I think both of you are right. The most important factor when you communicate with people you know is how convenient the conversation is. Few people you know well will insist on speaking a language that doesn’t work well for communication, for instance. However, when dealing with people you don’t know well or that are complete strangers, your language ability becomes less important. Some people really just want to practise English. I have encountered a few people like that.

I asked Carl the question because I’ve met lots of Chinese exchange students in Sweden who want to practise their English. Here in Taiwan, I can just ignore people who only wants to speak English, only speak Chinese with them or even use Swedish if all else fails. However, that kind of behaviour becomes unacceptable in countries where Chinese isn’t the native language. It would be strange, rude and quite bad in general to refuse to speak English with Chinese people in the US! You’d be the Chinese ninja yourself.

What I hadn’t thought about was the availability factor that Sara mentions. In English-speaking countries, Chinese speakers typically don’t have a problem finding people who speak English. In fact, they might feel relieved that a native English speaker also speaks Chinese, which might be interesting and useful in many ways.

On the other hand, Carl Gene Fordham has only spent 4-5 months total in China.

I often get Taiwanese people trying to speak with me in English, even when their English speaking ability is significantly lower than my Chinese speaking ability. One of the more obvious reasons for this is that Taiwanese people in Taiwan do not get many opportunities to practice speaking English with a native speaker, so some want to take the chance when they see it (though most are too shy to try).

If he’s mostly been talking to native speakers outside of places where Chinese is not the main language, I’m not surprised that he hasn’t met many native speakers who speak English.

I have been rereading a copy of “Theories of Second-Language Learning” by MccLaughln that starts with dethroning Skinner’s Behavoiralism, and the runs through Krashen, Chomsky, and other for about 4 decades of destruction of one theory after another.

In the above, you find a good teacher for six months and then the rest is up to you. No ivory tower theory and rebutual, just try to get involved and stay involved in productive progressive application of your communication and reading skills (I suspect not much about writing).

This web site has been extremely helpful to me as the weekly arrival of another email reminds me to stay engaged and keeping trying to learn more.

I find the older books by Yale Press and Tewksbury remain some of the best and easiest to get through that Beginner phase in into Intermediate. Too many of the new books hae gotten too clear and really have lost sight of providing the ‘must know’ first, followed by the ‘need-to-know’ info. Something about ‘cut and paste’ editing with lots of color computer graphics has worked heavily against writers publishing good lean texts that don’t confound the learner with side panels, and clutter.

Above all, keep it simple and try to practise with native speakers regularly.