I’m NOT Lovin it!
I am a post-graduate non-English major at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
I am required to study English for one more semester. I do not want to study English. I am only doing it because it is required by the university. I will never need to use English after I graduate. I rarely attend class, never do the homework and frankly do not care if my English improves or not. When I do attend class I sit as far away from the teacher as possible to avoid any participation in the class activities.
Some of my classmates feel differently. They know that English is increasingly important in the job market. They are highly motivated to study English because they realize that with English they can earn a higher salary. These classmates never miss a class and complete all of their homework assignments. They always sit in the front row and constantly volunteer for participation in classroom activities.
Some of my classmates study English because their parents expect it and we Chinese do what we can to please our parents. They approach English study with a “so-so” attitude and their English capabilities are “so-so.”
Tell us your story, what is your attitude towards the further study of English?
I really think interest and some certain motivation are very important factors to learn English well. It has been more than ten years since I started learn English, I did not like it myself until I have an intention that I ought to learn it better for looking for a better job with higher salary and I begin to consider it as funny as something interesting. Some easy actions make progress for my oral English, for example, I insist on going to the website of putclub everyday to listen CNN news or doing some oral practice, in addition, I always watch English movie and listen English music, because I made a choice to make my English better!
After years of beening buried in mountains of exercise problems, namely we had to repeat the same boring things day after day. No English movies, no English songs and English jokes there,i had almost began to consider English just as a boring course.
Things has changed since i was admitted into college,i gradually found the fun of learning English, and it becomes a loyal friend of mine, which is interesting, practical and helpful.it helps me to watch English TV series,make friends with foreigners and so on.
i know clearly that Rome Was Not Built in a Day ,but i also believe that nothing is impossible if i make my mind to accept the challenge and try my best.
When i have read the passage,i really understood the writer’s feelings.Becase i also have the same experiences.As a common chinese student, i have confused about the reasons of learening English. I have asked my English teacher in the middle school ,she told me that English is one nessary course of the China’s college entrance examination .so we have no choice but to learn hard in order to gain higher scores. For this reason,most chinese studends don’t have the really interests about English.
But when i came to the college ,i changed my mind. I have come to English corner and make a lot of friends whose English are perfect.I realized that English is interesting and a good way to enhance one’confidece.Talking and communicating with others in English is amazing.At that time,i have dreaming one day i would talk with foreingers fluently.
Now,i was encouraged from martin worlff’s speech,i think i will make my dream come true and enjoy more from learning English.
I have studied English for fourteen years. In the beginning, I learned the vocabularies from the pictures such as an apple, a pear, an orange and so on. I could remember them very well and have a good pronunciation. The teacher encouraged us to speak loudly, and practice more. So I followed the instruction and spent a lot of time learning. With the improvement of my English, I found myself liking English so much. However, after I entered middle school, I lost my interest in English because of those boring grammar and endless English tests. I thought English is a language which should be used to communicate, but more and more English written exercises changed the original function of English. I just studied them in order to deal with the examinations. Although I passed CET4, then CET6, I still couldn’t speak English well and use it as a communication tool perfect. Luckily, I met Martin, a good English teacher who encouraged us to speak English even Chinglish and told us not to be afraid of losing faces. And I will obey his commands to speak more, write more, listen more, and think like that I am an ABC from now.
I never thought I have a story of english learning. If I have one, I think it’s one that most Chinese students also have. I remenber I never liked learning english before entering college as well as quite a long time after and the reason is simple: I found nothing intersting in it. Nor did I hate english learning, probably because I had been doing fairly well in learning english, that is, having a high mark in examinations. Now love learning english, not only because I can have fun in english learning but also, more importantly, because I really want to learn english well. My eagerness for good english comes from my desire to contact western cultrue derectly. I want read Shakespeare’s plays, Keats’ Poems, Dickens’s novels, I want to watch eglish movies, TV programs, all in english and I want to know the way how western people think.
Years ago , when my first English lesson was over it was clear to me that I loved English and I had great interest in learning English . From then on , I spent quite a lot of time on English . I got high scores in my middle examinations and finally examinations , even passed CET4 and CET6 , but one day it occurred to me that English was just a course to me . I am good at English-reading , English-writing , but my oral English is really very very poor . All that I’m good at is just mute English . What I need to do now is just open my mouth and speak loud out . As what you have told us in your lecture , we’d better creat our own English environment . After all , English is an important tool for us to communicate with each other .
I likes English but my spoken English is poor and I can not speak english smoothly.Althonuh I have studied English for fourteen years,I did not practice my spoken english.I konw that english,particularly spoken English, is very important for study and work.So I want to study english hardly and hope that I can speak with my dear english teacher smoothly.With the help of teacher ,I will get it.
I like English, I believe most of us also like it. everyone eager to speak fluent English. But lack of English-environment in china, so most of students still are dumb English. Professor martin’s arrival so am I very delighted, he is a typical American, I am very grateful to him for the Chinese students to pay.
I will strive to improve my English, especially speaking and listening, and I believe I can do it!!!
We have been learning English for ten years,and many students are always working hard.However,few of us make satisfactory progress,especially in speaking English.
As we know,oral English is incresingly important in our daily life.Fortunately,Martin comes to help us.I believe we could get notable achievement if we follow Matin’s step.
The English language has become an international language because it is used by people in the most countries in the world now. In the open times, if we want to do business with foreigners, we must learn English because most of them speak and write in English, English is one of the working languages at international meetings.Today, most of valuable books are written in English, If we are good in English, we can read newspapers and magazines in English and learn a lot of knowledge about interaction better.
Even I understand the importance of learning English, I can not learn English very well.My English is poor though I have learned English for more than ten years.I am shy to speak English
with others,what’s more,I have no self-confidence to study English well.Why English is so difficult for me to study?
From my point of view,I do have very complicated feelings on studying English.On the one hand,I am afraid to learn English.Because my oral English is very poor and I even can’t open my mouth to speak little English. Frankly speaking,I felt very nervous in Mr.Wolff’s classroom for the first time. I even wanted to sit as far away from the teacher as possible to avoid any participation in the class activities.On the other hand,I love English very much. In my opinion,listening to English is a enjoyment of ease and comfort.I even have a beautiful dream that I can speak fluent English and chat with the foreigners freely in the near future.
There is no doubt that English is one of the world’s most widely used languages.I also definitely understand that English is very important to our career development,especially in the foreign corporation.So I can’t agree with “English is money” any more. From now on, I will spend more time to read, to listen, and to write in English in order to improve my English,especially,my oral English.
I like English so much ,just because I know what I want ,I think we can cheat our science ,in my opinion ,not all of US should like English just because someone may use English so Little ,I believe if someone need English then he can do it very well .
I have been learning English for so many years but so rarely have I got a sense of success. I do know the importance of English.A bridge for the world citizens. A powerful tool for learning and business.In this era of globalization, English is so frequently used that it is a survival must. However, it seems that the English we pick up is far from enough to be useful. At school the English teaching is mostly about tackling grammar that daunts us.
It serves to discourage rather than motivate us.
Personally I am very fond of English.It would be amazing to be able to speak it fluently and decently. I don’t lack passion but a good environment. In this class I hope to improve my English skills holistically. Yes we can.
When I first learned English in junior high school,I like it very much.I learned English not only in the class,but also learned it after class.Final exams of the year I was the first in English.I was very happy when I knowed I was the first in English.But when I learned English in the second year,everything was change.We had other English teacher to teach us.I was not love he.So I was not learning English after that.I was regreted that.So,I will learn English very much from now on!
i am interested in english very much., when I saw some people can communicate with foreigner fluently in english ,I also hope I can do that just as them oneday.because of poor english foundation,i spent a lot of time on my english study everyday when I still was a senior high school student,however,which noly help me pass the english examination successfully but do not contribute to improve my oral english.therefor,Ido not have much confidence to speak english in public,I always keep silent when taking part in english activity.as all know,English is becoming increasingly important in a highly competitive society,so,many college students pay much attention to english study on behalf of geting a better job in the job market after graduation.just as you have saying in the class that learning english need a good environment,so in this semester,i make a decision that i will try my best as far as i can to create a good environment for my english study.i really hope my english will be improved a lot.
It goes without saying that language is like a tool, which could make you feel easy to get access to diverse culture. I started to love watching movies when I was in high school. The first time I watched cartoon movie The Lion King without dubbing in Chinese, I was shocked by the language I heard in the movie. It sounds so different and so beautiful that I made up my mind to learn this language well immediately.
Some people say that it is very hard to learn English. However ,this is not my feeling. It is inevitable that I met some barriers during the learning process, but I always had my own faith to conquer them. So I do believe that once you have interest in English, you will enjoy studying it and using it.
To tell the truth, I love learning English very much, and I often go to the English Corner to practise my oral English. My written English is not so poor and I even translated a Chinese academic literature into English, but every time when I try to open my mouth to speak English, it fails me. What you said is so appropriate that the largest obstacle for Chinese students to speak English is fear, which, in my opinion, comes from one kind of our Chinese culture that you are never allowed to make mistake. Almost everyone has the same experience that before you spit out one word, you might spend one minute to chew it over and over in your mouth. This situation may be changed when you said Chinglish is good and encourage us to make mistakes. We are post-graduate students now and this time maybe the last chance to enhance our English. I don’t think there is anyone who will let this oppertunity slip away.
I didn’t like English, because my first English teacher is annoying me, and all of my classmates didn’t like him too. But I had to study English; I had to get high scores in examinations so that I can go to a good college, but I did not need to practice my oral English in high school, because there was no oral examination in my high school at that time.
Here I am now, studying in Sun Yat-sen University, one of the best colleges in China. Actually, this year is the fifth year since I study here. And unfortunately, there are oral English classes and examinations, that really frustrating me. I don’t know how to express my opinions in the class, which make me nerves. I didn’t like to talk, even talk in Chinese with Chinese people!
This is extremely sad, I know. So I try to make a change, and it is hard. But I believe that I am making progress. I hope this semester will come out to be a harvest semester, and I know I have to make my own choice.
Bless me!
I’m kind of the guys that will never ever content with a normal life, that, nothing is so satisfying to my life than by knowing more about the world to enrich my spirit. With this small aspiration tugs at my heart, I cherish every moment I have to learn English, for, it’s the only way to open my view beyond Guangdong, beyond China, and to the embrace the world.
I am, to be honest, a very traditional Chinese student with the embarrassed character like shame, self-contempt and afraid of public speaking. Something must die in order to change—my old habits, my old way of learning , my old thinking……must be weeded out for the seeds of progress to grow. To that extend, when attend the first class of Martin’s lecture, I know it’s a golden opportunity to make myself better by spending a semester with this fat, old, and temperament odd man, but possess those values upon which our progress depends—eager and kind heart, honesty and hard work, shameless and clear minded, and dedicate himself to help us.
Things that worth doing seldom come easy. By following Mr. Martin’s advice of so-called not to choose to make my English worst, I begin to change every thing I can in my daily life into English version–reading China Daily but not Guangzhou Daily, listening to Linken Park but not Jay, and using Google in English to search. I know how hard it is. It comes with a little boring, a little monotony and a lot of inconvenience. There are days of incline to give up, but sometimes, just sometimes, months from now, when I’ve made the change I believe in; when I can get a decent offer from a foreign company; when I can talk and laugh or even quarrel with native Americans confidently and the world sees this our generation of Chinese as a more qualified world citizen, I’ll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began.
I am not interested in studying English. Maybe because I haven’t made any progresses in it . In fact I was very interested in it at the first stage of English study. I remember I was deeply involved in the role playing game in English class. But as time passes by the passion faded away from me and I was even afraid of those games. Firstly I can not be fully prepared. Secondly I thought it was not real, and it was just a game, not the real life. I wondered whether those conversations in the games or in the books would happen in the everyday life. Now I know whatever I say in English would improve my spoken English. “Chinglish is good. “It was my first time I heard that and it makes me happy. I have experienced the most embarrassed moment speaking in English and I don’t think there will be any more embarrassed moments, so I think I can make it too.
“You should study English well.” “English is important.”Since I began to learn English, my English teachers always told us like that. Last Monday, I met a so different English teacher. He comes from western; he looks like the Charismas Father .He seems like have the secret of how to learn English well. “Don’t want to master English, nobody can master English. The scholars have lying to you. Chinglish is OK. English is money.” Oh, it’s so different! He doesn’t ask us to study hard. I find he is a interesting grandfather. He has so many wisdom and experiences. Therefore, this semester, I will speak English more because I want to learn more from this different teacher. English is the tool to communicate with others. I think from now on, English will not give me so much press as before. Moreover, I will choose more chances to learn English.
English comes into my life when I was a primary school student. I like learning it at first.Since my teacher was the local person with thick dialect,all my classmates were weak in speaking.So we felt very shy to espress oursevels in English. But one day when I met a woman from Canada, I have changed my point about Engllish. She wanted me to attend to her son for a while. Although Italked to him without the standard English, he could understand me. So I found the confidence again. As a post-graduate student I know that English is impotant for me to get a good job and live a better life. So I will put my heart into the course. I hope Ican know more friends from this lesson,enjoying myself from this game of good job!
When began learning English in junior high school period,I knew I must learn it well for myself.I was interested in English and wanted to master it .Thanks to my English teachers ,I kept my interest until I went to high school.Unfortunately from studied in high school to graduated from the university ,I learnt English harder and harder only for examines.It was such a boring process! I must keep all my patience to remember the words again and again,but I forgot them the day after a night.Although I still told myself I must learn English well for my good future,I had lost my interest , patience and confidence.
After many years’ study,I can read,write and listen to English ,but sadly I cannot speak in English clearly and fluently.Be afraid of losing my face for my pronunciation,my poor opinion,my ambiguity,when I open mouth to speak English I feel much nervous that I could not say anything more.
I want and need to have a change for my English learning because I know that English is increasingly important in the job market.I think I has been changing something since I have the oral English course Professor Martin Wolff gives us.Comfortable full-English speaking environment, the idea of learning English without hard work and so on are not appeared in my English learning experience.What a fresh feeling!I like this course and will do my best to make my English better under the Professor’s instructions.
EDITOR’S NOTE: ARE YOU AN UNREACHABLE AND UNTEACHABLE STUDENT? EXACTLY WHICH CLASSICS CONTAIN STANDARD ENGLISH? SHAKESPEARE? YOU REALLY NEED TO OPEN YOUR EARS TO HEAR. THERE IS NO STANDARD ENGLISH. IF YOU WALK AROUND SPEAKING ENGLISH FROM ANY OF THE CLASSICS, NO ONE IS GOING TO UNDERSTAND YOU. ENGLISH IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING.
AND YOU ARE DETERMINED TO “MASTER” ORAL ENGLISH? EITHER YOU DID NOT ATTEND THE ORIENTATION LECTURE, OR YOU SLEPT THROUGH IT, OR YOU ARE SO ARROGANT YOU DO NOT EVEN NEED TO ATTEND MY CLASS EVER AGAIN. I HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR YOUR TYPE.
YOU ALSO FAILED TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS SO I AM GOING TO EDIT YOUR POST IN THE HOPE THAT YOU WILL DROP YOUR ARROGANCE AND START LEARNING.
Frankly I only mind learning standard English, which is almost opposed to Mr Wolf’s viewpoint. That is just because I intend to be devoted to scholorship scholarship of classics and to take it as my way of life. To me standard English means great authors’ writings including works in various spheres. Ture True civilization is written, not spoken. It is to say that the essential vitality and dignity of such major languages as english English consist in their great literatures literature in the wide sense of this term. It is possible that I cannot soon master orally communicating in english English before I concentrate on spicific training about this, but it does not matter since such a training is relatively easy and I will never be unhappy if I do not understand every word of native speakers of english English.
YOU WERE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO WITHDRAW OR CORRECT THIS POST BUT YOUR ONLY REPLY WAS A DENIAL THAT YOU ARE ARROGANT. YOU ALSO CRITICIZED ME FOR SHOWING YOUR MISTAKES TO YOUR CLASSMATES. NOW THEY ARE KNOWN TO THE WORLD.
We have learned English for fourteen years, in retrospect, actually. And my interest in English was inspired by the first English summer camp in 1997. I love English, but what is odd is that my English level cannot match with my affection for English, even though I read China Daily, browsing putclub website, watching American movies, taking kinds of English tests and such like that. My English skills just like come to a bottle-neck with the fadeaway of my affection.
However, I finally realized the reasons. First, I did all the things above occasionally, which means I didn’t have perseverance in doing all the stuff. Second, I didn’t create my own English speaking environment as you said. Therefore, this semester, I am so glad to have this holistic English class, speaking English in class as well as outside. I am looking forward to communicating with all you guys in this language and anticipating progress.
During the several years, my English is often about up to the average. Therefore, though graduating from university, my English still be poor. However, English is not only a tool, but also an important skill. Without it, I cannot move a single step in the fully competitive society. In such circumstance, I have to try my best to improve my English. But I don’t know what I should do.
Fortunately, I have English class in this semester. At the beginning of the class, I am very worry about if I am able to take part in the activity. Our teacher tells us that we can even speak chinglish in his class, which takes a load off my mind. Then he gives the method for study English to us. We should create our own personal English speaking environment. For example, changing your computer homepage to an English search engine, watching English movies, attending English corner and so on. We should capitalize on every chance we get to improver our English, even in our dreams.
Martin said English is money, I think I really agree to it. Almost the highest paid jobs in China ask for good English, especially good oral English. I will be a job searcher very soon, maybe no more than half a year, I really want a job satisfy myself and make my parents happy. My pronunciation is not so bad, however I speak it influently beacause of lacking of practice. I made my decision after your speech, I decided to do more practice, to eat, to drink, to sleep, even to dream English to earn more Money. And I believe I will make it!
At the beginning of touching English, I was told to study hard to master it. So I just take it as a course instead of a language. I read test books only and I found that my English was poor gradually until I met my deskmate whose English was excellent. I found she was interested in English. That she had passion in reading and listening really influenced me. Then I changed my attitude and tried to like it.
I am a student in Philosophy department, English is very important for us to catch on foreign events and thinking. And the most important is that we have to communicate with foreigners.In my remember,a professor came from LMU in Los Angeles,and my guider ask me to lead him visiting Guangzhou,but I found my oral english was so poor, He is very hard to understand what I was saying.Sometimes I have to use bodylanguage to express what I wanna to say.After that,I told myself I have to learn oral English well. so I am harmly welcome the english class in this semester,and I hope I will improve my English.
My interest in English has been triggered when I was a little girl, because at that time My mom asked me to read New Concept English, which is quite an interesting and easy book for readers to gain access to English. But I guess English itself is different from English Classes, especially those hold in Chinese high schools and universities, which are usually terrible and difficult for us to learn how to use English in a proper way. Yet honest speaking, I’ve met several terrific teachers in the past, who were really good at inspiring students.
Thus I’m loving it. In addition, every language is a tool, and it is also a key to the culture that language belongs to. Either does English. Now since My major is Western Philosophy, I muss read a lot of English articles every day. In fact, if I’m not good at English, I cannot catch what those Britain or American philosophers are talking about, and I even want to exchange my thoughts with theirs. Thus I need to and wish to learn English well.
My story of learning English always makes me regret. I remember when I first started to learn English; it’s just so attractive to me. I always eagerly wanted to learn something new. I read the text loud everyday in the morning. I put up my hand each time the teacher raised a question. I felt proud that I spoke English better than other students. But as I grew up, it seems like English has lost its magic to me no matter how many people told me how important it is. I began to treat learning English as a mission. Because of that, even though I wanted to improve my English, I became quiet at the English class and spent much less at learning English.
Before the English class this semester, English was getting far away from my life. Now it comes back in a new way. I really hope that I can get back my passion of learning English and really have fun with it through the class.
FAILURE TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS
It has been more than ten years since I started learn English .But I frankly don’t like English.The reason why I don’like English is not English is useless to me,on the contrary,I know English is very important to my future.The problem is I’m lack of patient in language learning.So if I want to improve my English,I must be more patient and brave.It means a challenge to me.I will try my best in this term.
CORRECTED IN WORD: It has been more than ten years since I started learning English. But I frankly don’t like English. The reason why I don’ like English is not English is useless to me, on the contrary, I know English is very important to my future. The problem is I’m lack of patient in language learning. So if I want to improve my English, I must be more patient and brave. It means a challenge to me. I will try my best in this term.
Firstly I apologize for responding it so late. Since I left school this weekend on business, I haven’t seen the E-mails in time.
I have been studying English since I was in primary school. Almost in all the important examinations and interviews, I am required to show my English level. So instead of loving English studying, I have more complicated feelings about English. Sometimes I feel I am pushed by the world to study all these things, but I have no other choice. No doubt I am clearly aware that I need to improve my English level all the time if I expect a more promising career while at the same time I am a little frustrated by some former studying experiences. However, Mr. Wolff showed us a brand new way to improve English which just makes me want to have a try. Although it looks a little “harsh”, it may be an effective way. After all, appropriate pressure should give us more motivation to urge ourselves on to study harder. As long as progress could be made, I am with full willingness to finish all the assignment and participate in the lessons and activities.
In fact, I have always been part of that people who relatively lack abilities to learn a foreign language.
So I once was also natural and joined the school in English useless theory groups. Looking back on those years when I have some experiences, I always think Not Do the Job well is a pity. Because it’s important to keep up with the times on study.
Language is an extremely useful tool, more and better mastery of it means that we can read points more ,stand higher and look farther.No matter what race, what kind of job are helpful. Negative view is undoubtedly harmful to an undesirable. Therefore, I can not agree with this idea, and I need to take concrete actions to continually improve myself.
For me, learning English is to just hope that I can understand more plainly to be a modern man enough.
As a proverb goes, interest is the best teacher. Fortunately，I have a nice abecedarian who focused on cultivating our interests in English. She tried everything to make English class as funny as possible, such as playing games, learning songs. Consequently, we all loved English and could study English self-consciously. I’m a American soap opera fan, not only because the dramatic plot is so attractive, but also because all the actors could teach me English in a special way. For me, English is a kind of instruments to help me communicate with others and I enjoy any of my improvements in English. It is not good enough, yet I am improving. I am sure it would be getting better.
As for my English learning story ,I would like to talk about my experience in AISSEC wuhan, which is a organization helping people to find a appropriate internship abroad. During my AISSEC days , I was aware of lots of amazing friends and come up with many creative ideas about self-improvement. I recognize the importance of English as a tool for communication, with which you can broaden and deepen the perspective toward the whole world. To me ,English is a beautiful language that we can benefit a lot from it.
Just like most of my peer, I am not interested in studying English at all. I think I was forced to learn English by my parents and teachers, because they wanted me to entrance a famous university after the college entrance examination. So I learned English by a pen with which I marked the right answer from the ABCD. It means all I need is a high mark but use English as a tool. Of course, this way to learn English has nothing to do with interesting. I think it is also why most of us hate to learn English.
I’ve been learning English for more than ten years, but I don’t think my English is better than a native speaker of ten years old. Let me tell you my story of English learning.
I was born and brought up in Hunan province before I moved to Guangzhou with my parents in 2001. You know that English education in inland China was much worse than Guangzhou. (I guess that this situation has not changed nowadays.) Therefore, I had to practice English harder than my high school classmates of Guangzhou in order to catch up with them. I sought every bookstore for English training manuals, and I found Li Yang Crazy English. I practiced LYCE for three months and it did help! Unfortunately, however, I realized that it only helped me to improve my pronunciation.
Now I know that pronunciation is the least important part of language acquisition. (I am not saying that it is totally unimportant.) My Chinese friends always envy my American accent. They say, ‘What a beautiful accent! Your English must be very good’, but only I myself know how poor my English is.
Then I tried new oriental school. I was excited by the teachers in it, but I got little. I felt that I was fooled and that my money was stolen. Now I realize that nobody is able to help me except myself. I cannot wait until die. It is my laziness that is lying in the way of my English acquisition. I have to make my own choice. You are absolutely right, Mr. Wolff. The most important thing is what we do outside class, not in class. If there is no English environment, we create it ourselves.
I have been learning English for ten years, from Junior high school to University. Frankly, I must admit that my English speaking and writing is still very poor. At school, I only learned how to make choice. I do very anxiety. I know that the English is more and more important in the society. I am determined to follow your teaching methods to learn English Speaking, and create an environment for learning English by myself. I believe that I will improve my English speaking in your class. I’ll try my best.
I understand your attitude and I have met many classmates in primary school, high school as well as college with the same attitude and performance as you. However, in spite of respecting your opinion and choice, I must say that my attitude is quite different from yours.
First of all, I think that English is academic career. My major is logic, a discipline completely originating in western culture and which Chinese have known for merely about a hundred years. I don’t think that Chinese researchers have seized the essence of this discipline and kept pace with western scholars. Therefore, in order to do research in this field, good English is indispensable, although English used in logic is simpler than that in literature. For example, according to my observation, classical textbooks in this discipline are all in English, and textbooks written by Chinese researchers are often not as good as those written by western scholars. Nowadays, I have been used to using English textbooks and I will read more English books in future. In addition, I hope to study abroad and, when applying, a high mark in English test, such as TOFEL and IELTS, is required. As a result, English is one of the keys for me to study abroad.
In my opinion, English is money. As mentioned above, I’m going to take an English test. If I pay more than a thousand RMB and just get a so-so mark which would not help me to be admitted by universities abroad, then the money is wasted. I don’t know whether English is money as salary, but it is without doubt money as the fee of English test.
Thinking in a less pragmatic direction, I would say that for Chinese people English is a road to a new world. Every old language is accompanied with a wonderful culture and English is a language in which a large number of great works are written. It’s improbable for every English book to have a Chinese translation and, even if this is realized, the translation is inevitable to leave something subtle of the original book, according to numerous researches in linguistics. As a result, being unable to use English means losing the key to the wonderful English world and this is certainly a pity in one’s life. I have made great effort to read a few English books and I enjoy them very much.
In closing, I need and hope to improve my English, and I’m glad that I have courses on English this semester which may be helpful.
Mr. Wolff, I am sorry for commenting you article so late. Because I am not used to scan my e-mail.
Mr. Wolff, I agree with your opinion. Certainly, most of Chinese students study English because their teacher and their parents require them to do it. They do not know why they must study English, how to study English, and what learn from English, so they can not find happy from English. In some part I similar with them, in some part, I do not similar with them. In the first , my teacher asked me to learn English ,but as the time passed, I interested in English ,I wanted to learn more English knowledge, I wanted to use the English to learn more my major knowledge. Through I have learned English hard, my English is still not very well. My English knowledge is not very balanced, I can read English book easily, but my oral English and written English is poor. To improve my English, in you’re your class, I will do everything you want me to do, and try my best to finish all the assignment.
I really know the importance of English, and I also want to improve my English. English is my weakness from junior middle school period; and I have spent so much time in reciting words and doing reading comprehension without a distinct improvement. Maybe the God gives me little gift of language. It’s already a hard work for me to learning Chinese. In my college time, I began to spend little time to studying English, because I think there were a lot of things important to do and I needn’t waste time to studying English without effect. Four years later, my English still so poor. To have English lecture in postgraduate period is a good thing for me. I can learn English with many classmates, and maybe I will have a better circumstance for English studying.
When talking about my English learning, I have much strong feelings. I hated to learn English in my middle school stage, because I didn’t like my English teacher who was not a good teacher and never cared about my English learning. I didn’t learn my English well. I didn’t admitted by my ideal college as my English examination failed in my college entrance examination. Then, I realized learning English well is important and necessary for us.
I am agree with that professor says:English is momey! English is momey! No doubt , English is playing an more and more important part in our daily life. In order to have more opportunities to futher study ,I think that it’s necessarily to learn English hard and hard.
As everyone knows that English is one of the most popular languages in the international community.With the accelerated development of the foreign ecomomic and cultural exchanges,it is getting more and more necessary to learn English well.
As the saying goes , a thousand miles journey starts with the step by step, roma is not build in a day .We learn a lot of words and grammar, but the oral is poor.There is no chance for us to speak English and I also dare not speak English loudly in public.In my opinion, only should we insist on taking more exercises day by day can we improve our sense of language ,communicating with our partners and speaking English loudly and bravely without caring about others’ view in order to creat a relaxed English learning environment.
My major is Chinese Philosophy. During studying this major, I didn’t expose English often, what I exposed frequently was ancient Chinese. But I believe that studying English is very important for me. Firstly, the university and the entrance examination for PhD gives some requirements for the English level, and only one who has done well in English study can be graduated and pass the examination smoothly. Secondly, though in now stage, I seldom need to use English through my major studying, but if I want to get a deeper insight, I couldn’t ignore foreigners’ research of which most written in English. Thirdly, Chinese philosophy research often concerns the comparison between western philosophy and Chinese philosophy, and if I want to know western philosophy well, I should master English at least. Fourthly, if I hope my research can have an effect to foreign country in the fortune, I’d better learn English writing and speaking. In this respect, famous scholar Mr. Fung Yu-lan(冯友兰) is an example to all of us. His book A Short History of Chinese Philosophy is one of the most influential books on Chinese culture written in English until now.
Actually I am always interested in English and I could get high scores in examinations. However, I never think my English is good because of my poor spoken English. Once I was convinced that there were shortcuts to improve English without a lot of practice. I went to new oriental school and spent much money buying books. But it turned out to be useless. Finally it comes to me that English is not a rigid science to master but a practical tool for communication. My spoken English is poor because I seldom use it outside class. Now I go to putclub everyday and I enjoy watching American soap opera. I can see the progress and it really makes me happy.
Once I was told you have another brain when you start learning a different language. Indeed. I love English.
To be frankly, Martin impressed me a lot. I’ve never seen a foreign teacher so devoted to change our BAD habit of learning English. I never went to any English corners or salons before as I didn’t want to be a part of those “Chinglish guys”. What’s the point of speaking Chinglish? But it seems I was wrong.
In the past I often thought about the question that how could we speak fluent English without going to the English speaking countries as I know the importance of the language environment. But now you gave me the answer.
No environment, just CREATE it. I will.
I’m not that anxious about the English education in the high schools in China. It mainly arrives by two reasons. Reason number 1 is that, in my perspective, the general environment of English studying is not as awful as some body believe. There is thousands of English material in the library such as English magazines, novels as well as monographs, and there is no lack of English movie resources in the internet, which supplies all kinds of movies together with English subtitles. All of these will benefit and promote the individual English study. The second reason is that, since every student in the college is considered as adult, then he should have the responsibility to make his choices reasonable. For those who plan to devote their lives to the academic research, they will definitely inquire English as diligently as possible, and for those who account English as a tool for or passage to career, they may also spend time on it, and for those who believe that English does nothing with their future, they should develop other aspects of their personal capacity. I believe that some of the population in a country where English is a foreign language is not so good at English, some of it is not bad at it, and some of it is quite professional at it. It bases on the relevance. China is also of the same situation, which I consider pretty normal. Once we have made English not as urgency as that we face nowadays, and when we treat English as a cultural bridge rather than an object of worship, then development of English in china should have caught its right trajectory.
Before I always had practiced Spoken English,because it is exactly useful.During college my classmates often talked to me in English.we definitely felt that learning English is so interesting for us.So after dinner my classmates always make communications our opinion/ideas each other.each of us can felt that happy from this activity.
But from then on (the beginging of last semester).I seldom practiced English.I always was busy with my homework.
In this semester,I’m so lucky that we have Spoken English.So I will take this opportunity to improve my Spoken English as much as possible.As you say,with excellent spoken English we can find a good job.THS
I have learned English for more than twelve years which includes a number of English classes and exams.I don’t like it,yet I don’t hate it.I just want to make it better.
We all know that in China English is an important skill in job market,so we have no excuse not to study English hard,unless we don’t need a job.Even we have got a job,we can have many chances to get a better one if our English is good enough.
Sometimes I feel tired and want to have a rest. But others will not wait for me.So when I heard that there is an English class in postgraduate period I think it is necessary.My English is not good enough,and I try to make it better in a correct way.I think about that and have an opinion as followed:
It seems like that English is a tool to get a better job and better salary.But if we think English is only a tool,we will fail.
English can not be mastered,because it is a kind of language which carries the meaning of words by itself like other kinds of language.In fact English is similar to an environment or an atmosphere,not a skill or a tool.If we want to make it better,we must have a good environment,watching films and listening to songs are both good methods. Morever,talking to each other in English and consider daily problems in English will help us.Maybe we will even dream in English as Martin said.