We Americans often have a hard time following folks who do not speak English the way we do. The language barrier has more to do with English skills than accents. As a matter of fact, we are quite receptive to foreign accents. After all, America is supposed to be a melting pot, and in many ways it is.
Everyday Joes and Janes use a ton of idioms and expressions in their daily communication. Idioms and expressions are shortcuts, if you will, to getting communication partners to understand each other better, faster. In other words, they hold the key to improving conversational English.
Picture this. You run into yours truly, who looks more Caucasian than Han Chinese. During a subsequent pleasant exchange, you find that I have no problem catching up with your idiomatic Chinese (and I have a Chinese pseudonym/pen name). Won’t you feel good? I certainly will.
By the same token, if you manage to impress your American conversation partner (interlocutor) with your idiomatic English, I bet you will enjoy greater personal and professional successes. I know, you don’t spend all day hanging around the water cooler. But, small talks matter in social life. Gossips, sorry, small talks are fertile in idiomatic English. “My two cents” is an idiom/expression, by the way.
Just one more thing before wrapping it up, I personally don't like the term "Chinglish" very much. If I use this term, and I did, I mean well and I use it judiciously. Meanwhile, if someone says, "English is Latinish," I'll take it as a tribute to the Latin root of my language, no more and no less. Everything comes from somewhere. We'd better put languages in perspective.
---LYJiang
