How to understand English news

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This post was last edited by Thank goodness you're here on 2016-5-25 at 13:51. Foreign journalists who have just started working at the domestic news desk of ICRT (Taipei International Community Radio) generally have a decent level of Chinese, but their proficiency in \"news-related Chinese\" is not always strong. When translating or reading Chinese news reports, they can look up individual words, but it is often difficult for them to fully understand the overall meaning. In such situations, I would suggest that they first read the same news story in an English newspaper, and use their native language to understand the background of it; when they then look at the Chinese version, what seemed complex becomes much simpler. Similarly, before attending the daily English journalism class*, it is easier to understand the main international or domestic news of the day by first learning about them from Chinese media, which makes listening to the English news much simpler. Of course, this is during the learning phase; once one has passed the introductory stage, it’s no longer necessary. 　　Given the vastness of the world and the multitude of events that take place, most people would assume that one needs thousands of words related to news English in order to understand it, and that one has to memorize an entire dictionary of news terms in order to be able to comprehend what’s being said. This idea seems logical, but there is actually a major flaw in it. From political news to entertainment news, there are certainly thousands of words, but the relevant words only appear once every few months or even every few years – they are what’s known as rarely used vocabulary. Examples include \"multilateral currency realignment\" or \"planned obsolescence\“. If one had to memorize all such words as well, that would be absolutely overwhelming. 　　Fortunately, over 85% of the words encountered in the news every day are what we call commonly used vocabulary. In other words, as long as you can master these five or six hundred recurring words, you will be able to understand over 85% of the news. As for other more specialized terms in finance, science, and similar fields, the difficulty can be increased gradually once the main words have been mastered. You must have experienced this: when listening to English news or programs, when you come across a word you don’t know or a passage that you can’t hear clearly, you start trying to figure out its meaning, which often results in failing to understand the rest of the content. The saying \"one cannot focus on two things at once\" is true – one must not try to figure out the meaning of the previous sentence while listening. It is important to develop the habit of not stopping to think when encountering something difficult to understand, but rather to continue listening attentively. 　　There might be several reasons for not understanding a certain paragraph: perhaps there is a word that hasn’t been learned, or a particularly complex sentence structure; maybe the speaker spoke a bit faster, or the listener was distracted and didn’t pay close attention. Whatever the reason, as long as you keep listening, it’s possible to understand the main points, since the missing 90% isn’t likely to be crucial enough to prevent you from following the subsequent content; but if your thinking gets stuck on the previous sentence, then everything will be lost. But what if that missing piece is indeed crucial? If you have time, you can search the Internet for news related to it to see if there are any key words or topics you’re not familiar with. If it’s important news, it’s unlikely that it won’t be reported more than once; you can listen to the news broadcasts at other times of the day, and you might hear the same news again, and by then you’ll understand it completely! When I first arrived in Taiwan, people often asked me to record voices for some English teaching materials. When I entered the recording studio, I sat in front of the microphone, took the script and started reading. After reading a few lines, the person in charge asked if I could read more slowly, so I started over and slowed down my pace; after reading a few more lines, he asked if I could go even slower. After the textbook was published, I listened to the cassette tapes, and I felt that not only did it sound strange, but it was also of no help for learning, as normal human speech isn’t like that at all. 　　Local friends often complain that the speed at which I deliver news on ICRT is so fast that they can’t understand it. All I can say is that this is the normal speed for delivering news; even if ICRT broadcasts more slowly, you still won’t be able to understand the content when listening to BBC or CNN. So what should I do? When I first came to Taiwan, I had no trouble with basic Chinese conversation; over time, I was able to read newspapers as well. But when it came to listening to the news on China Radio or GTV, it still seemed confusing to me. So I recorded the Chinese news broadcasts and listened to them repeatedly. If there were words I didn’t understand, I would ask friends to help me listen to those parts. I kept doing this hundreds of times until I fully understood what was being said. Because I practiced in this way*, now when I listen to Chinese news, I don’t miss a single word. 　　Have you noticed that when listening to English news broadcasts, the presenter often says something like “And now in sports...”, or “Turning to the Middle East...”, or “In U.S. election race news...” before introducing a particular story? There is no fixed format or wording for these short phrases; their purpose is simply to make the transition between different types of news smoother. Giving such a \"self-introduction\" before reporting on a news story is very helpful for those who are learning news English. How should I put it? Let me give a simple example: so far, my understanding of Taiwanese is still limited. If someone speaks to me casually, I’m likely to not understand them, but if they let me know in advance what topic they intend to discuss with me, it becomes much easier for me to follow along. This situation is similar to the brief hint given in the news beforehand: by knowing what type of information is about to be received, one can prepare one’s mind in advance. 　　Of course, you won’t get such a hint before every news item; if it’s not provided, you need to quickly figure out the topic and direction. If watching television news, you can try to determine what type of news it is by looking at the visuals; in the case of radio, you can judge it from the first sentence. You might think that such simple truths are obvious and need no explanation, but you will find that the simplest truths are also the most important. I remember when I first arrived in Taiwan, my Chinese wasn’t very fluent yet. Just by going back to the United States for a few weeks and then returning to Taiwan, my tongue would stop responding properly when I tried to speak Chinese, and I would stammer. Later, I talked to a professor of Oriental languages at Stanford University in the United States, and he said that in fact, by spending a little time on it every day, such situations can be completely avoided. 　　No Chinese person, no matter how good their listening skills are, would think of becoming an English speaker on their own; so why worry about pronunciation? The reason is quite simple: if one’s pronunciation of a particular word in news is incorrect, it’s very likely that they won’t be able to understand it. In online English training courses, terms like ‘record’ refer to both discs and audio recordings, but the former is pronounced as ﹝re’cord﹞ while the latter is pronounced as ’record’. If one assumes that this word has only one pronunciation, they are likely to get confused. Sometimes it’s also easy to get the pronunciations of two different words mixed up, for example: Philadelphia battered Chicago, winning 14 to 1. (Philadelphia defeated Chicago, winning 14-1.) ) If the word “battered” in this sentence is heard as “batted”, although the pronunciations are similar, the meaning will be wrong. 　　Taking a little time to determine whether your pronunciation is correct can also help you understand news in English. Learning *anything, especially languages, is like a snowball effect – it grows larger and larger, and at a certain point, the pace of learning naturally speeds up. In the initial stages of learning news English, one might often find it difficult to understand what is being said. But by keeping up the effort, one will gradually realize that less effort is required, and more of the content becomes understandable. Why is understanding this process one of the keys to success? Because many people think they can’t learn it before even reaching the halfway point, but in fact, with perseverance, it’s absolutely possible to achieve very satisfactory results. 　　Surely some people will say that everyone knows this, but many lack confidence in themselves, which leads them to underestimate their own progress and achievements in learning. There’s a saying in English: We are our own worst enemy. (The greatest enemy is oneself.) Although learning news English isn’t difficult at all, if you think to yourself, “I definitely won’t be able to learn it,” then… Before even starting to struggle, one has already been defeated by oneself. Overcoming the psychological barriers one has set for oneself is more difficult than overcoming the actual obstacles in learning. To have confidence in oneself, there is another English saying: What the mind can conceive, it can achieve. So, after going through these ten steps, do you feel more confident in improving your English listening skills? When it comes to vocabulary for postgraduate entrance exams, memorization involves three stages: first, it’s necessary to quickly expand one’s vocabulary, so in the first round of learning words, one should be able to understand their basic meanings; next, one needs to memorize words in greater depth, including their collocations, synonyms, and near-synonyms; when a word has multiple meanings, it’s important to understand and distinguish between them by using phrases or sentences; finally, one must be able to use these words correctly, understanding their meanings properly while reading comprehension texts. 　　After memorizing the vocabulary in the basic phase, the students have essentially completed memorizing the vocabulary from the first two rounds. During the summer vacation, students should first focus on filling in any gaps in their vocabulary knowledge by reinforcing those words that they didn’t remember from earlier vocabulary books. Additionally, they need to apply their vocabulary skills flexibly as they study various question types throughout the summer. The vocabulary listed in the Syllabus can be divided into basic vocabulary, core vocabulary, vocabulary beyond the syllabus, and common phrases. At this stage, it is necessary to master the basic vocabulary comprehensively, including its meanings, usage, synonyms, and words that are similar in form. Moreover, since these words are primarily used in writing, candidates must also be able to use them accurately in their writings. As for the core vocabulary, it generally consists of words at the CET-4 level or above. There is no need to be able to recall such words exactly; rather, it is sufficient to use various memory techniques to reinforce one’s understanding of their basic meanings and spellings, and to be able to understand their meanings accurately in specific contexts. For some words that are beyond the syllabus, it is required that students be able to break down these words using prefixes, suffixes, and roots in order to guess their meanings, or infer them through the logical relationships in the context. 　　The reading materials for this stage are mainly \"Comprehensive Explanation of Past Years’ Real Exam Questions for Postgraduate Entrance Examination English\" and \"Standard Interpretation of Reading Strategies for Postgraduate Entrance Examination English\". With the basic in-depth reading exercises, students have gained a preliminary experience of postgraduate entrance examination reading. For the reading comprehension exercises at this stage, it is necessary to apply the methods and techniques learned in reading classes when working on actual test questions. In addition, a certain amount of practice with mock tests is also needed to strengthen reading comprehension skills. Only in this way can a close integration of \"classroom lessons + study guides + real exam questions\" be achieved, yielding twice the results with half the effort. 　　When studying real reading tests, try to read the entire text on your own without any guidance and answer the questions within 20 minutes on the first attempt. Then, read the article carefully sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph for the second time. The focus during this detailed reading should still be on the three levels: words, sentences, and the overall text. First, eliminate all vocabulary and sentence-related obstacles, so as to fully understand the article and grasp its structure and main idea accurately. After that, work through the questions again, check the answers, understand why the correct answers are right and what’s wrong with the incorrect options, and draw conclusions. Refer to the explanations provided after the article to verify one’s own understanding. Finally, based on one’s own situation, memorize the difficult words and key terms from the article, identify the complex sentences that affected understanding, translate them into Chinese, and use the examples of complex sentences given in the explanations as a reference. 　　When doing the simulated reading comprehension exercises in *\"Standard Interpretation of Strategies for Reading Comprehension in Postgraduate Entrance Exam English,\"* read the passages without a time limit and answer the questions on the first try. On the second attempt, one should learn the words, sentences, and other linguistic expressions in the article, be able to read it, and understand its structure. Receive oral English training, then answer the questions again to see if any of the answers need to be revised. Finally, through a comparative analysis, understand why each question requires a certain answer and why the other options are incorrect, thereby achieving a more comprehensive understanding of the text. Regarding the simulated reading exercises, it is important to understand one key concept: there are still various differences between the approach used in designing simulated reading tasks and that of actual exam questions. Therefore, although one can apply certain reading comprehension strategies when working on these simulated exercises, it should be clear that systematic techniques may not always be applicable to them.