My Experience of Learning English 我学习英语的经历

I am not sure exactly what makes learning English a religion to me. I used to be very good at physics and saw no practical need to learn English. So I believed I could also be successful without learning English.

 我不知道到底是什么令英语学习成为我的头等大事。以前我的物理很厉害，我认为没有什么实际需要去学习英语，因此那时我相信不学英语，我同样能成功。

I began my high school life at a very good school, specializing in math and physics. However, because my math score wasn’t satisfactory, I was asked to leave the school. Thereafter, I went to another high school that focused on English studies. I still remember the day I walked into the classroom and saw my English teacher; she was so beautiful that her eyes brought me great warmth and caring, although I didn’t understand her first words to me, which were “good morning”. You have to take learning English one step at a time. We began with the alphabet. Slowly did I learn how to make the correct sounds, I was still not interested in English. So I didn’t practice very often. The exam finally came! I hadn’t studied and I knew I couldn’t pass. So I cheated on the exam. It was the worst and also the best thing that could have happened to me. When I got my exam paper back, I found that I had received a high grade. But what bothered me was that I knew the grade wasn’t my real score. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. I decided to tell the truth and I told my teacher that I wasn’t the good student she had thought me to be. Instead of being mad, she was patient and nice to me. She helped me learn to read very simple English and encouraged me to do things on my own so as to improve my English.

我的高中生活始于一所侧重于数理的上等中学。然而，由于我的数学成绩不太理想，学校要求我转学。自从那以后，我到了另外一所侧重于英语学习的高中。我还记得那天我走进教室，与我的英语老师见面的一幕。她是那么的漂亮，尽管我不懂她对我说的第一句话“Good morning（早上好）”是什么意思，但她那双眼向我投来了炽热的温暖与关怀。学习英语要循序渐进。我们从字母表开始学起。虽然我慢慢地掌握了字母的发音，然而我对英语一点也不感兴趣。因此我不再花太多时间去练习英语了。考试终于到来了！我没有好好学习，我也知道我会考试不及格，所以我在考试中作弊了。这是我所干的最坏的事情，也是发生在我身上的最好的事情。当我拿到了试卷后，我得知我取得了一个高分数。但令我感到困扰的是我知道这个分数不是我真实的成绩。我越这样想，心里就越不好过。我决定说出真相，我告诉了老师我并不如她所想的那样是个好学生。她没有生气，反而很耐心地对待我。她教我朗读非常简单的英语，还鼓励我独立完成功课，从而提高我的英语成绩。

Although my Dad didn’t speak a word of English, when he knew that I wanted to get better at English, he found me some English tapes. He played the tapes for me every morning while I was having my breakfast. I didn’t understand the words, but I got used to listening to the sound and rhythm of English. I learned how each sound was linked to another. Listening to the tapes had become part of my breakfast time. It was just as normal as the soybean milk I drank at breakfast.

尽管我爸爸一点英语也不会说，当他知道我想提高英语水平时，便给我找来了一些英语磁带。每天早晨当我吃早餐时，他就为我播放那些磁带。我不懂（磁带里的）单词，但我习惯了聆听英语朗读时的发音与旋律。我学到了每个单词间如何连读。听磁带成为了我吃早餐的一部分。它如同每天早餐我所喝的豆浆一样自然。

My English listening improved gradually, but my vocabulary was still quite limited. There was a second-hand bookstore about half an hour’s bus ride from my home. I went there because it was quiet and the lady who worked there was nice to me. I wanted to be able to understand what these English books were about, so I brought my dictionary to the library. But reading the entire English book was too difficult for me, so I read the Chinese translation before the unabridged English version. Instead of looking up every new word in my dictionary, I’d finish a whole page without stopping so as to get the general idea. I found that this was a good learning system. I stuck to a strict schedule and practiced my listening comprehension for hours every day. During this time, my parents did not pressure me. Learning a language is not hard, but having people pressure you makes learning hard. I had great fun while learning English. My mother collected English movies for me. From these movies, I learned that good speakers don’t need to speak quickly but clearly. I owe tons of gratitude to my parents. Without their love, support and constant encouragement, I would not have been successful.

我的英语听力渐渐得到了提高，但我的英语词汇依然有限。在离我家约半个小时公交车程的地方有一间二手书店。我去那书店是因为那里安静，而且在那儿工作的阿姨对我很友善。我想知道摆在那儿的英文书是讲什么内容的，于是我把我的字典也带进了图书馆。但是要看完整本英文书对我来说是十分困难的，因此我先阅读中文翻译，然后才看完整的英文原版。为了不用每个不会的单词都查字典，我会一口气把整页的内容看完，从而对内容有个大致上的了解。我觉得这是一个不错的学习方法。我严格坚持我的学习时间表，每天花若干个小时练习我的听力理解。在那段日子里，爸爸妈妈都没有给我施加压力。学习一门语言并不困难，但有人在旁给你施加压力会使学习很困难。我的英语学习的过程充满着乐趣。我妈妈为我收集了一些英语电影。从这些电影中，我明白了优秀的英语会话者不需要说得快但要说得清晰。我对我的父母充满了无尽的感激。没有他们的关爱、支持与不断的鼓励，我不会获得今天的成功。

Today, some of you may find me in your classrooms as your English teacher. I don’t think I will ever stop learning English because it has become part of my life.

今天，你们当中可能有人会发现我出现在你们的教室里，作为你们的英语老师。我认为我此后也不会停止英语学习，因为它已成为了我生活的一部分。