美国同学讲如何学英语

爱无言

再过几个月要实习，我想学习一些slang，还有毒品药物的俗语之类的，提高下听力，于是给同学们发了一封求助信，让他们帮我推荐点电影电视剧什么的练练听力，积累些词汇。一个男同学回复给我一封长长的email。看的我哭笑不得！实在感激人家好心热情，写了这么长一篇如何学习外语的总结给我，可是看了这个真有点觉得美国人真是可爱的要死，对中国人学习英语的状况真是一点也不了解，竟然让我去看语法书......不过有一些还是很好的建议的，比如看美国人说英语时的嘴巴，大脑就会自动去学习。关于大脑用英语思维的过程，他说的也很好，还真是让我印象更加深刻的。"只要想自己要表达的意思，而不是去想英语，自动的大脑就会把英语流出来！"和大家分享。

Dear X,

I think it's great that you want to improve your English! If I may, I have a few suggestions. I spent a couple years in a different country, as have all of my friends, many of whom had to learn Mandarin or Cantonese. We all learned a few principles that apply across all languages to learn another.

The most important, and the most difficult, is to speak English ALWAYS. For me this was the hardest part while learning another language. Everyone loves their native language, and that's great. But in order to more quickly and effectively learn a new one, you must give up the old, and immerse yourself in the new. This would mean to even speak English at all times while at home with family. Switch any email or other internet services, music, movies, and other media to English. I understand that you will need to speak your native language while talking to family back home in China that may not know English, but at all other times, speak only English. For me, that meant if I didn't know how to say something, I had to go without it. It's a fast way to learn what you still don't know.

Once a day study grammar. If you don't have grammatical books, get one. And spend at least 30 minutes a day practicing concepts you already know, or learning new ones.

Watch and read the news daily in English.

Read the news out loud. Or any book. Spend at least thirty minutes a day reading out loud. It's not necessarily important that you understand it all, focus on pronunciation.

Don't settle for being understood. Have a goal to sound American. This will force you to mimic accents like a comedian does impressions. This will make it easier for others to understand, and for your mouth to learn the unfamiliar movements.

Don't translate English in your head. All words communicate ideas. If you think in ideas, and not a language, your mind will automatically understand what is said and you need not translate your thoughts into English to speak. If this is too hard right now, or you don't understand, do the next best thing. Think in English.

Watch people's mouths when they speak, this will teach your brain how to move your mouth accordingly.

If you do this, I promise you come April you will be able to speak without searching for words, or struggle to understand when people speak. I know how hard this is and will be, I did it, my family did it, and all of my friends have. The ones that did this learned everything from Spanish and Portuguese, to Russian and Swahili. Stick with it, don't get discouraged, you'll do great!

Let me know if there's anything else I can do!

Best of luck,

TM

PS I don't know what your standards are for TV and movies. Most shows with drugs and violence aren't appropriate for kids. If you can give me some idea as to what is not okay for you, I know a lot of shows I can recommend.

伏地的小草儿

伏地的小草儿

感谢盛情的美国人！

BigPucca

好可爱的同事啊～

伏地的小草儿

哪位来一篇外国人如何学汉语吧！

幽幽草

多说点，再说说孩子的，老说咱中国孩子学英语有问题，你觉得问题大么，在哪儿？我这可是把您当成专家啊！

幽幽草

我觉得写的很好啊，怎么对中国人不实用了。

I spent a couple years in a different country, 这个太奢侈了

The most important, and the most difficult, is to speak English ALWAYS.感觉很熟悉，好像很多书里都这么说

Watch and read the news daily in English.我认识一个40岁的官员，就这么做。

Read the news out loud. Or any book孩子语文就这么学的

Don't translate English in your head. 哇，现在最流行的思维英语理念

伏地的小草儿

汉斯：
     你好！
     收到你的来信，我很高兴！你信中说学汉语好难。是的，汉语是有点难。但是，以汉语为基础的中国文化非常精彩，我特别希望你能领略汉语的美，中国文化的美，而不单单是为了工作需要而学习汉语。我觉得学语言还是要精读+泛读。精读的，一定要背得烂熟。泛读的，要读得有趣味，要读得多。我建议你看金庸小说，一方面你学了汉语，另一方面也学了中国文化。他的小说中关于中国古典文化有很好的涉及，浅入深出，小心被迷上哦。另外，很多人通过看电影、电视剧学习语言。这个也很好呢。不过中国好的电影很少。我看的电影也少。我更推荐看电视剧，因为电视剧更吸引人嘛。我建议从金庸小说拍的电视剧看。另外，我最喜欢看的是六小龄童版《西游记》、陈晓旭版《红楼梦》，这两部我是看不厌的。等你有一定古文基础了，还可以看《三国演义》。
     我不建议你像小学生一样去看绘本学汉语。
     最后，希望你能爱上中国文化、享受中国文化。

小草
2012年10月18日

牛妈妈

哈哈， 让我觉得可爱的是最后那个PS。老外就是这么滴实诚

悦己7

感觉一般PS 下面的文字
是极为重要的

爱无言

呵呵，这个同学又写了个mail,才知道他竟然是摩门教徒！在秘鲁传教了两年，他姐姐在香港传教1年半，他们都是短时间学会当地的语言的！

爱无言

他推荐的剧集：

Comedy

The Office

Parks and Recreation

3rd Rock from the Sun (This is about aliens who come to live in Ohio, this might be good because they have to learn not just human behavior but local culture as well)

Modern Family




Crime Shows

Castle

Bones (this has a lot of scientific terms, but the main character isn't good with people so other characters have to teach her how to act, might be helpful because of that.)

The Finder

敏锐

翻译一下呗

mumlule

zhengfende