EAT, SLEEP, DRINK AND EVEN DREAM IN ENGLISH
English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week…
It is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
There is no English speaking environment in China and no university makes even the slightest attempt to create one for their English majors let alone the non-English majors required to study English.
It is therefore up to each student to create their own personal English speaking environment.
Students are encouraged to change their computer homepage to an English search engine or Google News (English) and to do all searches in English. They are also encouraged to read English news and other matters of personal interest on the web. They are also encouraged to stop using Chinese QQ and switch to English QQ.
Instead of watching Chinese movies or English movies with Chinese dubbing or subtitles; students have access to an on campus English movie library with over 500 English movies with English subtitles or no subtitles.
The students are required to attend English corner, role play an ABC (American Born Chinese) native English speaker for one entire day; and meet a new foreign friend and engage in an extensive conversation.
Patches are given that say “SPEAK ENGLISH” that the students can sew on a hat, shirt or jacket.
Students are encouraged to speak English only in their dormitory.
All students are required to send an email to a special account and to provide their correct mobile phone number.
English emails are sent to all students 3 to 5 times each week.
Students are asked to change their mobile phone language to English and to answer the phone in English. Calls are randomly made to all students, several times during the term, to confirm their compliance.
On the download page read the following articles”
I think you are right, professor. We students did have to create our own English environment even if our university won’t do that.In fact, as you say, “The secret to make your English better is so simple, it is you!”;”That is your choice, you just make a choice, you made a choice not to make your English better!”,English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week, it is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week!”.In addition, you also tell us that, “someone spent their whole life to lie on you and the result is to close your mouth! wake up, Chinglish is ok, threw your face awake and just open your mouth”……（Some sentences maybe not the exact words ）. I want to make the choice to make my English better……Thank you so much for open the windows for us to study English and give us fire to keep on it.
The sentence impressed me the most last night is that “It’s your personal choice to not make your English better.”It’s the very first time that I was told to not learn English well by my own choice.There are always many excuses for me,as “I don’t have much time”,”People will think me odd if I speak English out of the school,the classroom”and so on.But the only thing I know now is that “Just do it,it’s all up to you.”
Professor, what you have mentioned above is what I have experienced when I was an undergraduate as a non-English major. We had a good environment to speak English. Both teachers and students preferred it. So we made a big progress in English speaking and listening. During that period, we had an English corner in the dorm. Students gathered together talking in English after bath in the evening. There were no scoffing or taunting remarks, so we enjoyed it very much. What is important is that practicing really did help. I really hope I can make a same one here.
I think the lecture on Friday night given by Pro. Wolff is very enlightening. I used to watch English movies with Chinese subtitles which I realized stupid now and this deed will not kept on ever.
I think it necessary for us to practice our English as more as we can.just as the old saying goes,practice makes perfect.If we are ashamed to speak English in public places,we may lose a opportunity to progress.If we choose to live in a chinese environment rather than a English one,we may lose our English.I do really agree with professor.
I think the environment to access to English is crucial to learn English. And we can only create it by ourselves. Just as the Professor said, it is our choice to make our English better or not. I do want to make my English better, so following the rules is my choice.
After the lecture,I was trying my best to understand video of pholosophical lectures “what the right things to do”, without chinese subtle.And I have benefited a lot from learning in this way,creating a friedly English environment.On the other hand,I agree with Professor about the 4 lies which foreign language is predicated in China.After all,language is a basic means of communication，And if one can communicate with each other in chinglish,it is not bad at all. All of us have to be more confidence if camparing wiht Japanese who speak English bravely with a worse prononciation.
Just as the professor had said, ”You’re the secret to make your English better.” I’m a secret to improve my English. As it seems that there is no environment for us to practice English, in fact we can create by ourselves. As the professor said, we can change our mobile phone language to English or use an English search engine… It’s our personal choice to not make our English better if we don’t try to change anything. Now we have tried our best to create the environment in my dormitory. We wish we can improve our English by step and our efforts.
I really agree with you, professor.
The core problem is who can do it persistently? One week, one month or one year, maybe longer? Most of people, I think, know that they should keep reading、listening and speaking English in their daily life, but eventually only a little does that. This is even a common phenomenon during the English study. Just like the boy in your speech, he did make his mind to learn English but he fail at last. Why? The persistence? The method? Or the environment? People who go abroad may have no choice but to speak English to communicate with others to live their lives and they don’s study English , they just use it. Don’t try to study English, don’t try to master English ,just use it in your daily life, to communicate, to think ,to express day by day.
It sounds a good idea, but I think it is a little idealized. Within the current educational system,the only purpose for us pathetic Chinese students to learn English seems to be, at least in most cases, keep us busy–find something to do! Do not fool around! It is a kind of torture and arguably, has caused a sort of trauma to us. Dreams in English are nightmares where our souls are disturbed. Thus, the priority is to de-demonize English and make it a powerful tool in our research and future career.
The lecture given by Martin last night was wonderful. To be honest, Martin’s clothes deeply impressed me, beautiful clothes, maybe. During the lecture, I agreed that Chinglish is funny and there is no need for us to be afraid to speak Chinglish. I need to make choice. I will make the choice to make my English better. It is just my personal choice. What I do outside the class is of great importance. We live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I believe if we can keep on our English, such as writing one short English paragraph about our daily life and we can enjoy with it, grieve with it. Let’s come on together!
First of all, I agree with professor about the 4 great lies. I think no matter what kind of language that we use, the only goal is to communicate with other people. After the lecture last night, I went to a store which sells Chinese traditional medicine. I came across a foreign friend there; he was using simple Chinese word to communicate with the salesman at that moment. Just by the means of the key word, the salesman can understand what he need. So it’s the same with speaking English, I think.
Now, I change my mobile phone language to English. But because my major is Chinese philosophy, and I need to Chinese traditional book, I’m afraid that I can’t live with English 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. But I would try to use English as much as possible.
The idea is wonderful!What we need is the English speaking environment.that is the reason why there are so many students going abroad for study.But we also can make such a environment by ourselves.For me,I have already chanced my sellphone language to English,so did my computer’s home page!I also make so tips all around my room,so as I open my eyes on every morning I can see English.Fortunately,American tvplays are my favour,I am trying to drop all the Chinese caption.I hope all these things will work well!
How to improve my English ? As professor said last night ,”You are the secret to make your English better !” English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week…It is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I will require myself to use English as far as possible. Reading English magazine, watching English movie, changing my mobile phone language to English, visiting the English web, in one word, I will try my best to create the environment to study English. Just as professor asked, I will read more ,listen more ,write more and speak more English.
I think what the professor have said is very reasonable.
As a non-English major, I should try my best to create a friendly English speaking environment. What is a friendly English speaking environment? I think it is not all to work hard on English. I should put it into my daily life. Instead of doing homework in classroom, I should engage in extensive conversation with each other. I should attempt to think English as my first language. In a world, I must in my own efforts to it.
Last Friday evening I attended the lecture given by Professor Martin. During one hour and a half, Professor Martin encouraged us to make English learning a common thing in our daily life. I am interested in three points he mentioned.
The first one is to watch movies with English subtitles. Actually, I prefer foreign movies to Chinese movies. But most of the time, I watch a film with English dubbing and Chinese subtitles. Such a way may not help, because I will be too busy to catch up with the Chinese subtitles instead of listening to the English dialogues. But the problem is how to find movies without Chinese subtitles? As is known to all, it is not easy to download a film purely in English at all. Although the professor offers us a website, it is difficult to open especially in dormitory. (EDITOR’S NOTE: THE PROFESSOR DOES NOT HOST ANY MOVIES ON HIS WEBSITE. THE PROFESSOR MERELY PROVIDES AN INDEX OF MOVIES AVAILABLE ON THE SYSU SERVER AND ARE ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE DORMITORY. http://engedu.sysu.org.cn/graduate/holistics )
Another point that arise my attention is that Chinglish is not so bad. There is no Standard English in the world. Every country that uses English as a second language will invent its own special kind of English. As a Chinese, I do not have to feel shy to open my mouth since I speak in Chinglish instead of so-called American English or British English. What is more, if one is acquainted with one kind of English, it is naturally to understand another kind of English in a few hours.
The last but the most significant point of the speech is to produce one’s own English environment. As far as I am concerned, it is of capital importance, meanwhile too difficult to insist on. For instance, I could not insist on answering every phone with “Hello”. When I came back from the lecture, I tried to paste tips of my desk, my lamp, my cabinet and so on. But my roommates felt it uncomfortable. For this reason I stop to do it. (EDITOR’S NOTE: WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT, YOUR EDUCATION OR YOUR ROOMMATES’ FEELINGS?)
I changed my mobil phone language to English since I bought it long time ago for not leting my parents check my message. It did help and now I explain every single function of a cell phone in english!
I will try hard to follow your suggestion because I know it will be helpful to make my english better. And I really appreciate what you have done for us. My goal this semester is to finish all the films in your English Movie Library!
The methods you mentioned to create an all-English environment are for sure interesting and applicable. To immerse ourselves to the English language will help us a lot to acquire the skills needed for communication. It reminds me of the experience on metro trains, where English is used to broadcast. At first, without referring to the Chinese version, I have no clue of what they are saying. However, gradually I come to understand the English expressions they use, such as ‘transfer to line 1’ and so on. In this environment, my ear is very acute to English. Therefore, in the same way if I can expose myself to English in everyday life, I am confident that I will master this language better in a natural way.
I changed my cell phone language to English, however, when I sent a message to my father I had a trouble. Yes, you are right, there is no English speaking environment in China; create our own personal English speaking environment is important, so we all should try our best to do it!
When I took part in the entrance exams for postgraduate schools,I had changed my mobil phone number to English.In that time I just hoped that it could help me to persist in studying English.In fact the results are great.Now I chang my mobil phone language to English again,in order to creat my English speaking surrundings.You’re right!I’ll try!Actions speak louder than words.Only do as you told us to,can I let my oral English better!
I do like the first sentence of this article. If we want to make progress in our English study, the limited hours we spend on English is quite not enough. What we really need is to creat our own english environment, thinking, speaking, listening in english, just like in abroad. Maybe at first, it is difficult, but, just like the people come to a new country in a short time, we need time to accustom to it.
Yes,to learn English better or not is a choice all by ourselves.We can study hard to learn it better,or we can give our many excuse to give it up,all by ourselves.For myself,I want to study English better,but as Mr Wolff said,I had little English speaking invironment.Now I’m trying to create my own English speaking invironment,just as the teacher had said:change my phone language to English,use Google instead of Baidu,say hello when I answer the phone and so on.I hope my English can be improved by doing these.
Dear Professor,I’m totally agree with you that english is something we live 24 hours a day. Learning english is time-consuming.If we want to improve our english,we should creat a friendly english environment ;and use english intentionly。I have changed my mobile phone language,although at first I felt discomfortable.I believe that my english will be better if I stick to do what professor asked to do .From the button of my heart,I appreciate what you have done for us.Thank you ,Dear Martin.
I quite agree with you. And in my opinion, English corner is a good place to improve our language but is not enough. So like what you said, we should put ourselves into a total English environment. I would like to say thank you, professor, you let me know we can learn English anywhere anytime.
Creating an English speaking environment is important for us to try to learn how to use English. Although the topic “EAT, SLEEP, DRINK AND EVEN DREAM IN ENGLISH” may be a little difficult to come true, we still try our best to use English. Therefore, I have changed my mobile phone language to English, and decided to watch more English speaking movie and try to turn off the Chinese subtitles.
By the way, I have skimmed over Gina’ comment and agree with her.
Professor Wolff’s lecture of last Friday evening was really interesting. First of all, his clothes were very interesting. In my opinion people should wear a dark suit in such a formal situation, but he had put on a golden shirt, something Chinese boys wear to perform the dragon dance during the Spring Festival. Second, the contents of the speech were also very interesting. In the speech, he used the metaphor ‘English is money’ and he spent much time to prove this point. In addition, to take this ‘money’ we have to make an important choice, which is to indulge ourselves into the ocean of English. I think this is right, and has carried out some of his suggestions now. For example, I have changed the language of my cell phone and digital camera from Chinese to English, and try to express some of my ideas in English. Third, his attitude toward Chinglish is also very interesting. Previously, all of my English teachers told us that Chinglish is a bad thing, and we should try our best to get rid of it. But according to Professor Wolff, Chinglish is totally OK, since there is no ‘standard English’.
Before the amazing Friday night, I never thought about create an environment of English speaking by my own. I’ve looked for the environment for so many years, but never succeeded. I didn’t want to talk with others in the English corner, because I thought they’re all Chinese students and our English is more or less on the same level. I can’t make progress by chatting with someone who’s oral English has no less mistakes than mine. However, since the first English class and the Friday night, I changed my mind. Why I am so critical with everyone’s English? Why can’t I try to create a so-so English speaking environment and make progress little by little? Maybe now it’s a good time to think about it.
Yes, we just make our choice and change another life way, so from that day, when I see something, I will think how to say it in English, and when I meet friends, I will say hello in English not in Chinese. So sometimes I think I’m very lucky that I can make choice to change the way I live.
What the professor said above is something quite different from what we were told before. “English is something you live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, maybe if we can do this like a native English speaker, we can make our English better. However, there is no English speaking environment around us, and it’s not easy for us to create one. I have tried to create English speaking environment in the dormitory, but sometimes it’s quite difficult to communicate in English with our poor vocabulary, or we cannot explain something exactly to make ourselves understood. We almost quit. So, it’s not so easy to make our English better, we may encounter a lot of difficulties. But we should not give up. Just keep the passion and the spirit, I believe I can make it.
It is true that we don’t have an English speaking environment in China, so we have to create one for ourselves.
I had a roommate who is major in English when I was studying in Zhuhai. She always watched English movies without subtitle, and that help her very much. I didn’t do the same thing because I regarded it as unnecessary since I am not major in English as she is. Now I realize that I was wrong, and I am going to correct my mistake.
Thank you!
The difficulty I meet when I speak English is that, the signification I want to express is often not as accurate as in my native language. Sometimes it even went on the opposite way. The most important problem in my case is not to speak or not. It is how to talk. And sometimes what you are afraid to do is not only to speak in English, but also talk IN PUBLIC.
I used to find the most accurate idioms. But now I get the idea the most important thing I should worry about is whether other people could understand you. One of the functions of languages is communication. Also if one speaks influent, finery English, she would get more chances. The noble English spoken by Madam Jiang rewards her respect in American in the early years of 1900s, and helped her during diplomacy.
After reading the two download articals “The 4 Great Lies” and “Mute English”,I refelct my career of English learning for a while. What the most important use of a language? Most people will give the answers like communication, read, write and so on. Exactly, I agree with them. With different purposes, we invent different methods to reach it. For example, English as a second learning language in China, it plays a role of an essential text in all kinds of entrance exams. So teachers force students to memory as many words and grammar as possible; no matter how this way of teaching influence students’ English-speaking ability and interest of continue English-learning. To change such kind of result, the first solution is to change our purposes and attitudes to English. Policies of education should be rethinking. It is the time to reform the examination system. As it is known to all of us, the original aim to learn English is communication. Talking, reading and writing are ways of communication. The day that oral English takes the place of grammar is coming. In the job hunting market, oral English plays an important role as the development of commercial transaction. The marks of your examination represent nothing; because they know the English education in China deeply.
On the other hand, if your purpose of English learning is just reading some materials to continue your research work, I think the current way of English education can fulfill your need. Thank you.
Eat, sleep, drink and dream in English? It is an effective way to acquire English indeed, probably the best. And we are so indebted to you for your advice; because we know what you’re doing is for our good. To show my support to your theory, I already started to create my English speaking environment, well, when I am alone, with your students or someone who wants to improve her/his English like me.
It is worthwhile remembering one of you remarks, “you made a choice not to make your English better! That’s your choice.” Yes, it is our choice when, where and how often to speak English, and we have to bear all the consequences. So, please trust us that we could make our own satisfactory decisions.
Like Mandarin, Cantonese or any other language in the world, English is a tool for communication. Better communication is the ultimate goal of how we use languages. Imagine a situation like this. A student is applying a job that doesn’t involve English from a state own company, what would happen if he answer the phone with “Hello” when it is a call from the interviewer? It is just the same as you hear “Nihao” when you call us.
In most parts of our daily life, Mandarin or Cantonese would be the best tool for communication, and we have to use them then. I do know that English is a useful tool, and that it could bring us money. Since a 24/7 English speaking environment is not feasible, I might try my best to create my environment, probably a 12/7 one.
An English environment is so important to English studying for a non-English student. We often think that our oral English will be improved in a short time if we were sent to go abroad. Why ? Because each person there speaks English, and you have to follow them, just like Navorski in the film THE TERMINAL. He had to study English in the airport by reading books, if not, he would be stand hunger. So usually I will speak English to my roommates by English in the daily life. I find that many words used frequently will not be told sometimes, so it is a good habit to study new words in daily life, I will check it in dictionary when meeting new words ,I feel it is useful.
I strongly agree with the “mute English” saying. As a common Chinese phenomena, we can easily find that we learn reading and writing English much more than listening and speaking. So I think chinese students trend to become the dummy in English. And I’m thankful for having a chance to take oral-English classes as a post-graduate student in SYSU.
What’s more, required to create an English enviroment by professor Martin, now I’ve changed my mobile phone language to English and using English QQ as much as possibly. In addition, I reads English news everyday and watches English movies with English subtitles more frequently .
However, I believe I’m able to make enormous improvements only when I study English as my major and do everything even dream in English,
I attended a lecture named The Secret to Improve Your English by professor Wolff on March 5, 2010.As to the spoken English i really agree with him that the English speaking enviorenment is of great importance.The more you listen to,speak,read and write English,the better your English will be.This is the same to our mother tongue.We have been listening to Chinese all the time as soon as we were born.And then it is natural to know how to express ourselves by Chinese.As far as I am concerned,it will be also ok for you to speak English well in the same way.But it is different to written English.If you want to make a piece of good composition you should study hard not only on words but also grammer.
I have a friend who studied abroad, and this winter holidays we met together. Then I found his oral english was suprisingly very well. From this I understand why many parents are eager to send their chlid abroad. It is the importance of language environment. Since we have no money no chance to go abroad, we should make full use of our feasible condition. we own foreign teacher so we can practise english with him. Need only frequently exercise, environment is not a problem.
After attend Professor Martin’s lecture last Friday, I have a new dream that one day I can dream in English. I was very impressed by what Professor Martin said”You are the secret to make your self’s English better. If you speak Chinese out of the classroom you make the choice not to make your English better……” I am very thankful to Professor Martin that told me this secrete. I will try harder and harder to achieve it step by step. I hope that one day my dream will come true through my endeavor.
After reading this article and listening the speech made in Friday evening, I’ve got an idea that English acquisition is so easy which just need a friendly and comfortable environment that could and must be created by everybody. It is the most awful drawback that we Chinese students always make less or no endeavor in creating English acquisition environment.
Reciting words and doing reading comprehension exercise is the all I have done to improve my English in my middle school and undergraduate period. It’s really a tragedy for me to studying English. No speaking, no listening and no writing. Repeat, repeat, repeat… It may be the key word to improve English skills.
On one hand, it’s really crucial and necessary to create an English environment. For example, in China, an English major student probably can’t speak fluent oral English in an English-speaking country because all she/he learns in Chinese university is mostly grammar. On the other hand, there are plenty of ways to create an English environment by one’s own, such as watching English movies without Chinese subtitle, visiting English corner weekly. Of course, if you are lucky, wining a relationship with an English-speaking girlfriend is a true motivation for you to practice your oral English.
I will try my best!Because I remember you say that–”It’s you ,who can make your Englisg better!I can’t make your English better!”
The lecture by Martin on Friday night shocked me a lot. I shamed to speak Chinglish and nonstandard accent before. But the speech gave us courage to speak loudly and motivated us to live in English environment. That is all our own choice to live in English or not. We must choose by myself.
In my memorize, English is a subject , we study it just a few hours a week ,in order to pass the exam and take a good mark .that is enough .we never try to speak freely with others ,except the foreigners .But when facing them sometime, we find we cannot say a word ,it is blank in our minds! The reasons for this is the English environment lacking, because of which, we dare not to say. Realizing this ,I start to read English everyday ,as I open the internet ,the‘Economist’will appear on my computer. And the TV on Pearl channel is my anther love .in my spare time, I have try to speak English more. I really hope my English level will be improved.
I have spent more than ten years learning English; while the result is not so good. I used to be very puzzled and almost lose my self-confidence. The lecture given by Mr. Wolff impressed me deeply. Now I realize that in the past ten-odd years, I regarded English as a subject I studied a couple of hours a week. In the past, I ate, slept, drank and dreamt in Chinese instead of English.What I have learned is MUTE ENGLISH!
Now, it takes me nearly twenty minutes to write such a few words. Unbelievable! I’m so depressed. I think it’s time to start creating my own personal English speaking environment. William is right. Maybe it’s not feasible to create a 24/7 English speaking environment. Anyhow, I will try my best.
Is there something more we could do for creating our own personal English speaking environment besides what Martin required us to? Yes,I think there is.I think the most difficult part in changing the way to use English instead of Chinese is our own mind.We may think about that “we should eat,drink,sleep in English”and we usually carry it out when we are required to. So the first thing we should know is ‘I’d like to’.No one requires us but ourselves. That is “think in English”.We can also made a schedule and write the notes in English everyday.It needs our initiative.
In the first class,we got two pieces of paper.We wrote our English names on the blank paper.A new name means a new life. There are some words on another piece of paper.The last line is “Change your mobile phone language to English and answer your phone Hello from now on.This term you will eat,sleep,drink and even dream in English.”It sounds very crazy.Then the professor said:”English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week.It is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”Last Friday,he said those words again in his speech.As we all know that,we do not have an English speaking environment.So most of us can’t learn English very well.We must use English in our daily lives.Otherwise,we will forget what we have learned.Learn,forget;forget,learn…It is a horrible cycle.I will try my best to meet those requirements.
Sometimes I think why we could not speaking English fluently and easily though we have paid a lot of time, money, and energy on it. Maybe, we indeed lack English speaking environment. We are always cannot speaking Chinese in English classroom, dormitory, using homepage in Chinese, talking with friends in Chinese and so on. From now on, I hope Dr. Martin’s advices can do some help for my speaking English if I was done all of things that were required.
Before this semester, I thought English was not my choice and it was our school that made the choice instead of us. When we entered the middle school, teachers told us that we must learn English well to achieve a high score in the college entrance exam, so we can go to a good university, and then we can get a good job. But now I understand English can be money only I can use it correctly. That is to say, stop learning English for exam or as mute English. So I will remember your words” It’s your personal choice to not make your English better” and try my best to I improve my method of studying English.
The sentence “English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week…It is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week” impressed me a lot. As we know, English in China is mostly for examinations, so mistake is not allowed. When in Enlish learning, you’re always criticized or even punished when you make a mistake. For this reason, most of us wouldn’t like to speak out. But as an old saying goes, practice makes perfect. To make my English better, I think it is necessary to practice as much as possible. Just as the sentence printed on the cover of our workbooks, “READ MORE, LISTEN MORE, WRITE MORE AND SPEAK MORE ENGLISH.” Although mistake is unavoidable, we can make progress by realizing and correcting them through practice. I think letting English become a part of my life will be a helpful and effective way to improve my English. After the first class Mr. Wolff gave us, I set China Holistic English as my computer homepage, so that on one hand, I can get the updated information on the page as quickly as possible; on the other hand, It will help to construct a good environment for my English learning.