I've learned English for at least 10 years. During this period of time, I have some feelings, which I want to share with you. Generally speaking, study itself is a long process, and you have to take in things as much as you can and make progress gradually. I just get through such a process.
At first, my basis of English was so poor that I often failed in the tests. To me, those English words with different letters in disorder were too hard to memorize, which made me almost lose all my interest in this subject. I even thought never could I learn it well. Nevertheless, I tended to believe that I could have a good command of English so long as I worked hard. Thanks to the English teacher I met in the last year of junior high. It's she taught me how to cross the threshed of English. She was really a conscientious and strict teacher. We were required to recite all the words and passages in the textbook, and before every class it must come first the dictation. In her opinion, there's no other good method except reciting at the early stage of learning a foreign language, and the more one keeps in his mind, the more stuff he can use, laying a solid foundation for the fluent and accurate performance in English. It’s of course proved to be true, as the main purpose of learning English is to use it freely in the course of communication. In fact, output largely depends on input, as I found it later. Besides the words and expressions, she also attached so much importance to every important grammar points we've learnt by urging us to do plenty of follow-up exercises after class, and all of which was done wrong by more than ten students would certainly be explained in the class by her. In addition, she also encouraged us to ask her questions, and I could still remember one of her pet phrases that student with no question was actually not a good one…with the guidance of her, I made progress rapidly, helping to gain confidence and interest in English learning.
With the relatively solid foundation and those helpful tips, I met quite a few difficulties in the study of English when I was in senior high school, and I actually got to know more methods during this period of time.
First of all, the most useful one was that you should join in all kinds of practice with high zest in class .At that time, some of the students were too lazy to take notes in the class, or they were reluctant to stand up to answer the teacher's questions, but I was not. I tried hard to put down every important detail the teacher said, and I could always jump at the opportunities to speak in English in class.
Then, I got into the habit of collecting all the mistakes I had made in a certain notebook for reviewing, especially before the examination. I just tried very hard to avoid making the similar mistake once again in the future study, and with this time and energy saving method, I seemed to find the shortcut to English learning and had great fun with my English study. Meanwhile, I began to write essays in English. It was usually very short, sometimes only a small paragraph, but I think that’s all right at that stage.
After the entry to college, I began to learn English systematically, as it's my major. On the first day, all of us were given a lecture on the requirements we should meet in the coming four years. To be frank, I was almost frightened when hearing those, as they sounded too strict. I was aware that my past learning is deadly insufficient, and studies from that time on turned a new leaf in my life, and I got all kinds of professional trainings:
The first one was pronunciation and intonation. We had lessons on this, as we were told it's of great importance. At first, I felt it hard to be at home in this class, as I had got so used to pronouncing some phones in a completely wrong way. It took me quite a great deal of time to change back to the right ones. Moreover, we were asked to imitate the tapes such as "New concept English" over and over again. After one term's intense practice, finally came the pronunciation and intonation test. I was so disappointed that I didn't pass it, though I thought I had been fully prepared. Afterwards, I paid much more attention to this aspect through morning reading, and I got a pamphlet handy to jot down every words, which I had difficulties in pronouncing. No pain, no gain. Later I managed to make it in the make-up exam, but I know I still have a long way to run, if I want to speak right the same as those native speakers.
The second one was listening. We got no practice like this in the high school, as it's not included in the college entrance exam, which brought me great trouble. As a freshman, I didn’t have a busy schedule in courses, so I often spent the whole afternoon or evening without lessons in the language lab to listen to the tapes. At first, my efficiency was sorely low. I only had the phone on, and listened to it mechanically, therefore, I could only grasp the general idea, but miss the required information in the exercises, so I did badly in the first listening exam. Thereby I began to make a change to what I used to, I didn't merely listen to the material, but tried to grasp the "related information" as much as possible, as I had a glance at the exercises first. With such certain aim, I could do the exercises more promptly and correctly than before. I came to realize that such intensive listening was as important as extensive listening, meanwhile I spent plenty time listening to the walkman with all sorts of tapes, such as English songs, movies, news, etc. I surprisingly found that to listen in a relaxed state could also do well to my listening, so I just stick to this up to now.
The third one was speaking. We had no specialized practice in oral English in high school either. I was always active in volunteering to make a speech in high school, but that's far from enough. Little by little, I found my range of topic was narrow. I could only make short speech and could hardly make it even longer, especially when I was given a certain topic. This is quite knotty, so I consulted my teacher, and she gave me the suggestion that I should read more and think more in the way of English. I followed her words. I even tried to say something to myself in English in front of a mirror since no partner for practice was available, and I read a lot of English articles. Of course, it worked, so I dare to make the conclusion here that active thinking and large amount of reading are the sources of making a good speech.
The fourth one was writing. I was asked to write daily journal, calling for great passion and persistence. I really find it hard to keep working on this, but every time when I didn't want to write, my writing teacher, Mr. Penton's word came into my mind, "a few words is much better than nothing”, hence, I managed to be persistent in writing my journal everyday, even though they were not that long. Here I really want to extent my great appreciation to Mr. Penton, this American teacher, as I had learned a lot from him. I was impressed by his lessons, especially his theory of writing. I could still remember some of his words clearly: First of all, we should develop a good attitude towards writing, as "it's a feeling, a passion insides your heart. You have the interest and desire to write for yourself,” and “you should develop your own ideas and opinions..." Besides, “why should you write other countries instead of yours own?” More than once, I felt ashamed of myself, because I really knew little about my city, my country, and my culture. As a foreigner, he had taught us to really concern our own nation and its culture, which was truly more significant than the English learning itself. As the only international language, English is actually in the service for the international communication, and as a Chinese learner of English, I’m really obligated to tell the outside world what are China and Chinese culture like.
The fifth one was translation. I had received instructions from my teacher. What struck me most were the following points that we should not ignore in the course of translating.
First came the differences between the two languages, I mean, Chinese and English. Theoretically speaking, these two languages are completely different, we can see it clearly in terms of their sentences. English sentences are relatively more complicated just like the grape with stem and other decorations, while the Chinese ones are like lines. They are relatively short. Many short ones getting together to convey one meaning, therefore, we should try to abide by this rule when translating. Then, translation calls for the understanding of the whole text, that's textual environment. We should pay enough attention to the connection between the sentence and the whole text, and don't translate it as an isolated one.
Next, we should make an attempt to have a good understanding of the style of the article. To make sure what it's like, humorous, serious, sarcastic or something else, and then try to use the same style of Chinese words.
Last, before translating we should read through the whole passage, and after translating, we should read through the version to check.
Besides what I've mentioned above, I still have a few words to say. Interest, persistence, patience, good instructions are the key factors to success. Without interest, you have no motivation to learn at all. Without constant practice, knowledge means nothing, just as you cannot perform beautiful music, even though you know how to perform a musical instrument. Without enough patience, you may feel frustrated and give up easily when you meet difficulties. Without good instructions from your teachers, your efforts may come into fruitless, after all, only can those good methods lead you to the right way. So all of this above is what I want to say on this topic. Just as I've mentioned, English learning is actually a time-consuming and pain-taken process, so I still have a long way to run, and I will spare no strain in it.
