The past indicates how quickly the international language situation changes. If I’d been teaching English in Beijing about half a century ago a prison for spies awaited me because Soviet Russian was endorsed in China at that time. What happened? Nowadays few Chinese study the widespread language of Tolstoy and its poetic lilt. The popularity English enjoys in China at present nearly met the same political fate in 1999 when NATO’s bombs destroyed the Embassy of China in Yugoslavia. A targeting error, a CIA maverick amok…? For many Caucasian-looking foreigners, but not for Esperanto-teachers working in China I’m happy to say, ‘twas a frightening week of living dangerously until Jiang Zemin finally accepted Bill Clinton’s public and private apologies. When the American empire sets, as all empires must, who in China will persevere with English given its meagre outcomes vis-à-vis tuition, especially in the active parts of language – speaking and writing?

Peni Voss’s Talking to the Whole Wide World professionally illustrates how teachers may successfully transition from teaching a language they are au fait with to an unknown lingo.

Have a look at Manchu usage up to 1912

Paul