A Study And Analysis Of The Understanding Of Chinese Idioms By Foreign Students Outside The Chinese Linguistic And Cultural Circle

Language is the carrier of culture, and idioms are its essence, reflecting the spirit, wisdom and beauty of Chinese people. However, the volume of Chinese idioms is tremendous, and therefore foreign students need a scientific approach to learn idioms in an orderly manner beginning from the easy ones and gradually advancing to the difficult ones, according to the principle of gradual. Previous researches on foreign students' idioms learning condition were mostly based on error analysis, while this paper seeks to explore the degree of difficulty in understanding Chinese idioms by conducting a test on the semantic of idioms that have never been learnt. Although the method and angle of both types of research are different, the aim is to help foreign students to master the Chinese language, to understand her culture, and finally to further promote the communication and exchange of ideology between the Chinese people and other nations.Based on the test conducted on the intermediate and advanced students outside the Chinese linguistic and cultural circle regarding the semantic of Chinese idioms which they have never learnt, this paper has analyzed the different level of difficulty in the understanding of Chinese idioms. The idioms which are of X=Y format (two words are synonyms), simile rhetorical used idioms, and idioms where the semantic equals to literal meaning, are the idioms which are easy to understand and can be a good start in Chinese idioms learning;idioms that have strong narrative and cultural identity, idioms that have easy words but do not show its extended or hidden meaning, are the idioms which are difficult to understand, but its teaching can be easy, that can be made as extended Chinese idioms teaching; idioms that have easy words but with several different meanings are the idioms that can easily be misunderstood, such idioms are suggested to be taught only when students can accept the feature of Chinese words that can carry various meanings in a single word and have the ability to classify different kinds of words.Finally, based on the test data and analytical results, the author recommends some methods of teaching Chinese idioms to speakers of other languages. They are method of logical speculation, method of relating ancient story with today's use, method of interpretation through context and examples, and method of comparison between the Chinese and other languages.The teaching of Chinese idioms should follow the principle of gradual advancement that begins from the easy ones and gradually advancing to the difficult ones. In additional to fixing the number of characters and words that must be learnt and the level of standard that is required, perhaps the "Outline of Level" may also fix the amount of Chinese idioms that foreign students must learn and the level of standard that is required. After all, "The Outline of the Level of Chinese Characters and Vocabulary "(Revised) which was published in 2001 has been used for 10 years;it is time to reevaluate and make further amendments, so that the editors will have a more scientific criterion to refer to- in compiling teaching materials.