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6 years ago, I passed CET-6 in a Chinese University without even preparing for the test. The other classmates were impressed and they thought my English should be pretty good. But the fact is

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The fact is my oral communication is still below the average after living in Canada for 4 years.

In fact, I am bad at oral communication, either in English or Mandarin due to my personality.
When I was in primary school, I liked talking but sometimes I could not pronounce a single word very clearly. At that time, my parents always interrupt me during the talk, and tried to correct my pronounciation errors.
As I attempted to continue with talking, they stopped me again and again, so I could not finish a whole sentence after repeating many times.
Unfortunately, my pronounciation skill was not improved at all. But it later brought a life-long problem to me: I became reluctant to talk. Any time when I noticed that my accent was different from other people, I felt ashamed and lost all the confidence. Now I prefer to keep quite, because the others must be laughing at me, they are not willing to listen to me, and even if they listened, they might not understand me.

I know that verbal skill is very helpful for living better in Canada.
I tried to be positive, but it is really hard to overcome the mental barriers.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
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  • 工作学习 / 外语学习 / 我学习英语的经历
    本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛我在大学里的英语就算是平均。大二上学期过了4级,下学期过了6级,都是随大溜儿。大四学校里有两个外教,一个年轻的女老师教我们,上课的时候知道她来自 MICHGAN。我们当时不知道怎么学口语。所以上课都是没大留心,当然也没学到什么东西。同级有个女同学,口语相当的流利,对话不成问题,而且口音也好。但据说总是过不了6级,当时瞧不起她,觉得理解不了。口语这么好,怎么会过不了6级呢?

    初来多伦多,开始上 LINC 班。里面什么人种都有,似乎也没学到什么,年代久远,也记不很清了。然后开始学校里的生活。基本生活对话就算是可以了,吃个饭,买个菜,也没难为到。上课就是大问题。我上过 CHEMISTRY 2 和 ANIMAL。真是特别难。尤其是ANIMAL,诸多生僻词。终究拿了个 C。后来上些 COMPUTER SCIENCE 的课,就算省力些,因为生词少。

    两年左右之后,开始到美国上班。好在有两个年龄大的人带着,有什么事儿他们担着,我没有什么太吃力,但是每天的压力特别大,除了技术上的交流尽量避免。有EMAIL都得让人先修改,才能发。想想每个 EMAIL都是如此,开始工作很不容易。这样的工作一个接一个,都是给同一个 TEAM干活,所以压力逐渐减低。慢慢开始熟悉。但是还有早7点去晚11点回,持续3个月,赶技术要求,赶技术报告的时候。这些都上手了之后,开始趾高气昂起来,觉得自己行了。

    我曾有篇短文,说自己求学 MBA 的过程。这是我的英语一个巨大的进步过程。我倡导 HARD TRAINING,没有任何投机取巧的 HARD TRAINING。只有这样才能从根本进步。在这近两年在校生活,我和美国同学同讨论同作业。我们课上的讨论很多很多。如果你不参与,没有人会说什么,但是会冷落你。这和别人看你不说话,就不会和你谈很多话一个道理。这冷落尴尬的感觉直入脊髓,冷冷的。还有一个进步,是写。作业很多,有很多类似于报告又有很多分析的东西。我初期的时候用 GOOGLE,东拼西凑。慢慢开始发现自己连拼带写的东西自己都没法读,老师会有耐心读完吗?开始自己写,挤牙膏似的,真难啊。可是写也得写,不写也得写,慢慢就写得多了,从简单的叙事,到后来加入逻辑分析和总结,再到后来的为了更好的可读性的修改 … 这个写的过程出了校门就算是完成了3,4成的样子了。到了这里,又觉得自己行了,又趾高气昂了一阵子。

    今天再看,在大概7,8年间,总结以上的收获,就是词汇量,说话的勇气,和基本的交流。这些交流维持了在异国他乡生活学习工作的基本需要。有些人学得快些,有些人慢些,但是我想,我们这些25,26岁以上才踏出国门的人,5年的时间总需要吧?

    最近2年内,我反复听到有人评论我的英语是PSEUDO,大概是假大空的意思,让人不能完全明白。再最近的评论就是 SHORT GUN,急于RELOAD,意思是在别人说话的时候,没有倾听,而是急于组织自己要说的话。最最FUNDAMENTAL 的是,没有认真的把对话人放在同等的位置上,就是EGO 在作怪。工作生活(还有论坛)上不断遇到刺激,逐渐的,我就总结出自己的这些弱点,领会到 IDENTIFY PROBLEM 的好处了。

    关于 PSEUDO和SHORT GUN 的毛病,我开始回到原始状态:用简单句,学习西人用的词,越简单越达意最好。平时常用的词里面的 MEANING是我们把英语当2语在国内的时候无法体会的。比如 VERY UNLIKELY ,我直面理解是不可能但也有可能。可是这里很多时候是 IMPOSSIBLE 的意思了。HIGHLY RECOMMEND我的直面理解是很推荐,这里是FORCE的委婉说法。SHORT GUN 的毛病也可以通过简化解决,也可以通过 PAUSE 解决。这里提到 PAUSE,我开始觉得冷场很不好,孰不知PAUSE 有时比不善言辞的人热场胡说磕巴说强很多很多。

    简化还有个巨大的好处是定心。说话的时候不紧张不乱,才能表达清楚。在直接对话的压力下,如果语言还是障碍,那简化和 PAUSE就是很好的技巧了。这些能使一个人镇静,从而从容的表达自己的意思。

    学习的过程中总是有各种弯路和转弯儿,高高低低。越把自己的希望放平,总是收获越大,起码对我是这样。

    共勉。更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
    • 共勉!
    • 你的强项是在发音 语调方面模仿能力很强。但英文毕竟是你的第二语言(当然也是我的),所以当你的表达方式和用词方面的准确性欠佳的时候,很容易给本地人一种pseudo的感觉。
    • 本人有个波兰的同事,10岁来加拿大,现在三十出头,在本人听来,他的英文说得和本地人别无二致,但那些正宗的加拿大本地同事还是能听出他的第一语言不是英文。
      • 学无止境, 听力需要提高. 10岁重新学习一种语言很有可能有口音, 不足为怪. 我的波兰同事5岁移民,二十多年后还是能听出口音. 还可能是那所谓的正宗本地同事戴有色眼镜,他们也会说有些纽芬兰人英语不是第一语言的.
      • 这位波兰同事太可怜了。
        • 波兰音是一种非常典型浓重的口音,就算是什么都准了,但是他们最后就是不肯放弃那重重的 "g"的尾音。这也没什么,大多数波兰人都比爱尔兰苏格兰后代的聚集在警察局当差的本地白人优雅好几倍,聪明又美丽,爱文学爱音乐,这点口音算个啥?
        • 很不明白,有什么可怜的哪?
          • 俺是替酱油哥说话呢。
      • It's okay to have accent, as far as one can make himself clear to others. There is a manager from Hong Kong. People are able to understand his slow and clear speaking, although with strong accent.
        • I always believe keeping accent is pretty cool thing for immigrants.
          • lol. Yes it's cool. Accent is not really an issue, incorrect pronunciation is.
          • Confused! The accent still makes other people misunderstood!right?
      • 那是因为他在家说波兰语
      • 挺热闹。那个波兰同事没有任何波兰口音。语音语调与本地人没有任何区别。之所以被本地人听出其英文不是第一语言,是因为偶尔在用词和表达方式方面与本地人有细微的出入。本人的意思是,说地道英文对移民来说是很难的事。极使过了语音关,还有表达方式这个无法逾越的鸿沟。
        • I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But I do think that it would be a good start for you to learn and acknowledge the subtle (or not so subtle) differences between “elite”
          I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But I do think that it would be a good start for you to learn and acknowledge the subtle (or not so subtle) differences between “elite” and “talent”, “narrow miss” and “near miss”, etc. You might be pleasantly surprised that it is not an insurmountable hurdle to master the nuances of the English language.
          • 你的英文与我的波兰同事的英文根本不属于一个档次,他未能自如运用的微妙表达,你很可能连听都没听过,不必动辄摆出一副教师的姿态。narrow miss 和 near miss 究竟有没有你认为的区别,本人发给你的链接就是证明,你从未正面应对。
            至于elite 和talent 的区别,已经不是nuance的范畴,本人很熟悉这两个词的用法,之所以那么翻译,本人有自己的理由,早已在原帖解释过,此刻没兴趣再码字。
            • 酱油哥是大拿,他说的就是唯一的。 谁也比不过的。
              井底之蛙而已。哈哈哈。
              • 言重了吧。酱油哥其实不错的,就是没有能力承认错误。
                • OK. 他怎么那么轻易断言平凡姐的英语跟他10岁来加现在30岁的波兰同事根本不是一个档次呢? 人家平凡姐开始学英语是他同事还不知在哪儿呢, 平凡姐也许是大学教授, 比他们不知强到哪儿去呢. 酱油哥不必动辄摆出一副教师的姿态吗 :-)
            • Wow! Such agony! Such paranoia! Why oh why? Could it be because ...? Ok, ok, teasing aside, I trust that your Polish colleague dazzles you with his near perfect English and holds a special place in your heart. But
              that's no reason for you to make a totally fabricated statement. It's very unbecoming, espcially when you consider how proud you are of your manners and education. Maybe my English is better (or way better) than your Polish friend's. Who knows? But if it makes you feel better, I'll take the high road and just assume that your friend's is better? There, feel better already?

              Now let's go back to the debate on the meaning of "near miss" and "narrow miss". Did you know that you used a British local newspaper web page to try to prove your point? And it dates to the year of 2008!? May I suggest that you try to google "near miss" and let me know how many entries you can find? Maybe that could serve as a subtle hint to you?

              Last but not least, I do accept your criticism that I could be a bit condescending from time to time, a terrible habit from years of teaching. I promise I'll start to work on it as soon as I submit this reply.

              Thank you!
              • 我宣布, 我开始稀饭开心姐了.
              • bravo!酱油哥就是欠教育!他这个人最大的毛病就是接受不了批评。
                平姐英语真是好啊。
                • 酱油哥, 赶快出击啊! 我猜的很对, 平凡姐就是教授吗.
              • lol 看着这个帖子,脑子里一直想象着 ordinaryone 用上次录音的语调念将出来,得多欢乐啊...
                • That would be terrific!
              • 平常姐可是有二十年的专业积累的!
                • 酱油哥那个语感就怎么也看不出来。
                  • 酱油哥有不少优点, 可一个自恃清高唯我独尊的毛病把他身上的好东西都抹去了. 可惜啊.
                    • 是很可惜啊。俺敢保证酱油哥正在请他的波兰同事给平姐的帖子挑刺呢。
                      • 看看有几个语法错误啊. 沃, 还有拼写和用词.
                        • 语法拼写还有可能,用词对酱油哥来说比较 challenging。
                          • 那也未必吧. 酱油哥现在都认为 "professional elites"是地道英语呢.
              • It looks like your ego is way bigger than I thought. What makes you more pathetic is that you seem to be proud of it. But the question is: Do I care?
                There are some people on this forum who are never able to respect the facts and constantly drag healthy discussions to downward spirals with meaningless arguments. These people are nothing but diseases. If you want to join them, go right ahead. You are welcome.
                • 一个多钟头就交这样的作业? 打回去重写. 还号称是写报告的老手呢, 除了污蔑贬低别人, 长点真本事好不好? 看看你的遣词造句, 小学水平. 真替你害臊.
                  • 凭俺的语感,当一个人说 do i care 的时候,他是生气了,而且相当 care。
                    • 而且还用大写. 酱油哥就是不愿认错, 这是致命伤. 外面的世界真的很精彩呢. 要承认山外有山天外有天才能进步.
                      • 是啊是啊。酱油哥说有人把 healthy discussion 变成 downward spiral,俺觉着平姐的帖子就是 healthy discussion,酱油哥搞人身攻击就是 downward spiral。
                        • 把不同意他意见的网友说成是"These people are nothing but diseases"像是二年级孩子吵架的口气.
                          • 深究这个“near miss”和“narrow miss”平常姐的解释是对的,那是英语的惯用法,酱油哥的解释有点牵强!
              • Not that I care, this is just a reiteration of the significance of nuance: the result that comes back from your search is called "return", not "entry".
                • Ummmmmmmm, no. Return is not the right word here, definitely. If you insist, I could rephrase it to "the number of search results" instead of "how many entries you can find".
                  • That's the beauty of Chinglish. Have it my way :-)
                  • I am certain because this expression is frequently used at my work . We always say : how many returns , or in a more colloquial way, hits.
                    • Apparently you work with people mostly less educated. Even if they are local or whatever "search return" is not proper English at all. You certainly have learned quite a lot wrong things like "bang off" etc. .
                    • No again. "Hit" means a completely different thing. If you visit a website, it gets a "hit".
                      • The sad thing is that he never admits he's wrong or he can be wrong. Given where he works I am certain that most unlikely he would learn proper English.
                  • HILAAAAARIOUS! This just made my day!
                    • 你其实天天都在自己的小天地里沾沾自喜呢, 很为自己庆幸能和locals一起工作。 外面的世界更精彩, 走出来看看吧。
    • 听上去,别人说您的几条弱点是因为您把语言放到了交流之上。
    • 口语和书面语还是有不小区别的,老中学英语,容易把书面语当口语来说。学好口语的一个关键是要听学当地人怎么说的。
    • Thanks for sharing! You were a good student in the university! Very few can pass Level 6 at the end of second year.
    • 小C见多识广,就是有时候,有那么一点点
      乱。。。

      pseudo 是语言问题,short gun 是沟通问题,ego 是心态问题,太不是一码事了。

      另外 pseudo 不是假大空。
    • communication的能力与英语关系不大。小C明显把两个搞混了。
      • 应该关系很大!英语听说能力是好的communication的必要条件!
        • 英语水平达到及格水平即可进行有效沟通。换句话说,如果和人沟通不好,应该去学习沟通技巧,而不是恶补英语。
          • 及格水平就能有效沟通?现在哪个公司不要求雇员做文档,做presentation,参加或主持会议?不够用啊!
          • 一剂自我安慰, 自我麻醉, 或者说是自欺欺人的秘制良方.
      • 同意。交流能力和语言能力是不同的概念,虽然二者有一定的联系。有科学数据证明,有效的交流只有7%是靠言语来传递的,38%靠的是音量,节奏,音高等,55%靠的是肢体语言,面部表情。而后面这93%与人的个性关系很大。
        • 对于不会说话或者说不好话不会运用语言的人来说, 音量,节奏,音高,肢体语言,面部表情等等等于白搭. 这就跟哑巴英语一样. 好的语言驾驭能力是交流能力的基础和根本.
          • 英语如果不及格,那么就没有沟通。能说能写,但是技巧不足,这才是及格水平。
            • 有少数人总是有意无意地钻牛角尖,他们不像是来讨论问题的。
              • 酱油哥说说, 如果一个人连嘴都不张, 或者说也说不囫囵, 那他再自信, 再有你说的那些add-on有用吗?
        • 英语不好,在交流的时候要花相当一部份脑力去组织语言,相当于智商给降低了不少。如果这个时候还能交流得很好,说明你本身的沟通能力很强,打个折也够用。一般人没这么厉害,只能用母语比较高效地沟通。
          • 这也确实是我要表达的意思,没有你说得这么好,这么准确。谢谢。
    • 鼓掌!小C是个对自己有要求有反省有目标的人,mba念到了精髓,为你感到骄傲!巾帼大器,成功之才也, 坚持努力!就是有一个疑惑,需要我们大家一起来澄清一下。
      关于"short gun", 我怎么从来没有听说过? 刚才特意google了一下,也没有查到。

      我想,别人说的是不是"shotgun"? shotgun clause 在法律上一般指买卖股权是如果不按对方出价买就要从买家变成卖家,从而保证交易的公平性。如果做形容词,指泛泛而为,什么都要,结果因为方法行动缺乏重点而反而没有达到改进。

      另外对自己有要求有鸿鹄之志的人需要有一点 ego, 但要把ego 留给自己,把愉快与人分享,将启迪施予人,就象小c那样,挺好的!
      • thanks- learned a word today.
    • +1,Good Sharing! 25-6岁出国应该很好了,大多数技术移民都是30-40岁才出来
    • Pseudo English sounds to me meaning fake English, you are making up words that don't exist or make sense. Short gun? I have never heard of being used this way. Maybe, perhaps, possible that this is an example of your Pseudo English??
      Reload??? I haven't heard it expressed in this way either. All roads lead to Rome.
      • short gun is good English.
      • pseudo english is not fake english, not made up. a good example is "professional elite", both words are real, but both are pseudo.
        • Shortgun might be good English but have to admit that I couldn't make out its exact meaning here. Even asked a couple of local Canadians, never heard of, googled it, no result. Likely it's quite far out or obscure.
          That's exacetly what pseudo english means to me.
          • shortgun means someone puts a gun at your head and forces you to do things you don't like. it means you force your way through, not considering other people's feelings. in communications, it means you don't listen to others.
            • The only one I've heard of is shotgun, shotgun wedding, putting a gun to the head often when the girl got pregnant in the old days. But short gun, don't think so. Even shotgun doesn't make sense here.
              • 看来俺是记错了。
                • 错了不要紧,敢于认错就好。赞一下。
                  • 这个失误可是不小啊, 居然没挑出来. 鼓励一下, 希望更上一层楼.
            • 不能乱编啊!
              • 我抿着嘴偷偷地笑了.
    • 同感 那种冷如脊髓的感觉让我觉得自己是个不容与于世界的怪物 想逃走 又不知道逃到那哪儿 觉得所有人都没有兴趣听自己说话
      • communication 中90%是倾听分析,10%是说。
    • 6 years ago, I passed CET-6 in a Chinese University without even preparing for the test. The other classmates were impressed and they thought my English should be pretty good. But the fact is
      本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The fact is my oral communication is still below the average after living in Canada for 4 years.

      In fact, I am bad at oral communication, either in English or Mandarin due to my personality.
      When I was in primary school, I liked talking but sometimes I could not pronounce a single word very clearly. At that time, my parents always interrupt me during the talk, and tried to correct my pronounciation errors.
      As I attempted to continue with talking, they stopped me again and again, so I could not finish a whole sentence after repeating many times.
      Unfortunately, my pronounciation skill was not improved at all. But it later brought a life-long problem to me: I became reluctant to talk. Any time when I noticed that my accent was different from other people, I felt ashamed and lost all the confidence. Now I prefer to keep quite, because the others must be laughing at me, they are not willing to listen to me, and even if they listened, they might not understand me.

      I know that verbal skill is very helpful for living better in Canada.
      I tried to be positive, but it is really hard to overcome the mental barriers.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
      • 这个关键是放开心态,有些人天生不太愿意和别人交流,属于内向型。多锻炼,会好的。
      • If you feel reluctant to talk at work, why not try volunteering at hospitals, food banks or furniture banks? You’ll soon find out the need to communicate is much greater than the fear to speak.
        • Sounds interesting. How could I find these volunteer opportunities? Thanks.
          • a couple of links for you. have fun.
            • Thank you very much.
    • 同意"越简单越达意最好",很佩服小C,谢谢分享。
    • 看到你们几个吵架感觉很有趣。语言是一个表达思维的工具。英语,法语,日语,德语都类似。哪怕和霍金森一样连发音器官都没有也无所谓。。。重要的是人的思想。所谓的CRITICAL THINKING。你们听听渥太华的辩论,各种变态的口音,英语不好无所谓,一样控制几百亿加币的开支。
      秦晖,丁学良都是如此。他们的思维是贯穿中西,经济学,历史融会贯通。英文不好不影响思维。


      三毛,琼瑶也是如此,她们的刻画人物的细腻和委婉,相信绝大多数ROLIA的人都比不上。但是,她们仅仅是个情感作家,可以熟练应用使用汉语。遗憾的是,这两个女性思维层次还是很简单。


      根据木桶原理,最短的那个板决定木桶的容量。


      感觉绝大多数ROLIA的哥们,能安心把北美高中12年纪的人文课程,历史课程好好领会就不容易了。懂得历史中的大是大非,社会责任,北美的宪政民主等主要核心思想就不容易了。

      那个说什么波兰有口音的哥们,没有必要讨论。

      波兰,捷克,匈牙利等国家,虽然让希特勒看不起。但是即使如此,他们的文化就是欧洲的,上千年的文化传统和宗教熏陶就是欧洲的一部分,他们从小时候的神话就是欧洲的一个重要部分。。。。波兰人能领会欧洲的本质和核心,无论是说英语,法语,德语仅仅是个工具问题,无所谓。


      另外说一句,红卫兵,刺歌对北美人文,历史中的主要脉络,宪政结构等文化,连这里的9年纪学生都不如。估计他们两位听这里的高中12年纪的辩论会,根本听不懂。(或者能听懂,但是绝对不接受这里的宪政民主人文思想)

      中国人的文化短板是硬伤。
      • 知老师好! 改改昵称吧, 四个SSSS多不吉利. 想开点, 活着比什么都好. 祝圣诞新年愉快! -thornthorn($oOHoly MolyOo$); 20:58 (#7952990@0)
      • 你干嘛一贴发俩地儿啊?
    • Pro 就是pro......