How to Learn English Well?
Please let me begin with "How Not to Learn English Well?", then we may all see more clearly why English has not been learned that well, at least for most of the English language learners.
We all know that English is not Chinese. Do we all know that? I believe we do. So, English cannot, for one thing, be learned in the same way as Chinese has been learned. Secondly, English should not be turned into Chinese, but into English, and English only. Only when we can turn hard English into easy English can we say we have learned English, at least some English. If we can turn English into Chinese, hard or easy, we are only reviewing Chinese.
Let us look at how our English has been learned since 1949, or perhaps, since 1900.
1. Grammar: When we talk about English grammar, we use Chinese, do we? A good example is the article in English grammar. Do we have any articles in Chinese? Yes, but not in Chinese grammar. Why do we use a Chinese word for the article in talking about English grammar? Isn't that a waste of time and a waste of English? I think so. If we want to learn English grammar, we need to use English words to learn English grammar, to talk about English grammar, so that at the same time, we are able to learn, at least, some English.
2. Vocabulary: How have we been learning English words? We turn all of them into Chinese, right? Is that called learning English? I don't think so. That is called "reviewing Chinese". We are using English to review our Chinese, in fact. When we learn an English word, we should be able to remember that English word, should be able to translated English into English, not Chinese, not even remember its Chinese equivalent. You know why? Translation is very difficult and can wait until we have learned English so well that we are able to think, speak, write, hear, read, and dream English like a native English speaker. Here is my question for all of you to ponder. All of you can translate any English you have learned so far into Chinese. Can you also translate all the Chinese you are able to use into English? The answer is, you cannot, and I cannot, either. Then, my conclusion is, we are not learning English, but reviewing Chinese by turning anything English into Chinese. When we speak English, we are not speaking English but "speaking Chinese with English words and some grammatical English sentences". And a grammatical English sentence does not mean it is really English. Am I not right?
3. Practice: We need to learn and use English. We all know that. But, how do we use English? If we think in Chinese and speak English, can we speak good English? I think not. English people think in English all the time and sometimes, also, make mistakes. If we think in Chinese, we even make mistakes in Chinese. How can we not make mistakes in English? If we want to use English, we have to think in English. That means when we read English, we do not translate into Chinese any more, but we remember the English, and translate English into simpler English we already know. That means when we hear English, we never turn it into Chinese in our Chinese brains, but remember the English, and only turn it into the little English we know. When we speak and write English, we, first of all, think in English, and think in English whatsoever we want to say or write about. That is what I call practice.
If we think in English, we will speak and write English. If we think in correct English, we will speak and write correct English. If we think in Chinese, we will speak and write Chinese, only after we have learned how to write Chinese characters. Can you all see what I am driving at? If we want to learn English well, English should come from mind to mouth, from man to manuscript.
We all learned something about physics and biology. We all know that thinking takes time. Can any of you think twice as fast as a native English speaker so that when he or she speaks English to you, you can translate into Chinese to understand, then think in Chinese what you want to say, then translate Chinese into English, and then say it? Do you think your listener has the time to wait for you?
In a nutshell, if we all want to learn English well, we have to use English, instead of Chinese, to learn English well, and never turn English into anything else that is not English. That is the only way to learn English well in a place where Chinese is the dominant language.
by Sinosophy (Adapted)
新加坡3类院校入学申请条件：
1.政府大学：高考分数1本录取分数线以上（如：清华，北大，复旦类大学录取分数线左右），雅思6分以上。
2.政府理工学院：高考500分左右，雅思5.5
3.私立学院：至少完成初中学业（如果非高中毕业学生则需读预科），雅思6分（如果没有雅思6分或不到6分，则需先读学校英文课程）
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"A man has no future if he does not read books, nor does a nation." Chinese Premier Wen Jia Bao
