INTRODUCTION
At any given moment there are twice as many Chinese learning English as there are citizens of the U.S.A. English instruction begins in kindergarten and continues into postgraduate study, for both English majors and non-English majors. Everyone in China must study English. Local variants of English such as Chinglish and Chinese English are discouraged as inappropriate. Students are placed under extreme pressure to “master” English. National English competency exams are a predicate to further study or employment. China employs more than 150,000 native English speakers to teach English in its schools. Some programs encourage Chinese learners of English to locate foreigners on the street and run up to them and yell “Hello” in the foreigner’s face. This crazy approach is predicated upon the belief that the only way to improve your English is to engage with a native English speaker. Teaching English as a Foreign Language in China is predicated upon 4 GREAT LIES.
1. FIRST LIE – YOU MUST MASTER ENGLISH
Every Chinese learner of English is instructed that they must “master” English.
Due to the inordinate influence of the British Council on English learning in China, most Chinese students of English own the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary or Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. These are also the most available dictionaries in school libraries and book stores throughout China.
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China EFL: The Four Great Lies
They’re really the four great lies in learning English. Not everyone in China needs to learn English. Many people learn English for decades, but they never use it. For this kind of people, they’re not necessary to learn it.
In my opinion, we learn English just for use. It’s quite good for English major students to master English. But for most of us, it’ll take us so much time to master it that we may have little time to develop other skills.
How to learn English? This is another huge problem. Speaking with a native speaker will absolutely help your English to be better. But I don’t think it’s the only way. And if you can communicate with foreigners in Chinglish, Chinglish works. So Chinglish is also good.
At the first sight of the 4 great lies, in fact, I feel so familiar. Maybe from that day we contact with English, we must learn English at the shadow of the four lies in destiny. Because we were born in China, grow up in China and maybe life in China all our life. The culture of China decides our present way we learn English in. We learn English not for fun but for pasting exams, for entering prestigious university and for the certificate. So there must be the first lie——mastering English.
Sometimes I think it is the truth we can’t change. So even we know that is a lie, we still need to obey it. That is the China.
Before I have finished this article,I really don’t have the sense that what we have purchased in our English study for so long a time is wrong.As it has been mentioned in the article,the four great lies are just what our education system forces us to follow,and till now,I find that it is a wrong way for us to pursue good English.
Similar to Chinese,as an speaking language,if we want to use it well,what we can do is just to create an English speaking environment,get more and more chances to use it to communicate with others,no matter he is native English speaker or not.Change our traditional viewpoints toward English learning,find the suitable way such as take part in English corner,communicate with more and more people and so on,only by this,we can improve our English.
This passage directly gives the fresh idea about the question of English developing in China now. It will call attention for us to think about the situation.
In my opinion, “YOU MUST MASTER ENGLISH” is an illusion in some time that we learn English from the primary school, even the kindergarten. Because of this concept, some students suffer from the pressure in both school and family. However the idea of mastering English is good as we can exchange internationally with English. What’s more? I really oppose “CHINGLISH IS NO GOOD”. Language is used for communion, not for rigid grammars. Nevertheless, we also see an improvement in China that grammars are not inspected in the exams.
All in all, thank you for your warning of our current situation.
May be I am lucky,no one have told me to “master English” as long as I started to learn English, and the 4 lies does not make any sence to me. But it is a great warning for us.
At the initial stage of learning English; I was studying the complicate grammar of English. My English was poor when I was in the middle school. I had no idea how to learn the English grammar, I cannot get a high grade in English exam, and I felt confused. Suddenly, I realize that English is a language, if you can use it to communicate with the foreigner or any other English speakers, that is enough. Now, I have dropped all the English grammar, I learn English by reading, speaking and writing. Even though my CET-6 is not excellent, but I can feel that my English is better and better.
Now it is the time to consider our English teaching.
Before looking thought the article, I really don’t perceive that what we have participated in our English study for so long a time ,which is wrong. There are really four great lies in learning English. As the first lie, you must master English, but only reading or vocabulary. Spoken English is neglect, which barrier us from communicated with foreigners. As for the second lie and the third lie, I think they are the same in essence, which make us believe that we can not learn English good unless we live aboard for a long time, which neglect the philosophy “steel sharpen steel” .And the fourth lie, it does not make sense to me because nobody have told me that English is vital in china. One can find a good job with English because the job does not need English.
English is a useful international language but not a tool to pass exam. But unfortunately, most Chinese students are told that they should study English hard then they can get into a better university or pass the CET-4 or CET-6. That is laughable.
And at the same time, I don’t think everyone in China should study English because some people do not get in touch with a foreigner all through their lives, some people only need to study writing and reading English but not speaking and listening because they only use English when they read and write academic paper but they have no chance and no need to speak and listen English.
Luckily, the 4 great lies did not affect me much. I have insisted not everyone need English since long before and I pass CET4 and CET 6 easily, though I still can’t speak English fluently, there was little academic pressure. But the two standpoints impressed me badly all the same: China has the right to develop a new English variation and the steel theory. As you acknowledged Chinglish, the native English speaker is not the necessity. It is the first time that I all agree with Professor Martin.
Before reading the article I guess what the lies are.As soon as I know these, a shock is springing up Yes you dodn’t need to master English like a native speaker. English is a language, when you talk with others That they can understand what your meaning is enough .Communication is the base and most important function of language. Of course It is difficult for everybody to communicate with native speakers. However ,there are other ways to improve our English. Whether Chinglish is good or not ,maybe not crucial. The mainly purpose of learning english is that you can communicate with others
Mastering English is important in our open society. This requires reading, speaking and writing skills.
Chinese childern are arranged to learn English from kindergarten. They learn at least 12 years. They learn more English words, gramma, reading, but they can’t communicate with others well. Their oral speaking is not good, only for exams. I want to say we ignore the English speaking. Some people make a mistake that they can only make their English better with a native speaker. However, we often talk with us, having little chance to speak with native speakers. We can use anther ways to improve it , for example, watching English movies, attending English corner, singsing English songs. That is OK.
I can not agree with the points in the article more. I think language is just a tool for communication for most of us .Our real purpose is to acquire English so that we can talk with foreigners freely, but the four lies mislead us, not only wasting our time, but also decreasing our interest in English. The article gives me both good method and confidence to learn English well. Now I practice English with my classmates and don’t fear that my accent is very strange, because Chinglish is good too.
In China, every student has to learn English from kindergarten to university. But we can’t be able to produce comprehensible oral or written English when we have learned English for 16 years while we can communicate fluently in Chinese when we are just junior students. Why the big difference between them? The main difference is that we learn reading, listening, writing and speaking Chinese together. But we learn English dividing four separate distinct and disconnected courses, so we can’t connect them together. Because of the vicious circle, our skill of handling English gets worse and worse.
Though reform is difficult, but it is clear that new thought will replace the old one sooner or later.
This article does give me a surprise! For a long time, I have always believed the English corner was a good place and schools did a good job. Reading this article, I realize it was a lie that have deceived us over ten years. It’s no wonder that most of us are unable to speak English freely even though we have beening learned English for more ten years. My English was pretty poor since middle school and frequently failure in the examnation. My English teacher told me that you must remembered a larger number of new words and learned the complicated grammar so as to improve your English. I have done this according my English teacher said. But now I can’t speak English freely. It’s a serious mistake.In fact, English is a language just as Chinese, if we speak more, write more, listern more as well as read more, we could master it easily.
I can’t agree more to the contents the author points out in the article.
1. We don’t have the duty to master English. I think anyone should have a clear idea about why he/she learns English. We can’t master it if we treat it as a duty to do. It should be something you like or love to do on yourself. If you don’t like it, you can drop it.
2. We can do well in English learning even though we don’t have a native speaker. Maybe native speakers can provide learners an excellent example of English communications, but some Chinese just talk great English too.
3. Honestly speaking, the statement that Chinglish is no good is what I hold in my mind. And I’m really impressive the first class I met Martin, when he told me to just speak my Chinglish bravely. That’s the moment I realize this should be the right concept of English learning. Mistakes are welcome. That’s why we have room to improve ourselves.
4. Not everyone in China needs to learn English. Just like illustration of the lie 1.
After reading this article, I have the feeling that how to learn English is a never changing topic we discussed. At this point, I agree with the idea that we must know the purpose of learning English, not just for passing examinations. The main role of Language is for communication, and English is no exception. Now that the purpose we learn English is in order to unimpededly communicate, speaking English plays a very important role, you just do not waste any time you have to express some feelings to those people who would like to talk to you in English, especially those foreigner, then I believe our English will be improved Gradually.
The four great lies: Everyone in China needs to learn English. Chinglish is no good. You can only make your English well by speaking with a native speaker, you must master English. After reading the article, I notice these sentences. And I accept the ideas of my teacher, yes, we are Chinese, but we must learn English, that’s why? Who can say? Maybe someone should learn English so that we can keep up with the step of the world, but not all of us. Be shy to speak English, be afraid of being laughed at if we make a mistake. That’s our sadness. chinglish is good, just like Russia English. So speak it out. I will do it. When I was a middle school student, my teacher had told me that, I must master English, but I only study something in the class, mute English is a usual thing. I don’t think only by speaking with a native speaker can we learn English well, if we try our best to do something, we can make it, learning English is not a special job.
The four lies mentioned here shock people a lot, because before reading this article, I can imagine that most of them never consider them fault. It is true that we need not to be an master of English, to master something skillfully is a big pressure. It is most interesting to find out that we can make good progress with the L2 English speakers, we need not spend a lot of money to study in an native ESE. It is conciliate to know that Clingfish can be just ok for most of us and most importantly we need not learn English in our whole life!
Recovering the four lies above is an huge mercy behavior, thank you a lot. For me, English is just a tool to get some information in my own research field, it is never something that I have to learn or study.
I think there are two important factors in learning. One is interest while the other is “need”.
It may be a little difficult to arouse one’s interest in something if he or she has none before.
As for “need”, I must point out that we do have to acquire much knowledge and many skills besides English. So we will determine their priorities, that is to say, we will try to find out what we need most for our future job. So, it comes to what kind of job one wants to take in the future.
Frankly speaking, you may have reminded many students of the way to learn English excluding me at least. Yes, I have to admit that I do improve my English after doing what you have told me to do. But on the other hand, what you have done partly seems to put some pressure on me instead of arousing my interest. So I don’t think there is any difference between your homework and that of examination-oriented education. I also can be skilled at something after the examination-oriented education’ training. But the skill won’t last for a long time. Skill comes from practice and practice makes perfect. Once I stop using it for some time in the future, I go back to where I was just like I haven’t done anything you told me to. I’m not so much enjoying my English learning as you claim. For example, let’s talk about the comments. I think almost everyone goes to others’ blogs and read their articles every day. But even the articles and comments are written in Chinese, we may not leave a comment in each article because sometimes we just have nothing to say. And as for the comments you require in your web site, there may be some students just copying partly what have posted already and putting them together. And many students write their comments just like an article in the CET because they are afraid their comments won’t get posted if they are too simple. They are afraid of you, and afraid of your emails. What do you think of that? Do you think it is meaningful? I don’t feel free to learn English in such a way. Why do I have to make up a writing while reading an article I’m not so interested in? Why can’t I just act as I do in my friends’ blog in my daily life? Yes, I have to admit, sometimes what you told us and what you asked us to read are interesting, but I really can’t see any difference between some of your requirements and those of EO education. Yes, I also have to admit that we have to stand pains to gain, but we do need to gain what we need most in the future. I think there may be some or even many students holding the same opinion with me.
If you feel my words are aggressive, I apologize here. But I don’t think I’m the kind of “unteachable and unreachable students”. I’m so appreciative of and so proud of my two Chinese teachers of English in my early life, because they really aroused my interest and brought me to see what a wonderful world of English.
This misunderstandings have been holding most of students back from learning English,which is not really difficult.As Mr.Martin said in our first lecture at a Saturday evening,there are so many branches of English dialect in the world.I never thought of this issue before and it is true that we have been trying to master English without understand what kind of language we were talking about.I do not feel ashamed when I speak Chinlish now,which is much better than mute English.Never mind are we trying to speak Chinlish well,since we can make others understand us.Of course,we keep this thought only when we talk to others.While we must obey some basic rule when we are writing.It is helpful that we have a penfriend,who is a native speaker.But please realize that we can also write better by practising more without help of a native speaker.What we need to know is that we can create our style of using English and English is not a pursuit but just a tool for us to lead a better life.
After reading this article, I am really ashamed with my studying English experience. When I started to study English in the middle school, my English teacher said I had to “master” English and also memorize long lists of English words and their definitions. I do it well but I can’t primly communicate with others in English now. How to learn English? We should think better of this problem.
In addition, Chinglish sounds like a good idea. For most of Chinese, it’s unnecessary to get higher degree of English. Producing comprehensible English is enough.
I was taught English when I was in junior high school. I feel more or less lucky not only because my family has been paying much attention on my English study but also perceiving the view that English is not for grade but for better communication and boarder view of the outside. I am not mastering English, not at all, but I like to watch English programmes and magazines. However, as a 2nd lever English leaner, I say Cinglish sometimes and can’t say native pronunciations. I think the first and main function of language is communication, but I can improve shortcomings once I have a chance.
There is no need for us to learn English better, but we spend so much time to do such a thing ourself think it a useless matter.So if one want to learn English better ,she or he may spent more time to learm English better.
There is many ways for us to make our English better ,not only the way to speak with a native speaker.Certainly ,speak with a native english speaker is much better.It a good way ,but not a single way.
In China ,we learn English is almost for our degree,because in society ,there are little chances for us to use English ,it is a special state in China .
But ,I am interest in English.
When I read this article, I am surprised. Because I have never know four great lies before. Moreover, I don’t know why I spent so much time to learn English and how to learn English. This post does make me think something about English.
In the past years, first I always mastered English and remembered new English words in order to pass English examination, but never spoke English, which made my oral English poor. Second. I eagered to talk to native English speakers and thought foreigners didn’t understand my chinglish, which made me not want to speak Englsih. Third, the idea that everyone need to learn English in the morden society had an impact on me, which made me try my best to master English.
After reading this post, I know that English is used for communicating with others, chinglish is ok, and not everyone need to learn English.
Form this text, I learn something about English.
You must learn English and master English are two great lies for most of us.Beacuse China has a large population in the world.On the other hand,we cannot produce comprehensible oral or written English.Not everone needs to learn English,not to mention to master English.But few of us must learn and master English in order to improve technology and productivity and enhance friendship with forgien countries.
You will make your English better by speaking English with a native speaker.It is also a lie to us after watching The Terminal.
As the article writes”Every Country that adopts English as its official or unofficial L2 creates its own variant of spoken English.”I think the concept that Chinglish is no good is a lie too.
1. The four great lies do exist in China, it is the true fact and we must be faced with them. Let us think the reason why they can exist for long time and mostly in the minds of the everyone of the learners in the schools .I think it connects with the environment of the learning. The students who learn English in school just want to obtain the high scores and it is the assurance for the scholarships and the entrance of the compornies.
2. What is the solution of the questions? In my opinion, I think the concepts and the purposes that we learn English is one of the important aspects. We should establish the concept that the purpose we learn English is that we can use it fluently and we can communicate with foreigners to know about and learn about the advanced things and the cultures that exist in foreign countries. So the first step is changing the concept and the purpose we learn English.
I think the biggest lie is that you must master English. Most people pay all the attentions to studying English, and then you will find that English do a little help with their life, work and study. It’s waste of time. What’s more, we only know words, phrases and sentences, and for most of us, we never have a good command of English. When we need to communicate with a foreign friend, we will find that the English that we learn do nothing. At the school, the English teacher told us that if you want to improve you oral English, the best way is to talking with a foreigner. So far, I still believe it. Some people need to study English very well, but not every must study English. Before we start to study English, we must have a clear realization that what the English will return us.
I am grateful that Martin summarized and systematized the fantastic lecture into this article, which I can benefit from every time I read it. I fully agree with Martin. Just as Martin pointed out, we need a lively and comprehensible language instead of a disabled and unnatural one, which can be acquired from L2 instead of being mastered through memorizing the dictionary. So the only thing we need is to obtain an communicating tool, which does not need to work exactly in an English way, as long as it is “expressable” and understandable. And one of the most important belief for us is that we should be self-confident, intrinsic motivated, self-disciplined and happy (which is called “Xuele” in ancient Chinese). As a result, we needn’t learn only, we can change it by our own ways, and add some Chinese culture into it, and maybe someday it will become a new important English style which is favorable to Chinese. This is possible, because Chinese English speakers is so many and Chinese culture is so glorious that it will get more powerful and influential.
If these four lies could be exposed earlier, my English would have been much better. I was taught to analyse the grammar, to remember the materials, to prepare for the tests when I was in the middle school. When I was in senior school, things became much worse. When I was senior three, It reached the worst of English study in my life. Everyday our English would teacher assigned us an test to finish, and the teacher would use the whole English class time to analyze the test we did the day before.
The boring tests has made most of us lost the interest in English, not to mention the low efficiency of this damn pedagogy.
Now, I have benefited from Martin’s exposure of these lies. I hope these four great lies could be exposed to all Chinese students, teachers, and parents so that less Chinese students will share the fate of their predecessors.
“English is a tool ,is a communicated tool.” After I have read the “4 Great Lies”, I got the main idea of learning English. As a undergraduate who does not major in English, I am not necessary to study or master the English as a specific language. As for me ,English is just a communicated tool.
What does “communicated tool” mean? It stands for a bridge which connect to each other. As long as I can exchange the idea to each others in English. That is enough! We need not consider too much about the grammar and so on .
What we should do is to speak the English in a relax conditions, exchange the idea with others. No considering the English as an unreachable language.
Thanks for reminding us that we’ve been surrounded by so many lies. However, Chinglish is no good indeed.
Language is a tool which is used to communicate, if everyone speaks a variant of obscure spoken English, there will be huge difficulties in understanding, waste time and patience, even has some unwanted consequences. Individuality must be minimized in the name of globalization.
Granted, it’s impossible for every even half of Chinese speak perfection English, but the lie itself is something more like a wish or an encouragement. As long as the Chinglish speakers realize their accent have long way to go, they will make efforts, and perhaps, there would be a significant progress in their oral English. Even if a little bit is OK, it’s better than nothing.
Obviously, those who regard their Chinglish(which can only be understanded by the speakers, really, I’ve heard many kinds of so called Chinglish, and feel like I went to the Middle East or somewhere in Africa) is acceptable enough will not upgrade their poor speaking. Hence, their oral English gets worse and worse. In some circumstances, they feel defeated while communicate with real people, they might not open their mouth again, and English once more becomes an open sesame to proficiency exams.
Up to now, too much time has been spent on the English-learning but we still cannot produce comprehensible English. Therefore, most of us are confronting the frustration of functional illiteracy and wonder why it happens. I want to pay enough respects to the author of the “The four great lies” just because the mistaken ideas of Chinese English learning are exposed to a deep extent. I agree with the author’s opinions that the 4 great lies have been engrained in our English education systems. As the author says, we are going on studying but not learning or acquiring English ,in a way that remembering thousands of vocabularies and phrases and studying the grammars are laid more emphasis on. Such a high bar just tends to discourage rather than motivate Chinese English learners. Another misunderstanding is to consider English as such a static substance that we daren’t speak Chinese English. In fact, a language can enlarge its influence and become a more useful communication tool only when it can tolerate some changes in different areas. Maybe what is worth changing most is that we can make our English better only by communicating with a native English speaker. It is proved that most of us can acquire English just creating an English speaking environment. As the leadership of Chinese English education, the ministry of education should carry out some reforms that English is just a tool but not a mandatory index for a further education. It is a good idea that education department cancel the English test and set more effective English teaching faculties to help those people who are in a need of English. I firmly believe that if the misconceptions of English learning can be altered, Chinese can have a bright future in acquiring English.
I cannot help to acclaim that how penetrating and profound the contents pointed out is after I finish read the whole article. It must be admitted that these things the author mentioned are real exist in our country and really happen in our daily lives. According to my personal experience of learning English, I cannot agree with the author’s opinions more. I started to learn English when I was a pupil in grade two in the primary school. My English told me that if I wanted to learn English well, I should work hard with memorizing more vocabularies and recited more texts. I still remember many texts in New Concept English that I’ve recited before. In order to get a higher grade in the English tests, we should get rid of the grammar well, because most of the test questions were related to the grammar. We are told that we should mastered English the same as other disciplines such as physics and mathematics. It seems to lead an adverse way to learn it. To some extend, most of students just acquire the ability of reading and listening and can not speak fluently, let alone to master it. English is just a language, in another word is a tool, which is used to communicate with others and express one’s ideas. As a result of the traditional methodology of English teaching adopted in China, most of the students just learn mute English. With the purpose of making your English better, communicating with native English speakers is not a necessity. According to Prof. Martin, the best way is to practice with a L2 speaker. This is L2 sharpening L2, just like steel sharpening steel.
All in all, it is the right time to think about a more appropriate and helpful pedagogy of English teaching in China.
Although English learning permeates the whole country, there are still many misunderstandings in English study, like “the four great lies”. So, we must correct our views on it before learning. In my opinion, the most common misconception of the four great lies is that Chinglish is no good. This is the major reason why so many people are afraid of speaking English in public. It is known to all that acquiring a foreign language should base on using it frequently, especially for spoken language. From now on, speak out bravely! Nothing to lose.
This article is impressive on me. Yes, my English is so poor, although I have been learning English for 16 years. I had been thinking that the only way to make my English better is to memorize lots of words and sentence, even articles as many as better before my postgraduate English course beginning. I feel deplorable for myself suddenly this moment. Is it the reason that I am told to master English all the time or the reason that I didn’t know the way to learn English for me that my English teacher coming from China told me is wrong? Maybe both are. How great I didn’t need study English I think some times. But it is impossible for me, for all Chinese students. Actually, to learn another language as our L2 for us is better than just to learn our native language, but the pressure is too high and the way is not suitable for us.
I’m surprised that you summed up the doctrines we had been fully believed of for long time as the four great lies. Actually, you’re awfully right. In the 16 years English study, we have learnt countless Words, phrases and rules of grammar, went through numerous examinations, but so what? We can hardly communicate with a foreigner even it’s a common topic. Why? Because what we have learnt completely deviate our real need. From now on, I believe that Chinglish is good.
Education on English has been misunderstood by the government and some relevant departments.As a result,students often show little interest on English,and they only pay attention to written English not spoken English for the purpose of passing the exams or getting a job.
So the situatin is flinty.We must change our attitude on English,and the experts on education in government must change their opinion to English teaching.We are calling for a reform, a reform from the root,a reform that pays enough attention to the essence,not a formalistic reform!
I’ve never heard of the four great lies before, because I’ve been, like almost everyone of us students, living in the “lies” for many years. I accept them with no doubt, as if they were true. But after reading this article, I begin to realize what I should do to “master” English. English learning has always been a load for most of students. Because we have to memorize so many stuff. We seldom have the chance to speak and listen. Under such circumstance, there’s no way of obtaining a second language. The third lie mentioned in the article is very informative. Because of this, we are afraid of making mistakes, and we all become numbs. I think it’s natural of making mistakes. Let’s take a look backwards when we were children we all made mistakes learning Chinese. This is pretty much the same with learning English. Just speak out, we can all acquire English well. Like said in the article, L2 sharpens L2, practice makes perfect. This is not a single person or a single day’s job. Whole society’s consistent effort is needed.
I am shocked by the four great lies. During my more than ten years of English studying, I have never thought about how to learn English well or the significance of learning English. For English studying, I think it is necessary to master the words and grammar which is the basis of learning English. Then we must listen, read, write and speak more. Of course, Chinglish is not good for our studying, and it is not the only way to improve our English by speaking with a native speaker because not everyone have the same chance to do this. Finally, not everyone needs to learn English because some people don’t need to. As a result, with the quick development of China, the most important thing is changing our English teaching and studying ways to adapt globalization.
I like the article very much in that it figured and analyzed objectively the some misunderstanding phenomenon, as a Chinese learner of English, that we always face with.
For instance, English, as a language, a communication tool, we need not master it. In fact, we shall not master it even you devote the whole life to study. Imaging that, as a native Chinese, we can’t master Putonghua as well. Sometimes, you often get the words you do not know, let alone the dialect, such as Cantonese. Yes, the word and the language is changing and developing continually, we could not follow it purely close, both Chinese and English. Furthermore, when you are learning a language, you should combine with your mother tongue, likely, the Chinglish. To me, if you can express yourself well, you had master English. Of course, it need not all of the people to learn English. In fact, many people had learned it for long times, however, they will not apply it in the future.
So if you desire to learning and improving your English, you’ d better read the article—the four great lies written by Teacher martin. But also, you can load the website: http://chinaholisticenglish.org. There are lots of good and penetrating topics, also the Phonetics, you can have better oral English and other advances.
I found it frustrated to learn English because of the first lie. I thought it useless to speak English with my friends because of the second lie. I barely spoke in front of the public because of the third lie. In this way I realized that my English improved little in return to my effort. But I have to keep on studying English because of the fourth lie. I have been confused by this situation for a long time. Maybe little requirement for learning English, more progress we will make in our English. Only in this way can we learn English with interest and express ourselves as freely as we can without worrying about making mistakes.
I cannot agree this article more, especially for the forth lie. Why does everyone in China need to learn English? Most of us will end up in a town or a corner of city, and never have a change to make friend with a foreigner and talk with him/her in English. Even though we want to read something in English occasionally, we could get help the E-Dictionary or Google. The most unbearable thing is that spending too much time to learn English in our ineffective away equals to wasting life. I think English education should be some kind of elite education. Let people who have the motivations learn English and take the examination, and set the others free to do some worthful for themselves. Only by this way could we pool all the valuable resources to perform a good English education.
Learning English is just like learning a new kind of skill and what’s more,we can enjoy a lot of joy and share other’s wisdom.It opens another window for us.It is not that teachers tell you to master grammar,it is for your own work and life,so I think you are the best one who knows what is your real wants.And of couese,you are the master to decide what to take and what to abandon. Others just help you providing their suggestions.When the demands change,you change yourself at the same time.Anyway,we must keep on learning new things all through our life.
These are truly great lies for learning English. And in fact, these lies have misled a lot of English learners in the process of learning English.
Actually, there are much better ways for a learner to progress his or her language skills. First of all, make sure to have a right attitude to English. Next, clear the purpose of English learning. Then, master effective methods of learning. Finally, listen more, speak more, write more and think more.
Sometimes the truth may be held in a handful of persons’ hands. After reading your opinion, I am very grateful to you that you look at the real status of English education in China. The matter is worth thinking deeply about. In particular, the first lie and the fourth lie are so deceptively. Thank you for discovered the four problems, Thank you for all you have done for us.
I agree with the auther to some degree. First, no one can master English and no one tell me that we must master English.I don’t think it’s necessary for all Chinese to learn English, Although studing english is very important for me,English is only a tool to communicate with each other, I don’t think every Chinese people should learn english. Now ,our country is in the developing and opening environment.learn English well is very important in our life . so if you want to get a good job, you must pass some English exams. I think if we recognize the four great lies we can find a better way of studying English : read more, listen more, write more, speak more English.Then our English will better and better!
I really think we learned to much English for useless. Maybe someone won’t agree with me, but when I see a French movie or watch a Korean drama, I really hope I can use more kinds of language but not just English. I’ve learned English almost 12 years; sometimes I still need a subtitle to understand the English movies. So I really want to ask what I’ve been taught. In my mind the answer is test. How to pass a CET test is most common words in our teacher’s mind, and so is mine. Awful! I’ve learned how to pass a test for almost 12 years!
I think the effects of learning English is different for diffierent persons in china.Maybe someone is just a rapairer or a cleaner and he/she just wants to live ordinarily,I think he/she learning English is not necessary;and in some situation，someone maybe only need to read some English materials but no chance to communicate with some foreigners,I think they just need to make some reading practices.But as a student like me,who don’t have a steady job and don’t know which work we will do,we must use English as skilled as we can,so that we could find a good job in future,So it’s a really real thing we must face.This pressure force us to study English hard,and it’s a ubiquitous thing in china.
For my part, I use English as a tool to communicate with foreigners to get useful information and express my idea. And these four great lies are surely a phenomenon in Chinese teaching English. Though I don`t use English like any one of the lies, these lies give me a warning about our teaching system. We should care about it.
I really hear this usually! But no one will believe that! You know, even we are Chinese, but how many people among us who can master Chinese? And I think English is also like this! Although I have passed cet-6, I still do not well in the English! I think we are not writers, so it is good if we can communicate with others in English. I think this is the most important, just like the words martin said!