Fading Interest in Chinese Studies

The crucial stats we need to see: what is the percentage of users who pronounce it PLEH-co Vs PLEE-co

I mean I kind of view that as a shibboleth at this point; it's normally supposed to be a short E, and the only reason anybody ever pronounces it with a long E is because I do, so they either heard me say it somewhere or they got it from our website (or in a chain from one of those things).

On 7/29/2025 at 9:03 PM, LiMo said:

Anecdotally, they have very recently (probably a bit late tbh) massively cut down the Chinese language section in the flagship store of Foyles on Tottenham Court Road here in London, and used the space to expand the Korean language section

I was curious so went to visit a few days ago. I was quite amazed to see the Korean section really has expanded to the same size and theme (pop novels, manga) as the Japanese section, while also replacing the Chinese section location. The Chinese section hasn't shrunk as far as I can tell, it's just been moved further back from the front (see photo, sorry for poor quality). But the difference in 'vibe' is really the most noticeable thing: in the Chinese section it's still the Four Classics, then 金庸 then 巴金, then 刘慈欣. Not that there's anything wrong with that at all, I mean that's a great lineup. But just like TV and cinema, it's almost all from the 'good old days', 刘慈欣 really being the only modern big hitter. Perhaps some who speak Korean and Japanese could reflect on the modern-to-classic ratio of the books being sold in flagships like Foyles? To my eyes it appears to be nearly entirely modern, colourful and eye-catching content, presumably aimed at a younger audience.

Lastly, I noticed the Cantonese selection has actually expanded to almost a whole shelf section, perhaps a sign of the growing HK community in London?

@Tomsima Ah, that must be an even newer development than when I was last there. When I was there they had taken a shelf or two from the Chinese section if I recall correctly, but it's moved now so it's moot. But yeah, you're absolutely right that the Korean section is just much more eye catching and modern looking. It even had me reconsidering whether I should pick it up, but aside from watching dramas I think it's significantly less useful haha. The ROI just isn't there. In other news, I've got my eye on learning some Cantonese so if they've expanded it since I was last there I may go along to have a look!

They have the new updated version of Cantonese For Everyone which was nice to see, as well as some good dictionaries too. I'm still exclusively working through the Sidney Lau series so I didn't look too carefully, but if I was to go for a Jyutping based course from a modern book shop, Cantonese For Everyone would be the book I would pick; unfortunately it finishes off at about A2/B1 level. Either way, Cantonese is proving to scratch that itch I have for good media in language learning. The other option for me would be Japanese. Not sure why but Korean has just never had that pull personally.

On 8/9/2025 at 1:54 AM, Tomsima said:

I'm still exclusively working through the Sidney Lau series

Old but gold.

Have you come across 一骨 for time expression? 
 

三點一骨

I have yet to come across it in conversation yet, but one of the reasons I really love using the Lau textbooks is specifically for the older vocab the new books miss. I really enjoy watching old HK movies and outdated vocab comes up a lot in those. Not so useful when chatting with native speakers - I used 大姊 in conversation yesterday rather than 家姐 to see what would happen and it got an awkward raised eyebrow in response!

I have not heard that particular word used, so far as I remember. But early on in my "China days" I had a lady friend, a self confessed bookworm 书虫, who loved using obscure phrases from Hong Lou Meng 红楼梦 to impress me even though I was at an obvious beginner stage. It drove me nuts. We didn't last long. 

On 8/9/2025 at 5:52 PM, Tomsima said:

 

I have yet to come across it in conversation yet, but one of the reasons I really love using the Lau textbooks is specifically for the older vocab the new books miss.

 

Ask a 30yo HK native versus a 55yo HK native yields surprisingly different results. The 30yo will have no clue as it doesn’t get used in present day. The 55yo will say “oh yeah, it means that but I haven’t heard it used for a long long time!”

On 8/1/2025 at 8:59 PM, mikelove said:

he gains seem to be pretty widely distributed, most countries saw about the same increase, a few had big spikes (Netherlands, Thailand, Spain) and a few actually fell (UK, Japan) - the fact that the US was right about in the middle makes me think it's probably not weak-dollar-related, but there certainly could be an economic aspect to this if people are suddenly dusting off their Chinese (or starting to self-teach Chinese) because of various global trade scramblings.

Maybe we need to do a joint research paper about Chinese language learning trends on Apps and in schools at person for different countries. Probably some interesting data would come out of that...