A recently transferred employee from Shanghai nails his pitch to Mr. Smith in Chicago, but stumbles when talking to Mr. Chen from San Francisco. A visiting professor from Taiwan lectures fluently when showing a slide of a Grecian urn, but struggles to recall the word “translucent” when discussing a Ming vase. Why would seeing a Chinese face or even a Chinese vase disrupt a Chinese immigrant’s fluency in English?
via Columbia Ideas at Work : Feature : Language+Lessons.
