Exploration of learning methods for English and professional English

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This post was last edited by shiwang528 on 2011-3-27 22:04. I noticed in the forum that many friends feel confused about learning *English and don’t know where to start. I have been learning English for some time now. Although my level is still not as good as that of some of the members on this forum, I have learned many lessons through my long-term study. I’m sharing them here so that we can discuss them together; perhaps this will help everyone avoid unnecessary detours in learning English and professional English, and achieve success sooner. Learning English is not something that can be achieved in a short time; it requires persistent determination and proper methods. I started thinking about ways to learn English back when I was in college. It is said that many people received guidance from their seniors and started preparing for the CET-4 and CET-6 exams as early as their freshman year, but few are able to pass these exams on the first try; in fact, there are quite a number of students who still haven’t passed CET-4 by their senior year. I wonder: it’s fine if those who don’t put in effort fail the exam, but it’s strange that those who do put in effort still fail the CET-4 or CET-6. Later, upon closer observation, I realized that these people were very superstitious about memorizing words; almost every day I would see them studying English by memorizing words, never reading the articles in college English textbooks. How is this possible? If a foreigner wants to learn Chinese well, I think we certainly wouldn’t tell them that they just need to memorize the Chinese characters without having to read texts. Alas, English proficiency tests are truly the type of exams that waste the most time of college students. Back to the topic at hand – let’s now discuss the specific methods for learning English. What follows are my personal experiences, and they may not be suitable for everyone. As long as it can provide even a little bit of inspiration to everyone, I will be satisfied. Before starting to learn English intensively, it’s necessary to clarify the goals of learning. After a period of study, what level of spoken English do I want to achieve? What level should professional English reach? You need to consider this issue before starting to prepare the materials. If you work in mechanical design, you may often have to deal with foreign engineers, so it’s necessary to have some proficiency in spoken and written language as well as technical English; otherwise, communication will be very difficult. If you only need to translate engineering documents occasionally, then aside from professional English, everything else can be skipped. In short, the goals must be set realistically; if they can be achieved in the near future, then half the battle is already won. But one shouldn’t have overly high expectations regarding learning English; for those of us who are already working, the time available for learning is limited after all, and it’s hardly possible to make rapid progress in a short period of time. First is how to choose learning materials: Selecting English learning materials is just as important as choosing a school and teacher; good materials can help you achieve more with less effort, while poor-quality materials will only waste your valuable time. I’ve suffered a lot from poor choices when it comes to materials – how much time and money was wasted! Every time I think about it, I feel furious… (ten thousand words omitted here…) As for the selection of spoken-language materials: for beginners, learning spoken language isn’t really necessary; if we need to find time for more important tasks, then we have to put learning spoken language on hold first. By saying this, I might already have N bricks thrown at my face, but I still stand by my opinion. Why do I say this? It’s also a lesson I learned after mastering spoken language first. Spending time practicing *oral skills yields far less benefit than spending time on reading. Long-term reading practice, on the other hand, enhances language sense and writing skills. It will save some effort when I come back to study spoken language. Practicing spoken language is aimed at communication, and to improve one’s spoken English, pronunciation must be accurate. You must buy a book on pronunciation lessons; it’s best if it includes illustrations that show the path of air flow in the nasal cavity and mouth, which helps in mastering pronunciation more quickly. There are many of these materials in bookstores. When learning pronunciation, one must carefully consider how to pronounce each sound accurately, and also remember the pronunciation of each word clearly. Once the pronunciation of the words is correct, then basically the task is complete; what remains is to practice even Read and intonation, etc. Of course, for those of us whose mother tongue is not English, there’s no need to achieve perfect pronunciation; as long as we can utter a sentence that most people can understand, the goal has been achieved. There’s no need to strive for perfection excessively. When practicing pronunciation, the video I watched was a tutorial on the International Phonetic Alphabet; those who need it can leave a comment and I’ll upload it to the forum. For listening courses, I think \"Traveling America\" and \"VOA Slow English\" are good choices. However, it’s necessary to buy the books in tape format; the CD version isn’t suitable for beginners. Although the tape version is more than a hundred yuan more expensive, it will be of great benefit when learning*, far exceeding what a CD can offer. In parts of the text that are difficult to understand, the tape version can be listened to repeatedly or at different speeds using a tape recorder, while it’s quite troublesome to do the same with the CD version. For each text in the textbook, one must listen carefully and repeatedly until they truly understand it. The difficulty level of the \"Traveling Across America\" series is consistent; it might seem a bit difficult at first, but you will get used to it quickly. If you can understand the content after listening a few times without referring to the book, then you can move on to learning *VOA Slow English*. The learning method is the same as that in “Traveling Across America”. However, VOA Slow English is after all a news reporting style with a very formal tone; it is only recommended for those who are particularly interested in English. When I went for interviews at foreign companies, I passed the English test without much difficulty, which was actually beyond my expectations. Before this, I had only studied English in college, and after starting work I neglected it; I had also never used English to communicate with people in real life. I was actually quite nervous during the interviews. Later, I realized that in several of those interviews, aside from the foreign manager and the translator who had good English skills, the others who interviewed me had very average English skills, so I calmed down. First, it was the people from the HR department who conducted the interview, then an Italian technical supervisor, and finally the Italian manager along with a translator. The boss graduated from the Department of English at Renmin University of China, and he also speaks Chinese very well. Right after the interview started and I had answered a few questions, he said to the interpreter, \"That’s enough; there’s no need to ask any more questions.\" It was only later that I found out that most of those who interviewed me knew only a few common phrases by heart, and when the conversation covered broader topics, they would just talk nonsense. For textbooks, I use New Concept English Books 2 and 3, along with the accompanying Self-Study Guide. Why choose New Concept? It’s not that there’s a superstition regarding books by foreign authors; rather, it’s an undeniable fact that books by domestic authors are indeed disconnected from practical application, and learning from them yields little benefit. Thus, there’s no need to discuss the advantages of choosing books from the New Concept series. It depends on an individual’s level to determine from which volume to start learning. If the foundation is not strong, one should start by learning from the simple second volume ； If the foundation is solid, you can skip Book 2 and go straight to Book 3. The method for learning* is also very simple: it involves memorization and recitation. Brother Li Yang said: If you repeat a sentence a thousand times out loud, you’ll never forget it. In actual conversations, one has to rely on intuition when speaking; it’s hardly possible to carefully craft sentences, which means we need to memorize common sentence patterns in advance. Now, the book has already summarized all the commonly used items; all that’s left is for us to memorize them. When studying, use the \"Self-Study Guide\" to read the texts, then listen to the tapes repeatedly, and finally memorize them. Everyone has their own learning methods, so I won’t go into detail here. After memorizing Books 2 and 3 of New Concept English, your English level will definitely be far beyond that of someone who has passed the CET-4. If you still want to keep learning, it’s best to choose a set of college English textbooks. I use \"New College English\" published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press; its advantage is that the texts are not written by Chinese authors, but rather consist of beautiful foreign essays as well as some practical popular science articles. In college, I read those four books at least three times. Many of the articles in it were previously only available as short stories translated into Chinese; I never expected to find the original versions in an English book, so I read them whenever I have time, hehe. I didn’t take the Level 4 exam seriously, but I was surprised to pass it, scoring 77 points. But because I didn’t want to memorize words and do practice tests as hard as others did, I didn’t dare to sign up for the CET-6 exam; I really felt my skills were far too weak. I planned to study for a year before taking it again, aiming to pass it on the first try. But during the following year, I was busy preparing for programmer exams by taking courses in the computer science department, and I had no time at all to study English. When it was time to take the CET-6 again, I had no choice but to sign up despite feeling unprepared; yet to my surprise, I passed it again after not studying English for a year, scoring 66 points – I was amazed myself. Saying this here is not to boast about how great I am; it’s just to emphasize that in the process of learning English, reading and memorizing articles are very important – their effectiveness is certainly much greater than that of memorizing words. In fact, once we think about how we learned Chinese, we’ll know how to learn English. Haven’t we also been constantly memorizing texts and writing essays since elementary school? I have the video tutorials for \"New Concept English\" and \"Traveling Around America\", but together they take up a whopping 13G. I have to use a 128M USB drive to transfer them back and forth between the office and my home, which is very inconvenient. If it’s really necessary, please post a reply and I’ll upload it slowly. In addition to learning English as mentioned above, there is also the troublesome issue of specialized English. We are all in the mechanical field and have some knowledge of technical English, which is useful; at least we can easily understand English drawings and documents without having to ask others for translations. But it’s still very difficult to reach a sufficient level of proficiency in mechanical engineering English; that’s really how it is – the more you learn, the more stressed you feel, and it seems like what you’ve learned isn’t useful at all. I think if you don’t use professional English frequently, it’s sufficient to study the book \"Professional English for Mechanical Engineering\" written by Liu Zhenchang, or the two books on professional English for mechanical engineering compiled by Li Xiaohuo and Yu Yinghua (my two teachers, hehe); most of the basic professional vocabulary is covered in these books. At the same time, we also need those textbooks for our specialized courses; otherwise, when we encounter things that are difficult to understand in English, we won’t have any materials to refer to, and it will be impossible to correspond English technical terms with Chinese technical terms. Of course, you also need a dictionary; never use translation software such as Kingsoft WordPower or online translators, unless you plan to revise your specialized terminology later on. I made that mistake back then: I used pirated Kingsoft WordPower to secretly translate the two professional English books, \"English for Mechanical Engineering\" written by Liu Zhenchang, in the office. Later, when I was looking up words in the \"Comprehensive English-Chinese Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering,\" I accidentally discovered that many words and phrases had been translated incorrectly; I regretted having used that software. I have now printed and bound the \"Comprehensive English-Chinese Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering,\" and it’s on my workbench so I can refer to it at any time, without having to worry about making any translation mistakes. By the way, the dictionary in the forum isn’t complete – page 352 is missing. The forum moderator has also offered a reward for information on it, but there’s still no response. Brother who has this dictionary, please send me this page; I would be extremely grateful. For those who need to use professional English frequently at work, studying only university textbooks is not enough. I also need a book in its original English version; the thicker the better. This is what I’ve learned after tearing through numerous books: the combined content of ten ordinary books will never equal the thoroughness and detail found in one single thick book. I think it’s probably because most authors of thin books plagiarize existing works, which is why the content is more or less the same. Are there any brick books worth recommending? I think the series \"Excellent Textbooks from Foreign Universities\" is quite good; it’s available on Dangdang, and payment can be made upon delivery. Among them, the three original, thick-volume books – \"Manufacturing Engineering and Technology,\" \"Mechanical Part Design,\" and \"Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering\" – are particularly good; their page counts are 1200, 780, and 1020 pages respectively. Choose one based on the nature of your work and your tolerance for reading volume. However, the book \"Mechanical Parts Design\" with its blue cover has such a tight layout that it’s difficult to find a place to write phonetic notations if you come across a word you don’t know; it’s not recommended for purchase (I couldn’t see the layout when I bought it from Dangdang, and it will likely be hard to sell it now). Since you dare to buy such a thick book, your mental resilience must be quite remarkable; congratulations. For this hefty 5-jin book titled \"Manufacturing Engineering and Technology\", studying four pages a day would take a whole year to finish it, not to mention the time needed for revisions. So it’s impossible for us to read the book once first and then review what we’ve learned; ordinary people don’t have such good memories. First, finish learning and reviewing the easier parts, then move on to other chapters; by repeating this process, the speed will increase gradually. If you start by tackling the difficult parts, progress will be very slow, and before long you’ll lose the motivation to keep going. Of course, you also need to have sufficient Chinese materials in order to accurately understand the content of the English materials; look up information when you don’t understand something. Otherwise, it’s useless even if you memorize everything. I am still studying this book*, but I dare to recommend it to everyone because of its detailed content, wide range of topics covered, and numerous illustrations. Now let’s talk about whether to enroll in an English training class. Many friends say that attending training courses is very helpful for improving English, but I think it might be because people have different learning methods; I don’t think it’s useful for improving professional English skills. When our company was first established, we were in a hurry to recruit staff, and as a result the employees hired had generally poor English skills. Over the years, the company has arranged for them to receive various English training programs, with the costs covered by the company. Years have passed, yet their English hasn’t improved much; it’s still just as poor as what they heard in university classes. They can’t even understand the usage of many simple words, and their written expressions are pure Chinese-style English! It’s not that they can’t learn well; rather, they don’t want to put in the effort to study and instead place all their hopes on training courses, thinking that attending such courses will significantly improve their English skills. This is obviously incorrect. One must rely on oneself! Those of us in the tech field understand this principle. Those training institutions mainly focus on flashy, trendy English words, phrases, and pronunciations; they teach whatever is popular at the time. People keep saying things like “oh yeah” and “my god,” and they say these phrases in a very natural way. But hearing them use such exaggerated tones makes one feel disgusted. I attended a class at the training center commissioned by my company; the director there was amazed by my English pronunciation and expression skills. At that time, I really wanted to tell him to focus on practical things and buy the \"New Concept\" series for the trainees to use, but then I thought that this would cause their self-made teaching materials to become unsold and thus cut off their source of income, so I gave up on the idea. I’ve suffered a lot while learning English, spending a lot of money on this book and that book. Only at the end were the following sentences summarized, in the hope that they will be of some use to everyone: The first sentence: It’s not about having many books. I have bought many professional English books and torn many of them. These books contain a lot of theoretical knowledge, but very little information on what is actually needed in practice. For example, he might spend several pages talking at length about CAD/CAM, but what are the steps involved in making a screw, and how are these steps expressed in English? There’s not even such basic content! I’ve also never seen any professional English book that describes in detail the process of manufacturing a gear or other parts. In work, it’s actually these practical and trivial things that are used, yet it’s very difficult to express them in English; I think everyone can relate to this. Reading twenty of these books is essentially the same as reading just one; it doesn’t solve the problem at its root. So when choosing a book, be sure to pick one with detailed and practical content; just buy one and study it carefully*. Second sentence: Apply what you have learned. It is easier to cover half the distance than the whole distance. The key to learning English is persistence. One must keep learning and memorizing, constantly reading or applying what has been learned in practice (and if there’s no opportunity to apply it, then continuous review and reinforcement are necessary). The more you see these technical terms and the more you use them, you will naturally be able to remember them. My Chinese supervisor doesn’t speak English very well, but his reading and writing skills are excellent, as he has to constantly read and write emails, consult English-language materials, read Italian drawings, and communicate with foreigners in English. So, although he doesn’t deliberately study professional English, he understands most of what is needed for his work. Third sentence: Persevere to the end. Throughout history, those who have achieved success in every field have been persistent people. A persistent personality may not necessarily make you a great person, but it can at least set you apart from the rest. This is also the most important point in learning English. There is a simple fact: if one can persist in completing Books 2 and 3 of New Concept, and is able to recite almost any given article by heart, then they have basically reached a level that enables smooth communication. Like those thick books mentioned earlier, just finishing one of them will lead to a qualitative improvement in your skills; it depends on whether you can persevere to the end. I like a line from Andy Lau in the movie A Hero: Persevere to the end! This post was last edited by huamei461112 on 2008-12-21 10:29.]