Thanks for the explanation, Ayo. So there's that influence under the American government for 50 years, was it then called a colony? Pardon my ignorance, but you'll find out there's a lot that I don't know.
In Taiwan, English is a mandatory subject at school starting 1st grade which was up from Junior high (7th grade) about 6-7 years ago seeing that English is more than ever becoming an international language. The consesus is that if you want to compete with the world you have to be able to speak English (this should give the native speakers a boost to their ego
), but heck English is hard to learn for us (Taiwanese, not speaking for
all Chinese). From pronounciations to grammar, there's no "l" sound in our native tongue except when it comes at the beginning of a word. It's herrendous when you try to pronounce a word like "rule" or "cruel" for the first time, you either don't say it whole or you overdo it. And grammar or sentence structure are a major pain in your neck, you have to relearn things you used to know to be as true as the sun always rise in the East now are not so true. The flipping words around, reversing the positions of them to make an inquiring sentence (pronouns come at the end of a sentence, what's with that?) or you have words that they don't have any meanings if stand alone, but named with fabulous catagories: preposition, modal, etc........these are all to overwhelming for us. But we Chinese perservere, nobody killed themselves over it as far as I know.
Anyway, I like English I'm getting better with it especially with the help of the site, it's been most benificial to me. And I'm sure you'll find it helpful to you too. You'll find the most intelligent poeple here who are generous of their knowledge and will answer you questions if you ask in earnest. In case, I just keep buggin them. Welcome!
NT