i used to believe, just like everybody else, one would be able to improve his english by leaps
and bounds if he's sent to an english speaking country where he has to use english on a daily
basis in all aspects of life.
here i am , in america now. learning english should be easy as pie, but is it??
my answer is...nooooooo.
my mom has evidently believed in that put-me-in-america-i-will-learn-english-in-no-time thing.
she often asks me : are you able to completely understand the tv shows and movies now? that
question has always been confronted with a negative answer. yet she keeps asking it believing
subconsciously that i will master english very very soon.
maybe it's just me, but my english remains what it is after i've spent over two months in the
usa, using english everyday everywhere with everybody. i listen, i talk, i watch tv, i read. now
i have the language environment that i'd always wanted when i was in china, but miracle didn't
happen. i still have the same problems as i did back in china. listening, speaking and writing
english are still as difficult as ever.
however, i do believe if i work hard enough making substantial improvement in a comparatively
short period of time is not 'mission impossible'. one thing that i find really helpful is the
captions for tv and movies. many channels have synchronized captions. be it a talk show , game
show, live news or whatever, you can read what they are saying in words on the screen as they say
it or with a bit delay of like 5 seconds. another thing is, whenever i have something i do not
understand, i could always ask native english speakers for help. that's extremely useful when it
comes to learning slang terms.
well, i probably has not given out my points in an orderly fashion in this article, but the
message i want to convey is no matter where you are, whether you have the language environment or
not, the only way to improve english is to work hard!!!!!
p.s. i've actually met chinese people who've been in america for years, but still cannot speak much english.
and bounds if he's sent to an english speaking country where he has to use english on a daily
basis in all aspects of life.
here i am , in america now. learning english should be easy as pie, but is it??
my answer is...nooooooo.
my mom has evidently believed in that put-me-in-america-i-will-learn-english-in-no-time thing.
she often asks me : are you able to completely understand the tv shows and movies now? that
question has always been confronted with a negative answer. yet she keeps asking it believing
subconsciously that i will master english very very soon.
maybe it's just me, but my english remains what it is after i've spent over two months in the
usa, using english everyday everywhere with everybody. i listen, i talk, i watch tv, i read. now
i have the language environment that i'd always wanted when i was in china, but miracle didn't
happen. i still have the same problems as i did back in china. listening, speaking and writing
english are still as difficult as ever.
however, i do believe if i work hard enough making substantial improvement in a comparatively
short period of time is not 'mission impossible'. one thing that i find really helpful is the
captions for tv and movies. many channels have synchronized captions. be it a talk show , game
show, live news or whatever, you can read what they are saying in words on the screen as they say
it or with a bit delay of like 5 seconds. another thing is, whenever i have something i do not
understand, i could always ask native english speakers for help. that's extremely useful when it
comes to learning slang terms.
well, i probably has not given out my points in an orderly fashion in this article, but the
message i want to convey is no matter where you are, whether you have the language environment or
not, the only way to improve english is to work hard!!!!!
p.s. i've actually met chinese people who've been in america for years, but still cannot speak much english.