(3/7). The Surroundings - The Way to Learn English 創造環境 - 如

(III)      The Surroundings  - English Oral Presentation in 1 Semester  環境 - 3個月讓成都學生說流利英文

The following writings were collected from my speeches in 2012-13.

In the last few years, I have already adjusted these tips a lot to adapt different groups audience. But the things I’m gonna share today will be the very core part which I talked about every time, everywhere.

接下來這些文章將會是從過去2012-13幾場演講的整理。這幾年來我針對不同的對象、場合做了很多調整，今天分享的是最主要、沒有變動的部分。

How to learn English? Again. Simply speaking, well, just go to the UK or U.S.A.!

如何學好英文？再問一次。很簡單，去美國嘛！

However, this is absolutely not doable for everyone, no matter the time or the financial part. Moreover, if so, I will have no more reason to go around the planet talking over this issue all the time. In my opinion, we should consider that even if you are not going abroad, what can you do to reach the similar learning effect? This is our target issue!

As we know, going United States is the most helpful way to pick up English. (for the US English, to be precise) In this regard, we can look into what we will get if we go to US and what can we do instead when we are here in China. I will tell you, to create this English-learning-surroundings! I will share the following methods which I suggested my students in Chengdu to do.

然而，這不是每個人都能達成的，無論經濟或時間成本上的考量。況且，若是如此，我就失去了仗著這個講題到各地招搖的理由了。我們應該想，即使不這麼做，還有哪些方法可以達到類似的效果？這就是我們今天的目標！

既然到美國去對學美語最有幫助，那我們就來探討一些到美國可以獲得的條件，再自己創造一個富有這些條件的英文學習環境！以下我提供幾個我教書以來我替學生們想到的辦法。

1.       Create the English-speaking-surroundings  創造說英文環境

The most significant purpose of learning a language is to communicate with it! That is, to deliver messages in our daily lives. So it is our daily lives that we can find this useful words in, and that we can get some new words which will never appear on the textbooks.

When you meet a new word, look it up in the dictionary IMMEDIATELY!

It is so convenient nowadays. In the past, lots of Chinese students in US had to carry an electronic dictionary in their pocket, but now, you can easily get the results with a few slides on your smartphone! Moreover, you can also check the searching history after a while to repeat these words. ( I will talk about the tips of using dictionary later.)

語言最重要的目的是能用嘛！日常生活中傳達訊息。所以在日常生活中才能夠找出那些真正需要的用字，也才會考驗你一些課本上不會教的用法。

遇到不會的問題，馬上查字典！現在時代很方便，以前在美國很多華裔的留學生都放一台電子詞典在口袋，現在更簡單，手機上就可以查！過一段時間還能回來追溯這些你曾經查過的單詞記錄，加深記憶。（查字典的方法我後面會接著講。）

How to create the English-learning-surroundings?

If you have siblings, the problem will be much easier. You should reach an agreement with your brothers or sisters in advance, for example, “In this week, no Chinese. The one who speaks any language apart from English, he or she should buy a drink for the other people who take part in this game. ”

Of course, you should also reach some consensus with your siblings about the conversations involved the third guy who doesn’t join the game, or there might be some interesting situations! A student once told me his brother tried to order a cup of coffee in Starbucks with sign language to avoid speaking Chinese in front of him. What’s more, some told me that they tried hard to show the direction to an old Chinese lady in English.

There were also cases like, the siblings of my students refused to speak to them for a whole week!

怎麼創造英文學習環境？如果你有兄弟姐妹，這事會簡單很多。你們必須先協議好一份合約，例如：這一個星期裡面，只能說英文。違例者每次請其他人喝一杯飲料。

當然你們也得協調好，但你們參與者都在場時如何面對第三方沒有參與的人。不然很可能出現很有趣的畫面！曾經有學生和我說他弟弟為了飲料對星巴克店員比手劃腳了半天，也有人告訴我他們嘗試對一位老太太講英文。

也有人和我抱怨，他弟弟妹妹那週便不和他說話了！

Last year, I spent most of my time in Chengdu, some cities in Sichuan province, and later in Xi'an, Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan and Beijing. However, most of the families in China have only one kid due to the policy, so I started to think about the alternatives for them. But, after a while, I found that they actually have better relationships among friends or even cousins due to the boring lives without siblings. Okay……It’s also not too bad to practice with your peer group.

Anyway, if you are active enough, you will always find an alternative to create this English-learning-surroundings.

去年我大部分時間在四川成都以及省內的一些城市，後來到西安、重慶、貴州、廣西、廣東、海南島以及北京。大陸各省的家庭多半因為一胎化政策，同學們沒有兄弟姐妹。我一開始特別為這件事著想替代方案，但後來我發現正因為沒有兄弟姐妹，大家和同學之間甚至表、堂兄弟姐妹之間也就更親了，相處的時間更多。那就和這些年紀相仿的玩伴們練習吧！說來也不是件壞事。

2.       Think in English! Rap in English! Dream in English! 用英文想事情、說唱、做夢

Creating the English-learning-surroundings is not enough. The most important thing is your own way thinking. You need to have such a strong motivation. For example, “A decent hardworking Taiwanese American teacher delivered an amazing lecture today”, then you are supposed to think about how to say “Taiwan” and ” lecture” in English.

Only when you have such an active attitude, we can go on to the next step--to think in English.

When you are driving, learning in class, or listening to boring speeches, think in English! Dream in English. (if you fall asleep then)

創造英文學習環境，然而，最重要的還是自己的思考模式。你要有很強烈的動機，盡你所能積極學習。譬如說，今天一個從台灣來的老師來演講，那你就得想想台灣的英文是什麼？演講的英文是什麼？

你要先有這麼積極的態度，才有辦法做接下來的步驟，用英文想事情。

當你開車、上課、聽無聊的演講的時候，做白日夢，也用英文吧！一舉兩得。

In addition, if you love to sing, sing in English! It’s actually the best and the most interesting way in my opinion. I knew lots of people or public figures who were not fluent in English but were able to imitate singing like the original. If you are this kind of people, congratulations! Go pick up hundreds of English songs and sing from now on!

I was also using this way to learn Cantonese.

As to which kind of music works the best….hmm… you know… I will of course suggest you to rap in English!

另外一個方法，如果你愛唱歌的話，唱英文歌是一個非常好而且有趣的辦法。我見過很多人平常英文不怎麼樣，但是唱歌時卻能臨摹得非常像。如果你是這樣的人，恭喜你，趕快練個一百首歌吧！

我自己也是用這樣的方法學廣東話的。

至於你問我那一類型的歌最適合？你也知道，我會和你說，說唱。

Finally, my previous Spanish teacher once told me, dreaming in Spanish means that you’ve mastered it already! So does it for learning English. If you can use the methods above well, living in English, then you will certainly get a dream in English in the not so far future!

最後，我以前的西班牙文老師和我說，當你做夢能夢到西班牙文版的代表你成功了！我想學英文也是，尤其你如果能應用以上的方法，整天都是英文，那你肯定沒幾天就能做英文夢了！

Besides these two methods above, I have a lot of extra details and will write them all to you in the next one!

除了以上這兩大方法，我還有很多額外的細節，我會在下一篇中分享！