LEARN TO SWIM
Throw a baby in the water. Watch them struggle to get to the surface. Watch them struggle to stay on the surface. Watch them figure out how to stay on the surface without struggling. No baby drowns. That is how we teach a baby to swim in the west.
You have been thrown into the immersion water of English. You may be scared, you may be struggling. BUT, you will figure it out and survive.
In 8 years no one has drowned in the Holistic English pool.
Do not use machine translations. They are not even as good as your Chinglish.
The same way to teach a baby to swim is considered in my homeland Guizhou province but only in countryside. I saw that before. Farmers just take their kids to a pool, unclothe them, and throw them into the water. Kids were crying and struggling which scared me, but it is amazing that they succeed to learn to swim soon. It is like that we human beings are born to swim. And I guess it’s true we human beings are also born to speak whatever language.
The story links baby swimming and English learning vividly. Through practice of two weeks holistic English study, I found it’s a very effective way, like the professor said “steel sharpens steel”. Create an English environment in Chinese campus is a fresh air for all of us. Although a little nervous about the strict teacher and holistic course and have a suspect attitude if the English atmosphere by sedulously at the beginning. When I switched my mobile phone and QQ to English and read some English articles everyday, I discover surprise change for myself. I hope I can make a great progress in the Holistic English pool.
Just like a baby learn to swim , We learn English as second langue , we must struggle to get to the surface of English and stay on the surface , finally , we can swim comfortable , It means we can use English smoothly . Obviously , This is a difficult process , most of us have to effort for it . Shamefully speaking , we have learned English for almost ten years , but The results of study is very unsatisfactory . This phenomenon is understandable , English learners have no more chance to practise theirs English at the countrys English as L2 . In this case , therefore , we’d better make opportunities to impover English by ourselves . That is why we should trdasure the chance we have the English classes in this semester . In this semester , we can learn English form foreign teacher , we can talk with him directly , It is a helpful manner for impovering our English .
This is a very apposite comparison.
Madam Curie, a great scientist, who was admired by many young people. She tell us that life is not easy for any of us. We must work hard, and above all we must believe in ourselves. We must believe that each of us is able to do something well, and that, when we discover what this something is, we must work hard at it until we succeed.
If we try our best to create English environment and study English actively, the more we learn, the more knowledge we get. We will make progress everyday.
At first, I have to say that the professor’s article is very concise and vivid. Learning to swim is very similar to learning English. For non-English students, when they exposure to English for the first time, they may be scared. There is a well-known saying, “everything is hard in the beginning”. When we have been thrown into the immersion water of English, we should find a way to break through the barrier instead of escaping it. “Well begun is half done”, as long as we are not afraid of English, we will put it in control in future. Just believe yourself!
We learn English as a second langue just like a baby learn to swim , we have to struggle to get the surface of English and stay on the surface , finally , we can swim comfortable , It means we can use English smoothly . Obviously , This is a difficult process , most of us have to effort for it . We have almost learning English ten years, but I still very difficult to communicate with others in English, this phenomenon is very widespread, but in fact this is understandable, because in China we lack of the environment to use English except the English class.In this semester, we can learn English from foreign teacher .I think it’s a helpful manner for improving our English .
I don’t know how to swim in a real pool. I must be frightened if someone throws me into the water without giving me a life buoy or life vest. Anyway, I hope I can survive in the “Holistic English Pool”.
EDITOR’S NOTE: WHY IS IT HARDER FOR AN ADULT TO LEARN TO SWIM OR LEARN A SECOND LANGAUGE?
BABIES DO NOT KNOW HOW TO MAKE EXCUSES.
Does a baby really know how to swim? I must say I seriously doubt that. A baby who stays on the surface without struggling does not mean that he can swim. Technically, babys do not fall into water because their density is smaller than water. So when they are threw to water the only thing for them to do is to make some moves instinctively. However, learning a second language is not an instinctive thing to manage. In my opinion, learning the mother language is pretty much the same as a baby who learn to swim, on the contrast, learning english for us is same like adults trying to swim.
I hope I can learn how to swim in the Holistic English Pool after this term.Though scared,I am struggling !
At the mention of swim, I think of a summer holiday,I went to learn swim with my BF, it was night,and the light is bule.I thought of scenes horrible films,the pool seemed like that.So I overlie the water,and my hair was long, and floating in the water, and I pretended to turn up the whites of my eyes, my BF was frighten,and screamed like a crying babygirl.
I think if i was through into an english pool, I will cry more mournfully than my BF.
I think the metaphor in this article is exact. Just thinking about the assignments we have to do everyday and the professor’s strict desires, I have to admit that we have really been thrown into the immersion of English. Although I knew there were many difficulties to overcome if I want to improve my English, I have never thought that learning English is not only to challenge our language talent but also our courage and persistence. As the saying goes” thrive under pressure.” Maybe it is a good way to inspire our fighting will to make our English better. Only try our best to struggle can we figure it out and survive.
Baby’s learning to swim is quite a good analogous example to learning english.Why a baby who do not any thing can not be drown in the water?I think it attributes to his instinct to survive and his subconscious strugle help him to conquer the fear in his heart and stay at the surface of the water.I think it ia similar to learn english.If we are thrown into the immersion water of English instead of chinese environment,the only thing we can do is to open our mouth,make more communications with other people.Maybe we can make many mistakes,but as the saying said “the failure is the mother of the success”,we can become much more smarter and don’t be afriad of speaking english,then it may be easier to learn english.In a word,baby’s learning to swim is a good apocalypse to me.
I think this comparison is very vivid and visual.I cannot agree with it any more. Language learning is not like any other learnings.The best way to learn English is put he into a surroundings where he must use English to have a life.So in some way, Drang is a good thing.Now we are in China,where everybody use Chinese,if we want to learn English good,we must cooperate with professor.I will happy to accept.Then mabe i maybe to a degree that i may use English in dreams!
I’ve heard this saying before, not from the west, but from China. It sounds reasonable. When a baby is put into the water, his life was threatened and in danger. The instinct to survive will make him struggle and find out the way to stay on the surface. The parents just watch him, give him encouragement but not help, unless he’s in real danger in the process. It may work in theory. For the English learning, the same method may work as well, in my opinion. The key factors are the environment, the mandatory requirements (or the self need) and the experienced coach. I hope I can learn to swim in the Holistic English pool. This kind of opportunity will be less in future.
It is such a vivid metaphor that connects baby’s swimming learning to the English learning. Everyone has the instinct to survive, no matter it’s an infant or an adult. It makes me recall the actor Victor in the film The Terminal who only knows a few English words when he just arrived at the US airport. But in order to survive, he had to learn to listen, read and speak in English. Eventually he grasped this L2 very well. We don’t live in the environment like his, but we have a class which allows English only and much strange but intereting homework that we never had or even heard before. It is actually a precious opportunity for us to learn English as well as to learn to survive in the society. Just CHERISH it!
In fact,the things in china are sometime different.And I am the very example.When I was a child,my grandmother loved me very much.She taked care of me very well.She was afraid that I would drown when I was learning swimming.So she asked me not to go to the river.Unfortunatly,I am still a landlubber.
When it refers to English-learning,I am afraid that things is also different.Our former English teacher were talking on the teacher’s desk,and we students were taking the notes below the teacher’s desk.Prof.Wolff gives me an impression that we should drop the former method of English and set up a new way to learn English.He wants to break up the four lies which have been last for many years.Steel shapens steel,we can improve our English with the people whose English are also poor.Maybe you will find it unbelievable when you first see it.But we really practice it everyday in the class or out of class.
You will never forget it if you have experienced it.
When I was young, I heard that the swimming coach kicked his students into the swimming pool who learned to swim at the first time. I was so scared about the event and dared to have such courses. I was unable to swim until my graduation from elementary school. But luckily, my grandparents provided me a good place to practice my swimming skill and I finally master the skill.
However, not everyone can get such a nice chance to swim for a long time, so it is very quick for them to master the swimming skill through the press of the survival. In the film “the terminal”, Mr. Viktor was pushed into an English pool where everyone spoke English, and he could only survive in this circumstance by learning how to speak English. With his hard-studying, he succeeded in the end of the film. So I think it may be an effective way for us to be threw in a swimming pool in order to learn how to swim, and it may be an effective way for us to be forced to speak English only in order to learn spoken English well.
I don’t know how to swim in the real life. I do know now I may be in Holistic English pool. I hope my struggling could help me survive in the pool.
My father ever told me that he learned to swim simply after he jumped into the river. At that time, he even didn’t have the idea of learning swimming. Because a group of children play together, when you see your friend swimming joyfully, you can swim naturally.
However, it is really shame for me that I never learn to swim successfully. In the end, I give up. I know the problem is not anything but me. I don’t have courage to fail, still fear to the water. I will not make the error for the second time when I learning English.
This is a thought-provoking analogy. After watching the movie The Terminal, I have a deeper understanding of this analogy. I fully realize that a very effective method of improving my English skills is immersing me in an English speaking environment. I’m confident that I will be able to swim in the Holistic English pool in the near future.
EDITOR’S NOTE: THE BABY WAS BORN WITH NO LANGUAGE. THE BABY’S MIND IS BLANK, LIKE A CLEAN BLACKBOARD. THE BABY HAS NO LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE OR SWIMMING KNOWLEDGE. BOTH THE ABILITY TO SWIM AND COMMUNICATION ARE ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH.
The baby have learned to swim when he was born. we are not born to learn English. But this example still make sense. As far as now I know most of the Chinese students learn so much knowledge that they may not use with for their hole life. It is weird that there are still so many students learn these knowledge well. Why? Because they have to, there are no other choice. They must struggle ,just like the baby. I think the most important thing is have the courage to fight against the water.steel sharpen steel.
In my opinion,it’s a good example.Learning English is just like learning swimming.If we have nothing to depend,we must struggle to swim for survice.If we have a dictionary to rely on,we may not use our mind.Only do we use our knowledge frequently,we can develop our English speaking and reading. I hope I can learn to swim in the Holistic English pool.
This articl tells us that we do anything be valuable for us without any scare.As the sages would say,who dare win!that is to say,if we can do that in time,we will have the oppotunity to got the victory.
I very agree with this point. I do learn to swim just in this way, so I do believe it is also a good method to learn language. Speaking english more, reading english more, and writing english more, our english must be learned much better.
Like a baby learning to swim to learn English, I believe we will learn better.
For times I wish I could swim so that I could enjoy my every summer in the cool water. So I attended a swimming class in the summer of 2005. However, every time I stood in the water my mind got blank and I could not do anything but quaking with fear. I got so nervous that I dare not move a step without a life ring. Anyway, my wish to enjoy the cool water has come true, because during the whole summer I could go swimming every day, with my life ring. After 5 years I am still a non-swimmer. All I can do is just to make a few strokes with my arms in the shoal area.
It is the same with learning English. We depend too much on the on the learning tool and, as we are not forced to use English in our daily life, we are too short of propulsion. I bet most English-learner have not thought about the way they learn English seriously before attending the Holistic English Course. This article reminds me of Viktor, the leading role in THE TERMINAL. Viktor had to survive at the airport, where everyone around him was spoken English. He had no choice but to try his best to understand what others said and express his thought in English. As we see in the movie, he bought two books which introduce New York in dual language. By reading the books contrastively, he learnt the English expression. And then, he communicated with others in English and got experience. At last, he got success. And now, we are all thrown into the immersion water of English, just like Viktor. All we could do is trying our best to work hard and use English boldly.
After reading this story, I am reminded of a proverb,” NO pressure, No motivation”. If don’t throw the baby in the water, let them struggle alone, maybe they can’t swim so fast. So, it also proves that pressure, if used properly it can actually be a good thing.
One of the most important things for learning English may be to foster an Environment for learning English, which means all of what we see, hear, and say are “English” as much as possible. In other words, we must let ourselves immerse into the English “water” so that we can master it frequently.
I think this vivid story reminds of us that the importance of creating an environment for learning English, which will give you assurance, build your self-confidence. Now, I am trying to create this environment by myself. For example, each day, I pay a lot of attention not only on some words and sentences structure, but also the cultural background and the way of English thinking behind the language through watching some native films. In addition, use English as possible as I can, create a description on the surroundings in English. I believe I can do real good job by my persistence. “Steel sharpens steel”, isn’t it?
“Learn to swim”, well, after I read this article, I feel guilty. I have learned to swim for a long time, I still cannot swim. I never try to struggle to get to the surface. I always stand with the help of life buoy. From this, I think of my life and my study. Broadly speaking, I have not made a breakthrough since I entered the college. I always make an excuse for myself. In fact, I am just a coward and fear to challenge. However, if I continue to keep this state, there is not any place for my standing in the world. I should consider this problem seriously.
In my opinion, it is actually an effective method. If we want to learn some skills, we must take such an attitude. Usually parents spoils their children so much that they never loose their hands. They think they are doing good things to their children, but actually, the possible result is that children can’t swim at last.
Therefore, I want to learn English as throwing myself into the pool. I think only in that way I can learn English well.
Human being was born of instinct of laziness. Actually, we have tremendous potential ability if you indeed want to explore it. Thus, I think it’s very true that nothing is impossible as long as you take it into consider. Attitude is everything. However few people have the super self-control ability. We must be imposed pressure on, then in this situation, we are forced to do things we should do but we won’t do with pleasure at first. But after you experienced that, you will gain much more you unexpected. Besides that, habit needs to be fostered. Once you developed good habit, then difficulties become one necessary part of your life, not a tough problem any more.
As a Chinese student, I have learned English for 11 years, but when the teacher asks me to speak English in class, I feel nervous. Not because of afraid of speaking in public, but speaking English in public, sometimes I want to know why, but I don’t find the answer until I read this text ,it is because we never practice it after class, I just consider English as an object ,not a language. Whereas it indeed a language, I should speak it in my daily life, no matter how odd it will be. The ABC day is a good idea, even at first I feel uncomfortable, at last I get used to speak out and make a few mistakes. I get a lot of enlightens of learning English from Martin. He just like a coach put us in the water and let ourselves to feel the essence of English. It is a great ！
Every person is born with boundless potentials. However, it is the environment that to decide which potential should be excited and be formed into an ability. No one is born to be only capable to speak one language. Both Chinese and American are born to be able to speak different kinds of languages. That is why Chinese born American can speak Chinese very well and American born Chinese can speak English very well. Therefore, as long as you are in an English-speaking environment, your English-speaking potential will be inspired, just as that the baby’s potential of swimming is inspired by the water environment. The key to learn English well is to create a total English-speaking environment for you.
This method of learning swimming is very useful because the child have no other ways to do except that he struggles to survive by all means.
But when it comes to learning English of us nowadays in the campus,we lack the stress that we can not survive without learning English,so we do not try our best to emprove our English abilities,and the result is that most of the students still have low English levels,especially in oral English.
The article reminds me a famous saying that “if there is a will, there is a way”. We have enough ability to master the skill of swimming; the only obstacle is that we dare not to do that. The same as learning swimming, we Chinese students have adequate intelligence to master English, no matter the relative easiest reading or the so-called hardest speaking; the only obstacle also is that we dare not to do that. So for a swimming learner, if the only choice in front of him or her is “to die or to master the skill”, he or she will have to choose the later one, and then they make up their mind to do that, and then they will definitely success. The same situation will happen to the English learning. If he or she has make up his or her mind to master English, and they do as their will, they will finally success.
It is interesting to compare learning English with learning to swim. It is reasonable. When I was 7 years old, I tried my best to persuade myself to jump into a pool. At last, my father helped me to make the decision and threw me into water. I think that what keeps us from English is ourselves. We are not brave enough and worry too much. Nothing will turn us from our purpose if we insist on it. So make ourselves confident and jump into the pool of Holistic English!
In fact,I don’t kown how to swim in a real pool.And now I am learning to swim in Holistic English pool.I think one person will not drown if he try his best no matter in a real pool or Holistic English pool.So,I think I can survive in Holistic English pool.
Wow…that’s the first time I heard that how to teach a baby to swim. I don’t think the Chinese couple would like to teach their children like that, any way, they are babies. But study English is different. Maybe it’s better for us to thrown into the immersion water of English. For instance, when we are in a foreign country without translator, in order to make everything go well we must try our best to learn how to swim in the immersion water of English. Actually sometimes I don’t trust the translational machine. Yes, you are right. They are not even as good as our English.
If my coach hadn’t kicked me into the water the first day I learnt how to swim, I would have been a non-swimmer today. After struggled for a while, I found that it was not that horrible I had thought. It seems I am not so brave as the girl I was. I always hesitate before accepting something new or making a decision, which keeps me away from getting ahead. Maybe jumping into the Holistic English pool is a chance to find the old me.
No pressure,，no motivation！When one is thrown into a worse and strong pressure environment,he has to protect and survive himself.At last,he must be able to survive himself and he will be much stonger.Now I have drowned in the Holistic English pool,whatever difficulties in this pool,I believe I can survive!
I learned to swim when I was only 5 years old. There was no one teaching me. I just plunged in to the water and struggled not to be drowned. I could do it with my effort. My brother also learned to swim with me. But he took much more time to learn how to swim. Because he was afraid of going in to the deep water.
As we grow up, we become more and more cowardly. So when we learn things, we became more and more slowly.
I like this parable. Yes, only in the toughest situations, we can make great progress. I think the ABC day is a good example.
Swimming is always one of my dreams, as solicitous as I ever expected to ride the bike when I was a child. However, every time I jumped into the water, I dared not set free my hands but strained at the other people or the shore beacon. What a pity, I can’t swim even one meter now! I did appreciate and learn from this article.
I believed so. It make me remembered my swimming class when I was young. At that time, I was thin and my mother wanted me to be stronger though the swimming training. But the class is horrible for me because it was too exhausting and felt I had not enough strength to hold on. Every time on the way back home, I was feeling sick. But I kept training that summer, till the winter; finally I grasp it, and got confident from the class because I can conquer the difficulties first in my younger life.
It was the same with the English class, I think. I was a shy girl and always had nothing to say before strangers. Begin to say out your personal opinion is the first challenge to me in this term. And I did. I like the pool, and I really want to keep it in my later life.
This is the first time to hear such story.In China,it may need much more courage for parents to do so.And it is also the first time for me to know another way to learn english First,I need courage to put myself in a unfamiliar enviroment;second, I need resolution and will.So I think I will be a good swimmer.
In 8 years no one has drowned in the Holistic English pool.Ibelieve.Let the student have no tool to turn to,Only in this way the student must do everything by himself
Maybe it’s a good idea to learn swim!
It is vivid to compare learning English to leaning to swim.Sometimes struggling is the best way to learning because we have no choice but to compel ourselves to accomplish the work.
I want to say, how meaningful the metaphor is. We will survive, and live with a skill –English.
English to a beginner is what swimming to a baby, it’s my first time to find this metaphor.But thinking deeply,it’s surely reasonable.Years ago,I also scared ,struggling in the immersion water of English,now I figure it out and survive.