引用Alexcwlin于2009-06-02 00:39发表的文章:
沅芷澧兰:
Let me (让我) take a stab (尝试一下) at answering your question on how to improve (增进) English in your case (在你的例子).
...
First of all, thank you for your time in answering my doubt. As I mentioned in my earlier reply, language is a communication tool to most people. That is applicable to me as well. Nevertheless, people have different sets of expectations. How do you define "good" or "very good"? Again, it cannot be standardized with the presence of various criteria or measurements. As for me, I'm not thinking of going into the extend of being a famed writer/ speaker, lawyer or whoever, though I do appreciate of having that capability of transforming words into power.
You know what, I came abroad when I was in my second year of high school, and that was 11 years ago. Despite the fact that English was one of my strongest subjects, I found myself facing barrier in communicating with my non-Chinese schoolmates.
I always remember the embarrassment I encountered in one of the very first few days – a Malay friend was asking if I could give her a piece of tissue. I was stuck, thinking what tissue was until she pointed at my tissue pack. Thereafter, I consciously befriend with those who don’t speak Mandarin, forcing myself to practice my oral English. Well, it helps.
Later on I even joined in my school debate team. Being the last speaker, my task was to summarize what the first 2 speakers had said. It was indeed very stressful. I was the only Chinese there and I felt like quitting, finally I did. Frankly that wasn't the right place for me, at least not at that time.
During my undergraduate years, I lived at on-campus accommodation. Out of my 4 flat-mates, 3 were Australians and 1 was from UK. I was a good friend of the UK lady as we two shared something in common, particularly in perceptions. She was the one who proofread my essays in the very beginning, but a year later, our roles switched.
I hope you don't find me longwinded. All I wanted to say is that practice do play an important role in enhancing one's language ability. Too bad that I don't see the continuous improvement within me, it seems stop somewhere but never progress further.
To answer your questions:- (a) If I were given a choice, of course the higher the better. (b) Primarily, language is for communication purpose. If you are talking about the basic functions of language, ie. interacting & understanding, you are right, my current level is probably sufficient. However, I believe one's language ability is an intangible asset that a person possesses, just like education and intelligence. In this regard, it's my desire to be equipped with the ability, perhaps just to make me feel good about myself. Of course, who knows it may be something that will help me along in the future. With this, I hope I have also answered your question on why I bother to improve.
Huh, again I feel like writing an essay, lucky not thesis. ;p
So what would you suggest me to do, with all the information I provided above?
