Keep Chinese Close, But English Closer

走出语言困境：Keep Chinese Close, But English Closer 2007-09-15 14:34:25
(http://blog.wenxuecity.com/blogview.php?date=200709&postID=20029)

Have been thinking to write something on the subject of how to improve English, yet not so sure if I am qualified to take on such a heavy topic as I consider my own English a failure – living in an English-speaking country for over a decade, I still find myself in awkward situations from time to time with my English skills, in particular, I always feel intellectually handicapped whenever write in English. Nevertheless, there are certain things, lessons or whatever to be called, that might have characteristics of generalization in terms of language learning and can be shared, and might shed some light for other people’s study.


I am pretty sure that many of us, if not all of the overseas Chinese living in a English country, are constantly struggling between two language systems: in an English-speaking country, we’re entitled and forced to use an alien language, or you’re taking risk of being thrown out the main-stream society, just like some of the Chinese-Americans in Chinatown whose lifetime language commitment is Cantonese. On the other hand, as a Chinese who was born and brought up in Chinese language setting, we all have a “genetic” tendency to find cultural comfort in employing our own mother tongue – it’s an effortless mental process when we speak Chinese; we take a pleasure to read Chinese because the pictographic characters could soothe our mind, to say the least; it won’t pose a linguistic challenge when we write in Chinese, and so forth. In sum, we’re inclined to use the language we were born with; unfortunately the language adds little weight to our survival skills in a society where people speak different language.


In the classic movie, The Godfather II, there is a line, a very famous one if not the most in the movie history, by the young godfather Michael Coreleone, “Keep your friends close, but your enemy closer,” a family-teaching passed onto him from his father, the old godfather, Vito Coreleone. Admiring the sophisticated life philosophy articulated in this simple line, I think it would be also a great metaphor to our English study situation here, as a figure of speech. So, how to balance this equation of English and Chinese? The answer is: Keep your Chinese close, but your English closer. Please allow me to explain how.




It should be fairly easy for us to “keep Chinese close”. Our brains are wired with Chinese to begin with and further reinforced by the education we received back to the Chinese society. Even in a foreign country, we can always find someone who shares the language and with whom we can communicate – nowadays you can probably find Chinese almost in every single corner on this planet, thanks to our people’s survival instinct; we can always call China, talking to family and friends; and we can browse the Chinese-based websites such as Wenxuexity, reading and writing in Chinese. Once again, Chinese is one heritage that we’re born with, not something you could cut it off and walk away from it; rather, it’s something in our blood and you will have to keep it close.


Now, what about English? In what way to keep it closer? Before we move on any further, I would like to make a disclaimer referring back the classical line in The Godfather II. When I say “keep English closer”, I by no means treat English as an “enemy.” The only reason we say “to keep it closer” than Chinese is because it is our second language, and therefore it is something out there alien for us to conquer. To do so, we’ll have to know what we deal with and how; so to speak, to keep it closer.


In order to command a language, one has to immerge himself/herself into it, like swimming in the ocean. It might sound like a cliché talk and easy said than be done. But here are several things, based upon my personal experience, that could help one on the way to be a good swimmer in the ocean of English language. I would like to address these issues starting with a specific question -- no offense to anyone whatsoever, thus to make it more measurable, by which you can see where you fit, and how close you are to your English study.


How often do you read English book? Once a year? Once a month?



Reading is the most fundamental thing to do in terms of improving English skills. If you open any textbook or ask anyone who has good command of language as to how to advance with your study of English, it/he/she will no doubt tell you to read as much as you can. It seems we just can not stress enough how important reading is.


To be specific, reading a book each month might sound too much to do as opposed to one book a year which is too less. How about one book every other month? If you could do this, you will finish reading six books each year; and that means you will read close to one million English words each year if each book averages, let’s say, 150,000 words. Out of this one million words, if you just could remember one percent, it will amount to 10,000. I would say that’s a quite accomplishment; let alone through reading you will also gradually learn grammatical structures, idiom usage and knowledge, etc. The more you read, the better your English skills will be. Speaking and writing definitely benefit a great deal from reading. Unless you have a family library, the local library may be the most convenient reading source. Plus, as a taxpayer, it would be a waste if you don’t take the advantage of the community service when you can.


How often do you listen to radio?



One time a guy, who majored in English in China and just came over to the US, asked me about how to polish his English, as he was baffled when he talked to the locals. I told him listening to radio might help since he as a student did not have much time to read in addition to his study. He seemed distained and scoffed at the idea. “What? Are you kidding? I don’t even listen to radio when I was in China!” I don’t blame on him for saying so. In the age of information exploration when the new media mushrooms in the light speed, radio seems out of fashion for certain people. But, neither does it means it’s out of picture, nor it diminishes its importance to learn English.


As a traditional media, radio still proves to be one of most efficient and accessible tools. You can turn it on in the morning while you’re eating your breakfast; you can listen to it when you drive to & from work, or on a trip – at least it provides a pastime when you’re stuck in a traffic jam; with an earpiece, you can even listen to radio when you’re out jogging or taking a stroll. How convenient could that be!


Beyond its easy accessibility, radio brings you an immense world of information as listening materials. To keep it as a fun instead of a forced task, you’ll have to find something that interests you. Besides the news that all the stations carry, there’s wide range of syndicated talk shows you can choose from, such as Fresh Air by Terry Gross, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Rush Limbaugh Show (not that I like his opinions, but respect his English), Sean Hannity Show, to name a few. Technically, I’d suggest listening to one or two station/show to start with, especially when you’re listening-wise not skilled enough to handle variety of accents, styles and terminologies. Once you’ve got familiar with one show, you can then move on exploring more topics.


Do you write in English? If yes, how often?



Let’s face it, unless you’re a professional writer or in an occupation that requires a lot of writing, most of us probably won’t have much time to sit down racking our brains on an English essay, as we all have work to do, family and friends to be with and all kind of personal things to tend. However, writing is just as important as reading, to not just improve your English to handle daily conversation, but, one step up, to enhance your English on a professional, educated level. Comparing to reading and listening, writing is a much more complex process. That said, it means you can speak English as good as you can, but that does not necessarily means you will automatically have good command of writing skill. When write, you have to think, ponder on your thoughts in English, and organize the thoughts in a logical fashion, and then find proper words, terminologies to express them. Through writing, not only you can have solid grasp of the meaning, the nuance of each word, but also learn different way of expressions by using different grammatical structures. Of course writing does not have to be lengthy and impeccable, you can just write down a short paragraph or even a sentence for sake of practice. Over time, your writing proficiency will grow as your practice accumulates.


Related to the above, when you write an email at work or to a friend, do you just treat it as a routine? or an opportunity to practice your English?



As mentioned before, we hardly have time to sit down writing English just for practice since we all live in a bustled, fast-paced society. However, nowadays email becomes something that on a daily basis we can not escape from, either at work or at home. And more importantly, it actually poses an occasion for English writing practice. Even for business emails at work, you can either put it in a blunt language; or you can choose to elaborate in a more sophisticated and diplomatic way that will yield a better result, and in return your writing skill will advance before you’re even aware of.


When you watch TV, do you pay attention to the captioning?



In our society, TV has become an inseparability of people’s daily life. We get news from TV each day that keeps us updated with what’s going on nationally and internationally; we’re entertained by watching the diversity of TV shows; and we can even get educated from some special TV programs. But for a foreigner, TV can also pave another road for your English study. Unless you can completely understand the language, the best way to catch up with the plot and story is to closely follow the captioning on your screen. In doing so, you can utilize caption-reading to help your listening in case there are issues of vocabulary and mis-hearing; thus put your understanding in sync with the development of the characters and story. With captioning, the drawback is that it may sacrifice your visual enjoyment. But, it will definitely facilitate your language study, and in a long run your eyes will be eventually freed from the caption once your listening gets better.


The issues above we’ve discussed are just my personal experience and opinions that I wanted to share with the forum. Hope it will help; if not, at least a further discussion on the topic is expected.


Last, but not the least, learning a language is not an easy task, but a lifetime commitment; It is a hard work plus proper methodologies, not an overnight magic; It is an odyssey that you will have to go through without taking any short-cut.


So, let’s work on it, shall we?