Listening Improves Speaking

It is universally acknowledged that most Chinese people are learning "deaf and dumb" English. We can read and write well but are not adept at listening and speaking.

I had the same problem when I was a freshman. Eager to improve my oral English, I made great effort. Every morning I got up early and read English articles over and over again. However, I  found that only my reading speed had increased but my accent still sounded Chinglish.

Nevertheless, the situation seemed to turn optimistic all of a sudden. One day I put on my earphones to listen to VOA. After two hours I felt exhausted so I took them off for a while. Surprisingly I found my brain was flooded with an American accent.

"This is VOA news now!" I tried my pronunciation. Wow! It was American accent, too! I was so excited.

From that day on, I stuck to listening to records and watching English films to impress my brain with American English. Day by day, besides listening my accent has also improved a lot. This is indeed an efficient and suitable method for me. I highly recommend it to you all and wish you good luck. :)

 - Judy  (Jin Yan) - (Judy at 9 years of age)

My Change of Accent

I had been learning British English until I entered university. All the textbooks were written in British English and all the tapes were recorded in British English. I had no idea what American English is till the first time I listened to VOA. I found the pronunciation in VOA was so different from what I used to know.

I began to pay attention to my pronunciation then. It's quite natural that I gradually began to speak in the American way as all the textbooks and tapes used in my university were American English. Later, I found that's not a bad thing. The American way of pronunciation is easy to learn and sounds more casual and natural than British English. What's more, we communicate with people who speak American English more than people who speak any other kind of English.

Frankly, I think British English is more beautiful and elegant than American English. But anyway, I'm used to the latter one now.

 - Henry -

Expose Your Weak Points!

Three years ago, when I came to the university with a sense of confidence in my spoken English - at least my pronunciation - I met the top guy in my class. Due to overestimating myself, he frustrated me by his excellent oral ability, especially his pronunciation. He eliminated my remaining passion for upgrading my English.  

I still mangled the sounds "th" & "s" and "r" & "l" before last summer when I got acquainted with a Chinese Australian. We were both hired as teachers in an summer English village and assigned to live in the same room. Sharing the same interests like sports, music and culture, we had a lot to talk about each day.

He noticed my pronunciation errors in talking and figured it out for me. He told me to pronounce the words “thick?and “sick?alternately as quickly and exactly as I could. It’s amazing that I made it. What I felt was no less than getting through a big exam. Thanks to his correction, ever since, I have rebuilt my confidence in my spoken English, not least of all pronunciation.

Trust me! Exposing your weak point as an English learner to any English specialist kind enough to you and they are ready to put it right for you.

 - Jack -

Nuts to English!

The biggest problem to improve my spoken English is how to overcome my Chinese accent.

Before I went to college, I had been speaking Beijing dialect for many years. It made me speak English with a strong Beijing accent. Usually before I opened my mouth to speak English, my Chinese classmates would open their mouth to laugh at me, just because of my non-standard English.

From then on, I tried many times to overcome it, but in the end, it became  useless. Occasionally, I put one nut into my mouth and began to read English loudly, and I found my Beijing accent disappeared unconsciously. After that, I always practice English in that way.

Now , my spoken English has changed greatly, it just contains a little Beijing accent. If I am free, I will use that method to better my English constantly.

 - Thomas -