Summary of personal learning experiences on how to improve English skills! ! !

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This post was last edited by Master the art of giving and letting go on 2015-6-26 08:23. Nowadays, many people, even those who hold CET-4 and CET-6 certificates, still speak in Chinglish; some may even have much better scores than me, but during interviews they stammer like they’re trying to squeeze toothpaste out, and as a result they can’t get jobs in foreign companies nor are they willing to work for private firms, ending up in a state of confusion. I’ve experienced this myself as well. Below is a summary of my personal learning experiences; I hope it can help you all! 1. Adjust your mindset – \"playing\" can bring endless joy to learning. Have you ever noticed that when you approach something with a playful attitude, even difficult tasks can seem full of fun? In fact, learning is just like doing things; as the saying goes, read many books and travel far. 2. Learn words independently, avoiding rote memorization. Reading can expand one’s vocabulary, as well as improve oral expression and linguistic depth. But reading requires a certain vocabulary as a foundation; therefore, what we need to discuss first is how to turn memorizing words into an enjoyable task. At this stage, one already has a certain foundation in English; there is no need to memorize every word by force. One should learn new words independently. It’s somewhat similar to learning Chinese – using an idiom in a sentence or applying it flexibly in everyday conversations. For example, when it comes to describing the love of a close relative, friends around us, our direct supervisors, or the gossip in the office, this not only helps us remember accurately but also firmly; whenever that word comes to mind, it might evoke a certain scene or a classic interaction with a friend. 3. Learn English by watching movies, by learning from classic film clips. Many people have watched numerous English-language movies, yet their English skills haven’t improved much; they still find it difficult to understand movies without subtitles, which leads them to doubt their talent for learning English. Actually, I was the same at first too – one or two articles at a time, at a snail’s pace. Later on, I realized that I was too fascinated by Chinese; I always liked to read the Chinese subtitles. Eventually I understood that it was better to first watch a few episodes to get an idea of the plot, and then look for TV shows in pure English, with no Chinese subtitles – forcing myself to listen to the English. The more I listened, the more natural it became for me to understand. However, a TV show contains a vast amount of information, so it’s not possible to remember everything in the English dialogue; it’s likely difficult for most people. One can choose which parts of the plot to focus on. For example, a scene from \"Desperate Housewives\" that describes Orson Hodge’s character could be used. 4. Find a partner or a foreigner to study with*. During the learning process, repetition is a key method for memorization; many new pieces of information, such as names and foreign words, can only be remembered in a short period of time and retained over the long term after being repeated multiple times. For example, when learning spoken language, find a partner and choose a scene; the two of you can ask questions such as: How did Orson in \"Desperate Housewives\" show the world that he was a polite and decent man? It’s also very interesting to express it in your own words while keeping the original meaning. 5. Enrolling in an oral English tutoring course can help you avoid many detours. If you can’t find a study partner, you might consider one-on-one tutoring. In such classes, there are many students at the same level as you who also want to improve their oral English; this not only boosts your motivation to learn, but also allows you to gain a lot of useful knowledge from both the teacher and your classmates. When I applied before, I compared many agencies – I looked into institutions like EF, Wall Street English, VIP Chinese, New Oriental, and others. The issues were either related to time constraints, cost-effectiveness, or the quality of the teachers. After much comparison, I finally chose an online English training service where teachers conduct lessons via video; in other words, it’s like bringing traditional face-to-face classes online. Many universities now use this approach as well. I really recommend it – there’s flexibility in scheduling classes, no need to rush back and forth after work. The teachers are responsible, patient, down-to-earth, and highly qualified... Learning efficiency is high, the cost-performance ratio is good, and most importantly, all their formal classes are transparent. There are also free lessons with native-speaking teachers available. Those who are interested can give it a try; I won’t go into further details here. 6. There’s no secret to improving spoken language; the only way is to speak and practice more. Practice regularly, expand your skills – this will not only enhance your language knowledge but also help you learn how to behave and handle things in life. For example, key sentence patterns and vocabulary need to be practiced*. So, what is the most effective way to practice* them? Personally, I think it’s a topic discussion. For example, could everyone discuss together what a true gentleman or lady should be like? List many behaviors, choose those you think are correct, and expand on a series of ones that you consider good or bad.