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”
Rome was not built in a day, the proverb is wellkonwn. But one the other hand, we are shamed, we have leart english as a foreign language for over ten years whichi is almost longer than the building of Rome City, we still speak poor english. Many people think it’s because that we don’t have the english enviroment. While i am not totally agree with that. Lacking the enviroment can be said in the last century but not this one. We can easily get the enviroment if you borrow some english books, read english papers ,watch english movies or tvs, browse english websites or listen english broadcast. They are almost everywhere if you want to get them.
I have been studying English for more than 10 years, which gives me a profound understanding that learning English requires patience, persistence and a lot of practice. Except for all the above, the article offers another important element that influences the learning effect: the environment. “There is no English speaking environment in China.” What we learn is left where we learn all the time. Outside the classroom, we have no opportunity to put the knowledge in practice and then forget it in a short time. This usually happens: I am 100% sure to have learnt that English word or sentence, I just can’t say it out because of rare use in reality. That is why we have learnt English for so many years but still are not confident enough to say: I know English or I understand English. As the article said, it’s up to us to create the learning English environment by ourselves.
Oh, this semester I may change many my old educational philosophy ofen after I read some articles like this. It is my first time hear that “English is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week”. No English speaking environment around us, I think it is difficult for us to realize this. We just speak English in English courses, maybe from now on we could do things like the above told us: change our mobile phone language to English, read English news, take the patches which say “SPEAK ENGLISH” with us always and so on, it will be useful for creating our English speaking environment. However, I want to say there is another thing which is as important as speaking environment, it is opening our mouths. Sometimes I attended English corner, I kept my mouths closed, not to say anything, so my English teacher always do her best try to encourage me. I will try my best also!
I have to say, finally there is someone who is always there to keep an eye on me so that I can implement my English learning scheme that I conceived long time ago. Maybe someone would feel like living in a nightmare from the time attending Martin’s class, but it is a process of self-growth and self-learning which could change myself to be a better English speaker ultimately.
There is a famous saying that no pain, no gain, I really hope the pain would not last long and even one day I could say it is fun rather than pain. I believe I can!
As to the English speaking environment for English learning, I totally agree it is very important and useful. You would speak English with others without afraid of making mistakes. Nobody would laugh at you. As you practice more and more, you may make one mistake; make the mistake for more than once. But if you continue, you will make it correct finally. And I think, if I am in such an environment, I have to speak English, no other ways to get out, for I have to turn to somebody for help sometimes. For example, I need some thing in the shopping mall, I have to know how to say it, or I can not get it. However, it is not easy to create that environment, one best I have done till now is to find a partner who is also want that kind of environment. And you will really have fun with it.
Reading English news is useful to improve English skills; furthermore, it is advisable to read genuine English. Reading the New York Times instead of China Daily makes great differences. As the author said, watching English movies with Chinese subtitles does little to help, because we always focus on the subtitles by instinct. In order to create good English speaking environment, most of the students should work together, one’s behavior will influence others nearby. Making progress day by day can trigger students’ passion to master English, but we have to realize that we have a long way to go.
Our English teacher Martine require us “EAT, SLEEP, DRINK AND EVEN DREAM IN ENGLISH “.I think that’s good idea for us to improve our English. But it”s difficult to practise it.Now I just express my views on Martine’s teaching ways.I very appreciate that each of us are required to make the comments on the article and English movie.Martine often actively list the new articl on website,so we always remember to make some comments on these acticles.that is a best way to improve our writing & reading capacity.
As for our spoken English,in my view,each of us can participate in the English Corner actively,and express our ideas,make a comfortable communication with the parners or attendees,maybe that is feasible for us,at least for me.
Here,I want to say is that calling is no useful just to check whether or not we say “Hello” when we answer the phone.Because the day before yesterday,I answered the call in Chinese,then the caller hung up the phone.I think the caller might talking with me in English instead of cutting off the phone. that’s just my advice .
Before reading this article, I have made some plans for my English studying at the first day of this semester. They are as follows:
Change mobile phone language to English.
Read English aloud everyday by getting up earlier half an hour.
Watch China Daily and the 21Century.
Listen to English songs instead of Chinese ones in my MP3.
Attend English corner each Wednesday evening.
Now I have more goals to fulfill:
Play an ABC (American Born Chinese) native English speaker for one entire day.
Meet more new foreign friends and engage in extensive conversations now and then.
“Success belongs to the persevering.” I’ll remember it!
It seems to be a little crazy and also impossible idea for us to eat,sleep,drink and even dream in English,but i toally agree with the idea that we should create environment by ourselves,so i’ve made my decisions:stop getting the entertainment news from china website,but read news in The New York Times;stop watching China or Korea soap series,but watch English movies with English subtitles or no subtitles.that’s what i should do from now on.
EAT, SLEEP, DRINK AND EVEN DREAM IN ENGLISH.I was full of panic when I heared the sentence for the first time,but it also impressed me a lot.We should consider learning English is a part of our life rather than a task.Maybe we can not finish the English 24/7 studying as our our learning target is heavy,but we can learn to love it by steps.
I hope I can do it, but I also know a proverb: Rome was not built in a day.I am not good at spoken English,but i can feel I get better than before.Everyday I spend more than three hours to learn English,I know that is not enough,but I have many other things to do,so it is a difficult to choose.Just like you said: There is no English speaking environment in China.to speak fluent English is very difficulty,so just try my best to learn it.
Recently, I hold on to write my diary. Moreover, I wrote my diary in English. And the movies and songs are English. In fact, I still could not understand the movies if there was no Chinese title. But there is more fun for me to feel and guess. Maybe that is the mental English feeling.
As the author says,it is up to each student to create their own personal English speaking environment.My roommates and I do agree with it.Therefore we make a decision that whenever we are together in the room, all of us should talk with each other in English.Now our dormitory seem to be a mini English corner.Everyday we speak in English as much as possible.Sometimes we make a fool of ourselves.We have been aware of not being afraid of losing face while learning English,so we help each other to correct the mistakes.I gradually realize that only when you learn English with your heart and soul,you could dedicate youself into the English speaking environment,and then get progress and happiness.
Change my mobile phone language to English? Change my computer homepage to an English search engine? It seems to be crazy. But, maybe it is a good suggestion for me to learn English better. I guess I’ll enjoy this lifestyle when I even dream in English.
To many Chinese students who struggle to improve their English,reading and listening may not be a problem for students can do some training by their own to improve the skills.However,speaking and writing always be the big roadblock.Without English speaking environment might be just a excuse.I should try much more from now on.
I think we will have great progress in oral English in this term because we meet an interesting old man. He gave us very different requests from other teachers we met before. He gave us a leture in the Friday evening of the first week and made us understand the importance of learning English. He told us many examples of his students who became successfully and drawed up many rules for us. From his lessons we knew that English was not a subject we studied a couple of hours a week but something we lived 24 hours a day.
Where there is a will, there is a way. I always consider that we will finally speak English well if we make it our lives and put our heart into it.
I really agree that practice makes perfect. Before I came to university, English study was just for the English exam. But I didn’t have an English mindset. Then I started my major study and the usage of English in the textbook improved my reading skills. Finally I realized that the usage of practice is very important in the language study. Professor Martin set an extremely high standard, English 24/7, for us. In theory, he’s right. If we can follow it completely, I think there will be great progress in our English skill, especially the oral English. However, we will encounter many difficulties, in real world. Never mind, do as much as we can do, I think it will work.
There are many ways to learn English well, to throw over mute English. However, It’s hard to begin, to persist,to loose face…so I
As our Chinese students know , English is a subject for us to take and have to pass . But English is a language , it can’t only be treated as a course , but also an oral skill .
Actually we have been studying English for more than ten years , which is longger than the time we study our native language , but we are still afraid of speaking English loudly or to foreigners when we first meet . There is no doubt that we have well commanded the grammar of English , however , we can’t change it from the mind to the mouth immediately . In a short word , there is no time for us to think it over for twice to speak it fluently and correctly ! That’s why we are afraid of speaking English .
Of course , as long as we speak more , think more , speaking English will not be a problem for us . At the same time we should try to create an English speaking environment , in which we can speak it learn it and even feel it as our mother language . The last but not the least , we shall not be scared of losing face when we make mistakes . We should believe that more mistakes we take more progresses we gain .
There are many ways to learn English well, to throw over mute English. However, It’s hard to begin, to persist, to loose face…so I am still learning MUTE ENGLISH.
Now I intend to have a try. Firstly ,I have changed my mobile phone language, Then I will see English movies once I have time, I decide to wake up earlier than before and read some articles. Well, I think I should get up my courage to go to the English comer, never mind losing face. Finally and most importantly, persistence is success. I don’t do everything, but I think if I really finished one thing, there would be great progress for me.
Many of my classmates think that my English is good.Yes,from the beginning of learning English,my English score is always very high,often on the top of my class.But I don’t think so.High English score doesn’t mean high English level,does it?I am,indeed,good at English grammar,and my written English is good ,too.But,I’m quite poor at listening and speaking.The aim that we learn English is to use it not just for the exam.So,I don’t think my English is good.
I agree with the author that China lack of English speaking environment.I’m sure many people have the similar problem with me.You can cope with the exam very well,but can’t communicate with a foreigner very easily and fluently. Our English is dumb English.So, I think the suggestion referred to in the article is worth our while to learn from.Yes,just as the author said we can take the initiative to create our own personal English speaking environment,such as watching English movies,using English QQ etc.I think these are very good methods.so,from now on ,come on.With perseverance,your English level will have a great improvement.
The style of your teaching is really special and effective, which I haven’t heard before. Formerly, we only learn English in the class even the teacher speak a lot of Chinese to verify our understanding. When we go to English corner, we usually ask the partner: “what’ your major, or what’ your name”—just the simple communication. The next time, facing to the different partners , the same question will be repeated, so our English is improved in a slight degree.
When we devote ourself to the English speaking environment, what we see, what we think, and what we say will be the important part in our life. I want to have a try and persist the habits. Come on!
“English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week”, it means learning English need an environment. It is a long time for us to remember and understand .It takes us more time and energy study English. We must insist on writing more English ,listening more English and speaking more English.
When I was a freshman in school, I was not quite aware of the importance of English until my foreign teacher Bonnie Bird who come form the state of Montana helped me bring up the interest and tried to make me aware of the significance of learning English. She asked me to do the following:
1. Read English newspapers such as Washington Post, journal of Wall Street and so on insistently everyday.
2. Take part in English Corner every weekend and listen to English songs using MP3 or MP4.
3. See the movie she showed every Friday night
It’s very useful for me to learn English by do the instructions.
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.
These two articles argue several viewpoints about English learning we treated as natural. Frankly speaking, I learn something from this argument. However, I have heard someone said some of viewpoint, such as Li Yang. Yeah, it’s easy to say than done. If one wants to get advance in English, you should make an unshaken decision to change your English learning habit, which is extraordinary difficult. One should eager to learn, then he /she changes.
A good language environment is really very important for learning English well. Thank the teacher giving us that opportunity. We will do our best to complete as required. Hope to improve.
First, I want to give my deeply thanks to foreign teacher. He pays much attention to us and teaches us how to study English better. Second, I think these methods are very useful, if we want to improve our English level, we should do as foreign teacher said. Third, it is difficult to change our habits, for example, Chinese people like use 163,126 email and use Chinese QQ. Anyway, I will try my best to change this, because I desire to improve my English level.
English is useful,but not every one likes to study it.Though we study English from Middle School,we can’t say that I like English very much.Because English and Chinese belong to two different languages,we are used to speaking Chinese,it is hard to change this habit.And to some people,English is difficult to learn,they are’t interested in it.In this case,if you put more requires on them,the result will be opposite.I think interesting is the best teacher.Under the lead of interesting,maybe we could have new harvest.
English24/7, it seems very nice, but it is unpractical for us to do that. We live in China, there are many Chinese around us, and obviously we can’t speak English to all of them. So I think the feasible way is to read, write and listen English every day, not every minute.
We know that Rome was not built in a day, learning English is the same thing. Whether we can learn English 24 hours a day is not the key point, but keep learning in a persistent way is the meaning. And I think it is what the “ENGLISH 24/7” wants to tell us.
I known that if you want to learn English well and speaking a fluent English, It not only request time、diligence and sweat，but It request a English speaking environment and this is the most difficult for ours. I think that language does not request a high IQ, so English as a language it does not exception.
As we all known, environment is especially important for studying English. But we couldn’t expect to build a complete English environment in a country which not deem English as native language. All we can do is try best. Language is used to communicate, if it brings communication barrier in everyday life, using it is or not is a problem. Certainly, this method can improve our English. Maybe we need a balance between them.
When we were young,we were taught how to read,write and speak English.Many years later,we are still doing this.What have we learned in these years?Real English or “mute” English?During these years,we just know how to write our answers on the paper.We don’t know how to express ourself in English.In my mind,English24/7 is so good,we should creat the locale by ourselves.Only in this way,we can get real English.
I have learned English for about ten years. However, I want to ask myself that I have really learned English for about ten years. No, I have never studied English more than two hours every day. Just like the saying “practice makes perfect”, my English is just so –so. Well, I think it is not late for me to study a couple of hours a week. Fortunately, our roommates decide to communicate in English. So I think it is a good beginning. At the same time, I believe our effort will pay off.
I had changed my mobile phone language to English for two or three years since I had this mobile phone. As you 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.” So,in order to learn English well,we should cultivate the habit of using English in our daily life.This is really a truth.
EAT, SLEEP, DRINK AND EVEN DREAM IN English. I have tried,and unsurprisingly it’s difficult and even painful. Although，as far as I know, I haven’t succeeded in dreaming in English by now, but I won’t give up, since I have enough chances. Learning English takes time, a lot of time, but it’s worthy. I am truly grateful to Professor Wolff for his instructive ideas about learning English as well as his devotion to us. It is time to make a difference.
I think it is a good way for us to improve our oral English to practice English everywhere. It is easy to begin, but hard to persist. When we begin to communicate with English, we may find many problems, for example, we are hard to express ourselves and we can not understand each other very well. When that happened, we may give up English communication and speak Chinese again. When we give up the chance to practice English, we also miss the chance to improve our oral English. So if we want to improve our English level, we must to persist.
I used to read news on my gmail, English movies ,but I seldom attend English corner ,cause so many Chinese people there and I could not find common topic to begin the talk.I often listen and write ,but seldom speak English,when I speak an English sentence,they often beg me pardon which is really embarrassing.I know more practice make better oral English, I just cannot insist the good habit of thinking,talking in English.Sometimes I think I will not work in foreign company,so I cannot have fluent English while I am very admire those good English speakers.I have to blush to admit that I am lazy and like to find excuse.
Now,I want to do Mr. Martin’s kind requests.I’ve already changed my mobile phone language to English ,change their computer homepage to an English search engine or Google News (English).But I cannot search all info. in English ,when I tried to speak in English in dormitory,only silence.
I hope these habits can change my English a lot.Thank you,Mr. Martin.
As the English teacher said, we need an environment to learn English .we need to make some changes, for example we can turn language of mobile phone to English, and paste a lot of English labels in dormitory. This seems to be amazing. However it is our previous learning method that made little progress in learning English. From today, we need to change increasingly.
After studying English for ten years ,I have found a fact : some complex words , the more I use, the easier I feel ,however some easy words ,the less I use ,the harder I feel. And from this rule, I have known why I can not study English well. As the Mr. Wolff said, the reason is that we don not have personal English speaking environment. When we speak, we use Chinese, when we write, we use Chinese, and when we think, we also use Chinese. As we know, in our daily life, we don not have chance to use English, so how can we use it well? What Mr. Wolff do is seems to be harsh, but I think it is the best way to improve our English.
‘English is something you live 24 hours a day, seven days a week’. To some extent, I agree with this opinion. We should take every opportunity to learn English.
On the other hand, I don’t think we should answer every phone with hello. In fact, I have no foreign friend and many of my friends don’t speak English. What’s more, it’s not realistic to talk with my parents and relatives.
Thirteen years have passed since I began my English learning in the third grade of primary school. However, I felt sad to find that I was only good at reading and writing, just as the majority of college student. I realized that for years I have been learning the so-call “dumb English”, i.e. I had little confidence in my oral English, as well as my listening skill. When somebody speaks fast I usually couldn’t catch him or her. Thus I don’t dare to communicate with others in English because I feel ashamed to keep asking “I beg your pardon”. I couldn’t break this vicious circle so I also lose the chance to improve my oral English.
Now, I want to give my deeply thanks to the Holistic English. This course gives me a opportunity to change the way of learning English. I obey Mr. Martin’s kind requests. For example, speak English only in my dormitory. Although our oral English is still poor, we insist on communicating with each other in English. I hope I could have a new gain.
On the frist hand,I think what our teacher does is just good for us.Maybe he is very strict and harsh.but we should know that this is a good chance to improve our English.what we should do is follow our teacher.on the other hand,because we have learned English for more then ten years.we have our own study method.so it is difficult for us to change our habits in such short time.but I believe most of us will grab this chance to exercise and improve our writing、listening and speaking.
All the students in China can speak English perfectly if we can study English 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But it is almost impossible for us to do this. Our grandparents, our parents nearly have no idea about English. The idea is very useful to us. After read the article I know that English is not so easy to master. We have to catch every chance to practice our English and study it continuously.
When I was a senior, I was taught by a Yale student in oral English course. From then on, I got to know what foreign teaching style was and also loved this style. Now Martin comes into our oral English course’s classroom and becomes our dear teacher. Yeah, he seems rather strict and harsh. In other way, it is we who are too lazy to adapt his style. Better oral English needs re-doubled hard-work for us. Therefore, a good way is to stop complaining and turn to the right thing we should work on to improve our oral English.
With one article and one comment a day, I begin to not be afraid of reading English news or files. So it does have some effects. And I am ready to receive a test calling every day so I answer every call in English. As a non-English major student and even a Chinese major student, learning English is usually ignored by us, and frankly speaking we really don’t have enough time to read English books instead of reading Chinese books. That’s what I was thinking when I was a freshman. However, later I realized that I should read plenty of western literary theories although my interest is ancient Chinese literary. And the funny thing is that the original western literary theories written in English makes me understand easier than those books translated in Chinese. So it stimulated my interest on English. And now, I know that your English can’t upgrade if you don’t improve your English speaking. And thanks the environment you made to us again.
I have been learning english for 10 years. unfortunately， I still Chinese English。It is hard to open my mouth. I am not foolish, I just no perfect english teacher in pronouncation.ALSO, charge the past 10 years, it only little time to study english. so practice,you will more success
I really feel my life has been stuffed with English. I answer the phone by saying “hello”; I check to see if there’s any English email everyday; I post English comments from time to time; I watch movies with English subtitles. At the first time in my life, I find English and my life can be so closely linked. I’m not a person who have great ardor for English studying. But at least, I can enjoyably accept it all now. I think I will get used to it soon and then English will really be part of my life.
As you tell us 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.” So eat, sleep, drink and even dream in English is a kind of perfect learning state. Recalling the way our Chinese people to study Chinese, we can easily find something in common to learn a language. If we treat the English like our mother tongue, use it everyday and think it everyday, maybe learning English is not a difficult task to our Chinese people. Most of the students in China have studied English for a long time，maybe they get a high mark in English tests, but their oral English is quite poor, they can’t communicate well with other people in English. In addition, there are still many other students who can understand every word of an article, but fail to read them out fluently and correctly. This is just the common phenomena that often occurred in our China and confuse most of people a lot. The correct way to study English is reading, listening, speaking and writing. It is high time that we should put more effort to the speaking ability. I think the English corner is a proper place to practice oral English, and if convenient, I want to know some foreigners to practice my English. The last but not least, I should get rid of my laziness in order to catch with other people.
I never heard of “English 24/7 ” before I read this article . But I can grasp what he meant . In my opinion ,eat ,sleep,drink and even dream in English maybe interesting,every student can create their own personal English environment . The concept of our professor is new and important.He provides us with many chances to use English,indcluding these comments.After my first oral English class of this semester,I made a plan for leaning English.I watch American movies online insead of Chinese movies,listen English songs every day.I think this is an entertainment and aslo an access to learn and speak English for us . As the saying goes , a thousand miles journey starts with the step by step, rome is not build in a day .Therefore,We shoud insist on speaking and practsing English day by day.