As one of Chinese Overseas Students, I would like to take this opportunity via this platform to share a little bit about what are the common misunderstandings of learning English and how I learn it in an English speaking country. I think it could be a guidance to the prospective overseas students from China. I do hope that it gives you a clearer vision of what the potential English ambience like while you’re living where you are. I will compose four parts which are Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.

English Learning for Overseas Students – Speaking (Part One)

First of all, I like to clarify some common misunderstandings among Chinese overseas students.

(1)    I will be able to pick up English while I am living an English speaking country. Well, I am not in favour of that. I notice most of Chinese overseas students (MS, PhD, and even undergraduates) are not very comfortable when they are talking with local people. I agree that you can easily get access to native to pracitise your spoken English, e.g., just pick up a phone you can get people to speak with you in English. But you do not necessarily benefit from these approachable opportunities without a suitable method of developing your learning. (I will present them below.)

(2)    Chinese students prefer to live/stay with friends who are also with Chinese background. They usually live in the same house, and communicate in Mandarin, Cantonese or other dialects. But why not home-stay? Or sharing a house with local students? I admit that it’s not easy to find a place like that, but many of them don’t even give themselves a chance to find one at all! Are you afraid of speaking to local people? The culture gap/difference is scaring you? Now that you are a new comer, step away from you comfort zone and try something new, hang on a minute, I have to make it clear that I am not talking about ‘sex’ here. (I personally, really appreciate our Chinese traditional moral standard.)

(3)    People would laugh at you when you make a (lot of) mistake(s). Actually, it is very natural for native to accept spoken mistakes that you made during a conversation. Why do you care so much about that? Try to imagine the picture that Americans or British are learning Mandarin or Cantonese. This might ease your nervous tongue slightly. =P In the course of my writing, I’m sure I’m making mistakes as well. Tell you what, I sometimes manage to spot mistakes made by native people. You can ask my landlord if you doubt it, hehe. Now, I summarise that everyone is subject to make mistakes, you are fine with making mistakes cos you’re on your way. So next time, when mistakes come up from your mouth, do the best to record them and then back to your conversation promptly as if you wouldn’t make them. J Bear in mind that: stand firm and never give up especially when you make a (lot of) mistake(s).

(4)    “You are fine with accent (liberally, most of time, VERY strong accent) as long as you can get your points across.” I've heard this similar sentence from a few of my Chinese friends serval times. (Apparently, they were speaking this to me in their comfort languages.) Yet, till now, I am somehow not able to see their points? How come people can understand you easily and with so much patience as you’re continuously speaking with a strong accent? Especially in a highly competitive job interview. Those holding the above opinions might lose sight of that speaking English with strong accent from non-English speaking foreigners is a mispronunciation! Don’t try to save a face or make it up, mate. If you don’t understand the functionalities of manipulating settings in a car, how can you manage to drive it safely? In turn, if you miss out the phonetic symbols of English, how can you pronounce a word appropriately? I confess that I have Chinese accent, but I’ve been reducing its extent. Compare to the previous accent that I had before I went abroad, now I’ve been ready to enjoy the harvest of being better and better.

To be continue… (Next time, I will share my learning experience with you guys w.r.t. English speaking. Hope to see you all there then)

By oklook