My bumpy journey of improving English

lacychang

Hello everyone,

As I have finally made a breakthrough, which may be nothing to sneeze at compared to what you have accomplished, I felt compelled to share my story because I have benefited from yours and it is my turn to give back.

First of all, I am nothing from an expert in English. I only hope my experience can be of help to others who urgently need to improve English in order to survive and thrive in an alien country. I am just a normal person, so if I can do it, you can do it better.

lacychang

Now let's cut to the chase. The first day I arrived in Canada, I realized in horror if not shock that I could not even understand the announcement at the airport, let alone carry out conversation. Ironically, I had always assumed that English was the last thing I should worry about back in China, where I always got highest scores in almost all English exams in school tailored to test our grammar and reading skills. As it turned out, writing and speaking skills are my weaknesses due to the utilitarian learning model and attitute which aims to collect the points rather than develop practical skills. What should I do? How was I gonna start a bright future with such lousy English?

lacychang

Listening

According to my experience(again, I don't want to sound conceited, I only want to stress it works well for me at least), the most effective way to practice listening skill is listening to radio programs all day long. You can just turn on your radio and take it as your background music as you are doing household chores. Sometimes, you are tuning in, sometimes out. Even though at the beginning, you have little idea what they are talking about, at a certain point, you will suddenly find you can capture a gist after a few weeks. As time passes by, their chats, debates and even humor which used to be very confusing gradually become more meaningful to you. But there is still many blurred sentences you cannot follow. Now we need to focus on expanding our vocabulary and idioms. It is highly recommended to listen to a program several times until you find everything is crystal clear. Believe me, this is doable as long as you have access to the Internet where there are tons of listening programs. The key is sticking to one and repeating it until you can write it down accurately. For example, Ted talk is a good one as there is option to show caption or not. When you can laugh at the punch line, you have already made a big step. At this level, the listening part of TOEFL is not intimidating and you can understand native speakers without effort.

lacychang

Reading

There is no short cut either. I find it easier to read on-line news because they are free and it is easy to look up new words on your computer. At first, I bumped to dozens of new words in one paragragh which made it hard to proceed. What I do is to look them up in Longman Dictionary and Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, both of which are free on-line. Then I copy the explanation and sample sentences to a word document to build my vocabulary. Gradually, it takes less effort to read the news and editorials thanks to all the acumulation. The extra bonus is that when you read the articals with such a variety of vocabulary, you get to know the nuances of words and the beauty of a foreign languge which doesn't lack any appeal than our mother tongue. Also, you get used to the way native speakers write. From a utilitarian point of view, you will definitely abtain a broad vocabulary and a super reading speed to handle TOEFL or any other tests of reading. In the long run, the benefit is also obvious. You get to know the world around you from different perspectives which is a foundation to adapt to local culture.

lacychang

Writing
I attributed my improvement to several factors.

First, I attended parttime English writing courses offered by McGill University continuing study, where I had a very comprehensive review of grammar. Although our English education emphasize on grammar heavily, it seems that what we learn doesn't cover the structure of sentences, namely compound and complex sentences, which are basis to structure very fluent essay. As a result, my first evaluation essay was commented as choppy. Once we get the essence of those rules, we can come up with concise writing with practice.

This is actually my second point, we need a little push from both interior and exterior to reach a higher level. The instructors I met are very dedicated and strive to make us obtain our full potential, for which I am very grateful. I recall clearlly, the professor's comment: it is time to step out of your comfort zone. At the time I was in advanced class, my grammar was already strong, but I lacked the confidence to  come up with fully developed essay. He pushed us to practice, practice and practice.

The third thing I would like to mention is continuous reading. As I have built up my vocabulary, I become fascinated by all kinds of articals including news, political commontary, editorials, movie reviews, and celebrity story, business trends, blogs etc. I keep the habit of collecting new words and expressions which I will integrate in my own writing and light up the whole essay.

In a word, it is a blessing to have good mentors and so many useful rescources at hand.

lacychang

Speaking

This is definitely not my forte and I am still working on it. It was an irony that after over 20 years of English learning, I was a paper tiger who could garner points in school exams but became totally dumb here in an English speaking country. Again, I cannot over estimate the importance of practice and pushes. The first instructor in my speaking class is a middle-aged Russian-Canadian woman who is outspoken and humorous. She always cheered us up by recounting her own embarrassing experiences of unprepared speeches that went wrong. It is almost her motto that you have to practice, practice, and practice. I have to admit I am not a quicker learner as I had't discerned visible progress in the first year. The reason in part is that I hadn't practiced enough to reach the threshold to make a leap. As a result, my speaking skill lagged behind other skills. The dramatic consequence was that I felt very intimidated to make everyday contact. But the most devastating part was that due to this crippled skill, I had blown up many precious chances after interviews. The only solution is practice, practice, and practice. I envy those people who said they had met native speakers willing to help them with their speaking. To me and I guess most of us, this is only a delusion. Most native speakers will not do such a thing out of altruism, which is understandable. So I recorded myself on my laptop again and again. The progress was slow and tedious. My hubby refused to comment on my recording which was not something I was proud of. Arguablly, they were really horrible, plagued with hesitation and mispronunciation. I guess it would be a torture to a native speaker to talk with me.

lacychang

After several heartbreaking rejections, I made up my mind to break this bottleneck. One of the instructors recommended Toastmaster club as our class came to an end but we still had so much room for improvement. Fortunately I found one chapter of the club in my neighborhood and joined it without hesitation. At the club meeting, I found myself an most impossible interloper as most members are native speakers or bilingual. In the impromptu speech session, I was too shy to participate as they are way out of my league. The only chance for me to speak up is prepared speech because my writing skill is solid. All I needed to do is to write a speech and learn it by heart, which actually won me some accolades in the club meeting. But impromptu speech was still my headache.

lacychang

In hindsight, I realize my limitation was due to lack of practice and casual vocabulary. I have built a broad vocabulary of formal written English which does not apply to everyday conversation. So I began watch TV programs to learn how they talk in everyday setting not only news broadcast. I have found they always use simple words and a variety of expressions in their conversation. During this period, I have been immerged in all kinds of TV shows from sitcoms such as The Big Bang Theory, the Flash, Crime Secene Invistigation, Blue Blood, Law and Order, and Grey's Anatomy to talk shows such as the Ellen DeGeneres Show and reality shows, Dragon's Den, Master Chef and the Amazing Race.  With caption on, I look up unfamiliar expressions and new words. More importantly, I have learned the tone, intonation and stress in sentences and try my best to imitate them. Also, I read out loud some articles and lurk in English forums to see how native speaker carry out conversation. This approach turns out very effective after a few months of practice. To prepare for my interview, I set up a Skype account and invited a few like-minded applicants on the forum for some on-line preps which was a huge success. Those native speakers were willing to reschedule more preps after first contact which boosted my confidence considerably.

lacychang

From those preps, I have recognized that although English is not my mother tongue and I may not beat up native speakers simply based on fluency of the language, I have my strengths, such as my experiences, knowledge and analytic skills which may well grant me a winning margin. As interview is not to test tongue twist, what we can do is to keep cool and calm no matter what situation we are thrown into and quickly come up with a response that shows our depth, thoughtfulness, and other skills intended to test. It is easier said than done, but with practice and critical reflection, it is attainable.

lacychang

Good luck to you all! If you are still struggling with English, hang on there and hold your heads up. All your endeavors will pay off and you will be able to kick some butts at the interview. You can count me on it!

流星蝴蝶

Thanks for sharing!
Your writing skill is very strong!

lacychang

流星蝴蝶 发表于 2015-6-29 09:16
Thanks for sharing!
Your writing skill is very strong!

Thank you! I still have a long way to go.

calgaryman

hi, how about now