畢業去了渣打銀行(Standard Chartered)。08年受金融風暴影響，年終獎“只”拿了50多萬。比英語更重要的課我覺得是沒有了。

Those who share a similar view to Mr. Zheng's may take comfort in the result of 'Chinese Characters Dictation Competition,' where the winner and the runner-up were two 14 year-old girls from the Hangzhou Foreign Languages School, which has a heavy emphasis on teaching English.

《漢字聽寫大會》的決賽結果可能會讓那些與鄭褚持相同觀點的人感到安慰，大賽的冠亞軍是兩位來自杭州外國語學校的14歲女生，這所學校非常重視英語教學。