Dear Evena,
First of all I must apologize for not being able to reply to your personal email address…I hope you can understand that I do not wish to get overly personal with anyone on this forum. We’re all here to share with one another our personal experiences on learning English, and hopefully as a result improve our language skills, but not to establish any emotional bond that may defeat our purpose here.
A Chinese proverb says: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” You have certainly taken the first step. What you need to realize is that to truly master a new language may take a lifetime! This is truly a journey of a thousand miles that you’re embarking in. English is an international language. It’s spoken throughout the world. It’s ubiquitous on the Internet. And it’s also a highly advanced, highly sophisticated and highly scientific language. I read many books in English as well as Chinese, and I must say that in the realm of natural science as well as social science, many topics appear to be expressed more naturally and explicitly in English than Chinese. It’s possible that my humble opinion is somewhat biased because I live in an English environment. China’s recent successful launching of a space ship manifests that the characteristics of a given language has no bearing on the level of technological advancement a nation can achieve.
Ok, back to the right topic…my personal experiences prove that amassing a large number of English vocabularies really makes a huge difference in my daily life here in Canada. The ability to ascertain the exact meaning of a word in the context presented vastly improve my oral conversational ability and comprehension level. In many instances I may not be able to use those profound, ostentatious words in my own writing or speech, but when I encounter them, I immediately understand their meanings, and can respond accordingly. That result alone, pays for all the effort I put in to learn the vocabulary in the first place. So my advice to you is: don’t worry too much about not being able to use the vocabulary in your own writing or communication. Many English vocabularies have the same meaning; you can always use only the one you know with similar meaning. Fluency can be achieved once you learned enough words to express your ideas. My boss who is an Englishman from London England always uses simple words in his talk, and nobody ever questioned his superior language skills. I always carry a sheet in my wallet filled with new English vocabularies, and I study it anytime I can, I study it while I am exercising on a treadmill at night, I study it when sitting in a car waiting for my spouse buying milk and grocery, I study it when waiting to see a doctor…And even if I can only learn five or six new words each day, I’m happy. Another predicament I face is that I keep forgetting those words I learned before, so what do I do? I’d go back and relearn them regardless of how many times they popped up in my vocabulary list before. Perseverance and tenacity are the two wings of success.
Another unavoidable step you must take is to read as much as you can. Find something in the topic you like or relate to your profession and read a lot of it. I read 6 to 10 books in Finance, Investing and computer programming each year. The trick is to find something you’re deeply intrigued so that you can build up a long lasting interest to continue reading on and not stop half way through. To me, computer programming and software maneuvering skills benefit my work enormously, so I enjoy reading more about them. Taxation, investing and learning as much as I can about the stock market save me money, help me prepare for retirement in my golden age and improve my professional competency, so I love to know more about them, and consequently I take great pleasure in reading materials related to them.
One thing you may find amazing is that I didn’t actually learn English. In college, I studied Finance, Accounting, Taxation, Marketing, Psychology, Statistics, Auditing, Information Systems, Business strategy, Economics, Computer programming but not English. I had to take only two courses in business writing and public speaking, but that is two out of nearly sixty courses I had to take in my post secondary education. After going through so many examinations and reading so many books, it seems that I just accidentally picked up English along the side! I didn’t study English for the sake of learning a new language, I went to Business school in the hope of having a bright future and upon passing all my courses wined up achieving semi-fluency in English.
Another area I think can benefit English learners is typing speed. Nowadays nobody writes English in pen anymore. The keyboard is the best tool to write English especially when any word processing software can help you correct all your typing mistakes so quickly. I work with computer more than ten hours a day and I’ve typing on a computer since 1985. I took a couple of typing courses when I was young and that helped a great deal throughout my senior school years. I am now a touch typist and can type in excess of 55 words a minutes. I can type just about as fast as I can think. So it makes writing English such a breeze. So typing skill is a good supplement to English learning. And trust me, learning how to type is so much easier than learning English vocabularies; it may give you sore fingers but not a sore brain ;-)
Fluency and mastery of a language can only be achieved if you’re totally committed to learning and unfalteringly practice it day in and day out. The accumulation of English vocabularies is a never-ending process no matter how long you’ve been learning the language.
To me, reading, writing, conversing + amassing vocabularies are the four pillars that firmly underpin the glorious palace of English achievement.
Good luck with all your future accreditation exams, Evena. Remember the famous Greek saying: “The root of education is bitter, but its fruits are sweet”. I’ve gone through many rigorous exams myself so I can empathize the anxiety you are currently experience when facing numerous of exams. I hope I’ve been some help with my writing above.
My grand father left the mainland with my great grand father in his late teen. Many beautiful stories about that distant land of Tang Shan have been passed down several generations in my family. Although I no longer know where exactly my root is in the mainland anymore, (I vaguely remember it’s near the border of Guangdong and Fujian province in southern China) I still feel somewhat emotionally attached to that central kingdom. And that’s why after all these years I still force myself to say literate in the hieroglyphic of the central kingdom.
Keep up the good work, Evena. The light you see at the end of the tunnel is NOT the headlight of an approaching train, but the light of hope for a prosperous future!
Live long and prosper!Neil
