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 believe if we really do in accordance with professor martin, maybe our English level will be improve, but I think it is difficult to create English speaking environment. After all, we live in china, everyone speaks Chinese around us. Some of them who do not speak English because of shy, only some like-minded students would like to speak English together, but they do not necessary live in the same dormitory. Anyway, I will try my best to do it.
Maybe it’s a little hard to live with english in 24 hours.But it really remind me of learning english is not a task.As we know,english,just like money, is so important in our life that we need to use it frequently.Do not have the vision that you can master it only through the classroom.It is not a subject.Using or not in your daily life is just your own choice,but I tell myself that using it like your own language is an positive attitude towards your own life.So I changed my phone language,search engine,almost everywhere.A little hard in the beginning.But everything will be ok in the short future.
I have made a large number of decisions and plans about learning English at the beginning of every semester. But with the time going on, I found that my English had taken no progress at all. Why? The professor told the answer to me in this lecture. I have bought many English books but not reading them hard, watched English movies but with Chinese dubbing or subtitles, asked many other persons who were good at English about how to learn English well but not to follow them. I was too shy to open my mouth speaking English. Also, I don’t have a good English speaking environment.
In a word, I should try my best to create my own personal English learning environment. Just remember that:” 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.”
All of my days, I thought that I was learning English. Not until now have I realized that all I have learned is just mute English which is no use to communicate with people.
In the past, I could always get a good mark in English text. Almost all of my Chinese English teachers considered me as a good English learner. But I am the only one who knows that English was just a course to me like Math or Chemistry, which I should work hard to get a high score so that I can be accepted by a famous College. My purpose to learn English was not communication, which should be the real aim for each English-learner. Therefore, I was totally shocked when I met a foreigner who wanted to ask for directions on the street. I found myself extremely weak in oral English. It took me great efforts to show the foreigner directions in English. After thanking me, the foreigner said something that impressed me deeply:
“It is so hard to find a student who can speak English in this University.”
What a shame! All Chinese students have spent 16 or even more years to learn English while few of them can use it as a real language which can communicate with people. We can read English, we can remember a lot of English words, we can master the grammar, we can pronounce English, but we can’t express ourselves in English just as what we usually do in Chinese. We are always told that if we can’t say it right, we should not say anything in English at all. This thinking is totally opposite to the real spirit of language. There is no right or wrong in saying English. The only thing that matters is whether you have made yourself understood.
After reading the two articles, I was so impressed by the list of different English around the world. English is not death. It is alive. Different English-speakers from different culture have brought their unique features into the language and made it richer and richer. As long as it is useful for communication, it will finally be accepted as part of the English language. So does it in China. Therefore, stop closing our mouth from now on and say English loudly. This is what we should really do while learning English.
I never consider learning English is a task. Globalization is a tendency, China belongs to the world. So if we don’t want to be thrown away by the world, we must realize the importance of English. English is a language, it is also a tool for communication. If we want to know more, understand more, gain more, we must gasp English firstly.
Creating an environment is not easy. Watching movies, writing English compositions alone are very common .But talking to myself all the day looks like a crazy person. Holding on this habit needs more patience and willpower. I think if we can find a partner, then we advance and retreat together. We can learn together, discuss hot spots of society and so on. This method will make progress.
“Study harder，and your English will be better.” My previous English teachers told me all the time till I met Professor Wolff, he said,don’t study hard. That’s amazing! I have never met a teacher like him who told me so. However, when I attended the lectrue and read the article above,I got the piont. What Professor Wolff say is right! He corrected my misunderstanding of 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.” English is a language, and the purpose of studying English is communication but not only to pass the exam. It is like a window through which we could see a more wonderful world. That is a special key for us to broaden our perspective.
Don’t try to master English, because it also can not be mastered. Take the Mother tongue for example, we don’t master mother tongue but we can speak it fluently, express ourselves freely and recevie information from others effectively. We also don’t have to take much exercise and pass exam, but we speak our mother tongue better and better day by day. The piont of that is we live in Chinese-speaking environment and speak aloud instead of being afraid of losing face.
“Eat,sleep,drink and even dream in English”.Let me have a try.
I totally agree with the words Martin said. English is a language. If you want to grasp this language skilled, the only method is to practice for many times. As the old saying goes, practice make perfect. However, the headache we Chinese pgs faced is that we don’t have a best environment which can force you to prompt your English.
As everybody knows, we all have the tendency to be a lazy person and to do easy thing. So, if there is not a external environment that force yourselves to use English all days, I think only a small parts of student want to establish an environment for their English learning by themselves. So, it is very important to have a pressure from external world. What is luck is we have Martin, who acts as the role to force us to establish an environment of learning English. That is good.
Learning English is really hard for most of Chinese. Marin has given some great and applicable ideas to improve our English. Even he is really a strict teacher, he indeed provide us with many opportunities to use English. Posting comments on new threads, for example, encourages students to write in English frequently. In daily life, most of girls like watching American movies online. This has been one entertainment and also an access to spoken English as well. As a result, watching movies can be expected to be a welcomed homework. All in all, our goal is to improve students’ English through this course. Wish we could coordinate successfully and have a impressive semester together.
After reading this passage, I just remembered the life at the beginning of my university. Before going to the university, I thought we would have a good English speaking environment. But then I experienced a sharp pang of disappointment. Because there was not English speaking environment, even in my English class. Then I tried to make a personal English speaking environment. I wrote my email in English. I tried to have a chat with my friends in English on the QQ. But I feel embarrassed to say that I only keep this style for a few months. Then I forgot English at all!
I think if I really do it like this, there will be much trouble. For I’m in China, not in an English speaking country!
ARE YOU A COW?
USE WORD TO WRITE AND CORRECT
The most important thing in learning a language is to use it, no matter speak or write or listen. Everyway is OK , if only you use it. When I was an undergraduate ,I used to study Japanese for a semester. However, I seldom use it in my life and my foundation is so weak .I nearly forget all the Japanese which I learnt at that time .
It is a common thing that a foreigner can speak Chinese well after living in China for several months. However , it is difficult for we Chinese students who have studied English for more than 10 years to express ourselves in English fluently. Here, the environment matters.
In my dairy life, it is really a hard job for me to talk with other people in English. Most of them get used to speak Chinese and are too shy to speak English. Though I like English very much , because of the Chinese environment ,it is hard for me to insist on my using of English. I am so pity to find that some of the words that I once memoried had gone.
First, the mute English, I think, is the natural outcome of the teaching and studying ways of English nowadays in China and perhaps most non-English-speaking countries. In China, there is a proverb like that: If you plant melons, you will harvest melons; if you plant beans, you will harvest beans. The mute English phenomenon is caused by the English examination mechanism in which listening is given small weight, relatively, and speaking is given no weight.
Then is English 24/7, which is seemingly horrible. I am saying this ’cause I had tried like that before. English is like drugs. Thinking all the way in English made me excited for one moment, but later I didn’t feel myself and tends to vomit ’cause my head is full of that god-damned English. What’s more, I would have difficulty in sleeping because English words, phrases and sentences kept rolling and tossing in my head like they are having a rock show.
Hate it or love it, no matter what. This is a mixed emotion. 24/7 reminds me of my love experience, which is an experience of tragedies. I have been reading a book since recently about love psychology. I had thought about life and death, the existence of mankind, the universe, and thought about the ways of thinking, much like that in my undergraduate, and often spent a whole afternoon lying on the grass, lost in my mind, but neglected the most fundamental feeling of human-beings—love. Love is an interesting phenomenon and emotion. It can make people satisfied, it can also make them sick and vomiting; it can inspire people, it can also despair them. Sometimes in love, you feel high like an angel, other times, low like a devil.
Above comment about love can be referred to English 24/7 studying, in fact, studying English in that way is much like in love with it. And the love can mean other things’ love, whatever.
Below is a song I have revised a little:
“Some say English it is a river/ That drowns the tender reed/ Some say English it is a razor/ That leaves you soul to bleed/ Some say English it is a hunger/ An endless aching need/ I say English it is a flower/ And you it’s the only seed/ Just remember in the winter/ Far beneath the bitter snow/ Lies the seed with the sun’s love/ In the spring, becomes a rose.”—–“the rose”, Aoi Teshima
Main idea of this essay seems to be that English is one means of communication rather than a discipline entails hardworking like we try to learn Economics and mathematics, however, the ability of language is formulated everyday usage. Creating a personal language environment through turning Chinese QQ into English one, doing academic search by the means of Google (also English version) ，and speaking English in dormitory. I just change my homepage into Economists.com, an excellent website concerning issues from economy, politics to culture. Though sometimes there are a few prejudices in the article of the website, after all it serves as a window I can get information outside from. My purpose on learning English does not lie in requirement of career but the craving of acquiring ability of that language.
The writer contends that the more chances you created for your English learning, the better English you will speak and write. I strongly agree with this contention because this principle applies on language learners according to my experience.
When I was still a middle school student, I spent all my time in practicing English tests in the schooldays without making it into my daily life. Of course, I got a good credit in the English test. However, it is a failure for me to talk to foreigners, let alone catch up with the dialogues in the television play. I feel like an idiot. Such a situation changed when I got fully into American television play since four years ago. In order to enjoy the play, I devote all my spare time into English, songs, news report, fictions and so on. In the beginning, it was a hard time. But days by days, I can feel that I am making progress because suddenly one day I found it comfortable to take an English academic lecture. It is amazing! To understand a foreign language is such a beautiful experience that it evokes your pride for two reasons. One is that your knowledge is enlarged with the ability to dip into materials expressed by a foreign language. The other is that you get chances to make more friends who have a different culture background with you. I can hardly imagine that if I didn’t kick out the applied-test form of learning English, how much fun and information would I lost.
All beginnings are hard. Don’t be shy, and keep a try. Just let the English surround you!
I know that Martin tries his best to help us improve English, and it is important to create our own personal English speaking environment. During my internship in a foreign company before, my English was better indeed.
First of all,I want to say “thank you,Mr Wolff”.You are my first foreign English teacher,and you are the first English teacher who appreciate my speaking English. Though my speaking English is not very good, I belive that my oral English can get improved as long as I do it following your advice.
I extremely agree with the sentence, which is that 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. We have learned English for ten years. However, our spoken English has not improved. Why? The answer is that there is no English speaking environment in China and even no university makes the attempt to create one for us to study English. Under the circumstances, we should be aware of the importance of the English speaking environment and make an effort to create English learning environment. Such as using English search engine, switching to English QQ, watching English movies with English subtitles or no subtitles and so on. Only in this way, can we improve our spoken English effectively.
During fourteen years of my English learning, I just regarded English as a subject which should be learned like mathematics, physics, and so on. However, after Professor Martin’s speech about the secrets on how to learn English well, I realized that I had made such a huge mistake. English is a tool for us to communicate with foreigners, but I just spent time on doing the reading comprehensions before, and my oral English was so poor that I couldn’t give the right information to foreigners.
At present, I will change my view on English. The professor said that it was only you who can make your English better, not the teacher, not the foreigners. Then I will try to create English surrounding for myself, and do my best to eat, drink, sleep, dream in English.
The most important thing in learning a language is to use it, no matter speak or write or listen. Everyway is OK , if only you use it. When I was an undergraduate ,I used to study Japanese for a semester. However, I seldom use it in my life and my foundation is so weak .I nearly forget all the Japanese which I learnt at that time .
It is a common thing that a foreigner can speak Chinese well after living in China for several months. However , it is difficult for we Chinese students who have studied English for more than 10 years to express ourselves in English fluently. Here, the environment matters.
In my daily life, it is really a hard job for me to talk with other people in English. Most of them get used to speak Chinese and are too shy to speak English. Though I like English very much , because of the Chinese environment ,it is hard for me to insist on my using of English. I am so pity to find that some of the words that I once memoried had gone
Several days ago,I got a unfamilar phone.As Martin suggested,I answered it with “Hello?” But the person who called me laught.I paused.And the person said that she made the call for Martin.I got through my head immediately.It’s a strange feeling because that was my first time to answer a phone in English and I found it interesting.After ,I changed my phone language into English.I believe that we can learn English better if we take care of these little things into life.
I very agree with the teacher’s opinion of the chance to learn English well. We always complain about we don’ t have the environment to learn English, indeed , we give up very possible chances to learn English again and again. So, we should eat, sleep ,drink and even dream in English.
I have tried my best to study English, but the results are always disappointing.Now I finally understand that learning English is not a overnight thing, it requires a long-term adherence.
In the process of learning English, creating a good environment and atmosphere is of great importance.Only each person put himself into the environment which has been created can they make greater progress. When we truly live in the English-speaking world, and let English as a part of our lives, we can begin to really enjoy the English.
“eat , sleep, drink and even dream in Enllish”, I was shocked by the sentence because I’ve never heard it from my old English teachers at all .It is amazing. Practice makes perfect. So I totally agree with Mr.martin. Language is for practice. English is important for communicating with each other while silent English is lagging. So oral English is essentical for us. But just as the article says, it is difficult to creat English enviroment in China. Reasons may be different,such as people around us usually “forces” us to use Chinese. Just because this, it seems more necessary to creat English learning enviroment. Resding more English articles and magazines is easier than dreaming in English. So I will try my best to do 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.
It is said that English is a way of communication rather than a discipline entails hardworking like .Unlike the method we use to learn subjects,such as Economics and mathematics, however, the skill of the language is formulated with everyday usage.Practice makes perfect.I believe if we follow Martin’s step ,we will make satisfactory progress.
In fact,there have been changes in my dormitory since taken Martin’s class.We all changed our homepage into an English one.We have an “English Time”for us to see the English movies together, and discuss with each other in English after that.Surely, all of us want to improve our English,and we try to make dormitory a good place to practice just as the professor suggested.Though we have not been experiencing the “24/7 English”,we have made progress,and I am sure,we can do better!
To be honest, English 24/7 is a kind of devil training; we may not feel so comfortable at first if we live English 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but I do think it is necessary for the sake of creating my own personal English speaking environment and I believe we can adapt ourselves to English 24/7 after two week’s perseverance. Whenever and wherever we make a choice, we should choose to make our English better rather than not, and that’s the only thing we should do.
I think I cannot quite agree with you. It is indeed that there is no English speaking environment in China and no university makes even the slightest attempt to create one for their English majors and non-English majors, but in my opinion, the most difficult for us to learn English well is we cannot realize what it can be used to and whether we will need it or not. I have remember one of my undergraduate classmates, he know what he should learn and what he would do because his father is an English teacher. When he was a little boy, his father taught him lots of English. So he has great interested in English learning and he succeeds. Now he is a chief translator for HSBC, charging of the personal loan of Hubei province. But many of us don’t have much interested in English. As we know, only if we work in foreign companies English will bring us abundant rewards. In other words, although English is the most popular language all over the world, it is not as important in local enterprises as in foreign companies. What I really mean to by is only we can look forward to great rewards by speaking influent English will we learn English well as your expectation.
After we having the first oral English class, I have the distinct impression that the environment around us is different .The classmates are talking about the English-learning everywhere , though some of them complain, however, we start to pay attention to that topic. If we can change the concerns to actions, I think our English can be improved rapidly. Thanks to the professor, he not only pushes us to have English in mind, but also reminds us of higher-quality writing, more attention to accuracy and detail. If only we follow the professor’s instructions and practice more, we will make great progress.
For a long time ,there have some troubles on how to learn my English well.Some ways I have tried,but there didn’t have some good results.It is a fact that we don’t have a good language environment.Maybe it is a important reason.As all known English is important for us ,so we should have a try on the ways which the writer tells us.Every people speak English recurrently and naturally,maybe the language environment is good after some weeks.
I agree that one should create a environment for him/herself to use English.It is my own experience.The year before last year, I went to HK to spend the National Day holiday with my friend Maple,who was studying in HK as a communicational student.Maple’s boyfriend,Simon, is a French.So we have to communicate in English to make sure everyone understand each other.I remember clearly,on the morning of the National Day,I met Simon for the first time.On the way to Disneyland,I was not use English as freely as later,I always inclined to speak Chinese.I try my best to forget Chinese and put myself in English environment. Later in the afternoon,we have already been able to communicate with each other in fluent English.
That experience made me believe that immerse myself in a environment can force me using English without exchange thought from Chinese into English. If I keep on doing as Mr.Martin suggests,my English would be much more better.It is really a useful way.
I was very impressed on the article at the beginning of two sentences. Yes! What a shame! I have never thought about that. Just like we were learning chinese in the early years. Learning English is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
English like Chinese is a language. In the early years, we have 24 hours a day, seven days a week to learn Chinese, so just like that, we can not only learn english in class. I have decided to adopt the recommendations of professors, created an environment for learning English.
When I was in the high school,my english teacher once told us,”If you can speak fudge in english，your english will be very good!”And now professor Martin even say”eat , sleep, drink and even dream in Enllish”,oh,my god.I think it is a long way to go for me.English need to be practiced.Only by change the way we practice english,can our english not be mute english.As is know to us all,mute english is useless to communicating with each other.
And luckily,in the beginning of this semester,I met a new foreign friend whose name is Victor and he come from Costarica which is situated in Latin America.Although my oral english is very bad,he still can understand my chinglish.He is very humour and usually help me to correct my pronunciation and improve my english including oral english and written english.He said to me”we can help each other,I am your english teacher,and you are my chinese teacher”.
It’s very nice.I believe I can improve my english,especially my oral english,because I had met the strict professor Martin and my humor friend named Victor.
Dear Professor,you tell us this term we will eat,sleep,drink and even dream in English.Well if I guess if I dream in English it must be a nightmare…just a joke!Thank you for being strict to us.It makes us learning more.It’s a good habit and I will keep it!
Professor, what you have mentioned above is what I have experienced when I was an undergraduate as a non-English major. I think it necessary for us to practice our English as more as we can. Just as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.
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.
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, Chinese students often learn many years English but they cannot speak it fluency. Why? It’s no good English teacher? Or no smart students? Or we don’t have the free environment in our campus? The answer is: no! the Chinese student do good job in memory. We can remember a lot of words. Desperately we read less English, listen less English songs and speak less each other. So from today, I will eat, drink, sleep and even dream in English.
Every Chinese student has his or her especial story about learning English. For most of them, English means the horrible thing everyone wants to avoid. The more worse is that they don’t realize the cruel truth.
But now, after heard the lecture of Professor Wolff, we have learnt the fact that we are the loser. We have made our choice in our daily lives. We pretend to be a work-hard student in the English class and try our best to gain the high goal. When the bell rings, we come back to our completely Chinese-speaking lives as soon as possible.
What a shame! We have learnt English for thirteen years, but most of us can’t make an effective communication with foreigners. Someone has said that learning a new language is living a new life. We choose to gain the boring language knowledge, giving up another amazing world. Therefore, I have made the opposite choice from now on. I will try my best to eat, sleep, drink and even dream in English.
We live in China and people all speaking Chinese here,and a good environment of English is hard to find .Even when we talk and write in English words,we think it in mind in Chinese.Of course it’s difficult to change our habit,but we need to change.
“Instead of watching Chinese movies or English movies with Chinese dubbing or subtitles”,I agree with it very much and we should cherish every chance to learn English,and I think watching English movies is a good method to bring us a good English atmosphere.
Lack of opportunity to use the language is every college student’s problem. They used complain about that and they are eager to improve their oral English. That’s why sometimes foreigners are rapidly surrounded by young people who want to practise their English. You will then use English quite naturally when you are entertaining, showing your visitors the sights, etc.. When you are constantly hearing and speaking English on a daily basis, you can dramatically improve how you speak and understand the language. You will learn English idioms and slang, pronunciation, and meanings of words and phrases. You will gain more confidence as you listen and learn. Interacting with others will also boost your confidence as you become more comfortable with speaking the language.
Maybe it is not that the universitise don’t want to do but they can’t do.There are so many students in campus that it is a tough job for universities to embase the students into a English environment.Even just a small part of students is a big number.However, I do agree the respect above that the students should creat a English environment for themselves conscientiously.Since there is not English environment,why don’t we make it by ourselves?
Another thing is that if we really make it,we should keep it for a long turn rather than a couple of days or weeks.You know,that is in vain!
Well,this article is indeed right.Instead of English,Chinese is our mother language.So ,there isn’t enough English environment to speak in China.However,we can create some atmosphere to speak English.For example,watching English movies,reading English books, switch Chinese QQ to English QQ,answering mobile phone in English and so on.I think it is effective extraordinarily to improve our holistic English environment and beneficial to English study.I believe that “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 don’t remember how many times I saie to myself I must learn English perfectly.Every time I made the determimation,I would go to the internet to find some way on how to learn English well.There were many tempting ad,they said you can learn English perfect only in servel monthes,servel weeks,even servel days!Incredible!I never believe it.In my opinion,it is common sense that the best way to learn English well is what this essay refered,all know this way, the problem is who can do it? Maybe I can’t let English be the something I live 24 hours a day, seven days a week,but I will have the cousciousness that I must let English be the something I live 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I am very appreciating the professor for doing so much to create an English speaking environment for us. But in my opinion, a completely English speaking environment in China is impossible. That is because we are live in China, we have to contact with many people who do not speak English everyday.
I come from a small city, our high school not put much attention to oral English because college entrance exam do not have oral exam. I think many school do the same thing just like ours.
Anyway, we should create an English speaking environment as possible as we can, not just this semester but forever.
The professor’s concept of the learning english is new and shocked to my traditional studying english.At the most ,I need change my old learning course to improve my poor oral and listening english.I want to make the english become a part of my list from now on. Maybe I can not do this like that words :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.But I will always tell myself that english learning not the task ,by contrast ,it is the necessary compenent in you daily life.Thanks for my teacher Martin.
The idea is great. But it may never come true in the campus, I’m afraid to say so. We are here in a China, all things surround us are in Chinese. However, it doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna strive as much as possible to meet the goal of English 24/7 set for us. It’s right. Such an environment we should create by ourselves would show us a shortcut in our English studies all these years.
There’s an English study school I had been to and studied there for a month, 5 or 6 years ago. It provided the students there an English only environment. You should eat, chat, read and entertain in English. When it came to an end, there’s once a chance I tried to buy something from a retail shop outside the school, the English just came out of my mouth.
But I think it’s still kind of weird to greet my Chinese fellows while I pick up the phone with a “Hello”.
It’s true that we lack of a full-English environment. After the first class, I did as Mr. Martin asked. At first, I feel uncomfortable. Cause it will cost me about one minutes more to open a English site. And when I read a English news or article, I have to read word by word. What a time-consuming!
Time after time, after reading more English articles, I read faster and faster. What interested me most is that I know more things happen out of my country. It broads my eyesight. I’m enjoying reading English.
It must be admitted that English play an important role in our life. So we must to study it hard. But what shall we do? That’s a personally question. Someone wants to learn it by book and writing. That’s will be has effect on English paper. Good for him.
However, in my opinion, creating English study environment is efficiency. We must use English form of thinking. For example, we post our though on the http://chinaholisticenglish.org/. We read the articles everyday and think about of them. Its must be helpful. We must know that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Maybe live with English in 24 hours is hard. But we could pay more attention to our English study, make fun from it, listen to the English radio and music, watch English movie without Chinese subtitling. I think it is worth the effort.
I am really appreciate the ideas of studying English that you provide to us. English, as you mention above, is not a subject that study a couple of hours a week. if one want to be proficient in English, it’s takes more time to practice, to speak than we do now.
However, you see, it’s may be easier to say than to do, English 24/7? eat sleep drink or even dream is English? Wow~come on , We are not live in a world that without anything other than English.
Actually, I am really enjoy myself during my study of English, as we all know, English has been a worldwide use language, It’s very important not only for our fully understanding the foreign articles during our study,but also benefit us much when we go to work.but, the question is ,should we study in that way? I mean, a extreme way of studying English 24/7 that you propose.
Every coin has two sides.if we study English 24/7, it’s will definite cause some impact or even problems to our daily life. In my own perspective ,English studying should be conducted in a way more acceptable . The advices you suggest are useful , I will take your advices and practise both my oral and written English as possible as I can. But, whether we should study English in that a extreme way or not is still an issue to be further discussed.
Creating an English environment is typically important for English learning, because every language is lively and useful only in the environment people all get used to it. The most important reason we speak Chinese quite well even since our childhood is that we are living in China, and our parents and relatives, as well as our teachers, all speak and teach us Chinese. And the mess media such as songs and movies that we have been listening to and watching are all in Chinese.
Thus I guess we can apply the same method in English learning. Now I’ve turned Chinese QQ into the international QQ, and also have applied the English version of iGoogle as my homepage. Furthermore, I always listen to English songs in my spare time, and English radios when I am working or doing my homework. In short, English has already become an significant part of my life. Accordingly, the American culture has also been accepted by me and it has been ingrained in my mind, just like the Chinese culture has been ingrained in my lifestyle. That is due to the compatibility of the language and the related culture. An easy and effective way of learning a language well is trying any effort to understand the related culture. And the best way to understand the culture which is different to us is to create an environment. Thus it is quite necessary for English learners to follow this suggestion, because it really works!
“Practice makes perfect.”I always believe in that, though Martin told us that the majority of us cannot speak PERFECT ENGLISH. English 24/7 is a good idea but not so feasible. The truth is that in China, it is almost impossible to make English something people live 24 hours a day, seven days a week when Chinese are all around. Can you communicate with the staff in canteen in English? No, you can’t as Chinese. Can you speak English with your parents? No, you can’t.
Facing the difficulties, we should not give up. Although there is no such English 24/7 in China ,we could make it 20/7 or 10/7.My own method to help myself get access to English daily is watching American hit TV dramas. In that case, I could imitate the lines in the show and try to discuss the plot with classmates in English. We try our best no matter English 24/7 ever exists.