标题: A letter from my American friend [打印本页] 作者: 菜籽 时间: 2007-2-5 22:43 标题: A letter from my American friend The following is a letter from my American friend Jenny. She's a master degree in media and recently got her teaching certificate. Her husband and she stay in my apartment for the moment.
In her letter we can catch a glimpse of the Amercians' ideas, quite interesting [M05]
Hi R,
I really admire you for always looking for ways to improve your English. I assure you your level is much higher than most foreigners living in the United States. It seems like Chinese English speakers who want to improve will be willing to work very hard. I guess my best advice is that (at a certain point) it is more useful to learn new vocabulary than to worry about having perfect grammar. No one does, and you really only need it when writing papers. I have suggested to some people that they read 1 article from one of the better English language newspapers every day and look up any words they don't know. In fact, most native English speakers could benefit from doing that as well.
I think it is very difficult for an American to learn Mandarin because we normally have no exposure to other languages as children. This is a problem that I think will be addressed within the next 10 years, and Mandarin will be one of the most common languages for U.S. children to have some experience with. I am very excited about this because I think American children will benefit from the exposure even if they never come to China or speak Chinese. I heard someone say in a lecture once that "You don't learn another language, you learn a different way of looking at the world." That is what is so lacking in our culture now. I don't think Americans need to travel outside the U.S. if they don't really want to, but I don't think we can advance as a culture if we do not begin to appreciate other points of view about the world. This has not been the strength of our education system.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you our teacher for spoken Mandarin is not strong in English, and we would find it difficult to give him suggestions. Also, we don't know if this is culturally wise. In the U.S. teachers sometimes like suggestions for how they should teach because it means the students care enough to take some initiative. But here, with a culture and language gap, we are not very sure of ourselves.
See you tomorrow (most likely),
J
[M24] [M05] [本帖由菜籽修改于2007-02-05 22:49:18]作者: mylautriv 时间: 2007-2-26 19:07 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 睡觉前翻翻唐诗,觉得老外的废话真多,写了一萝筐,就是一个意思.作者: sunwave 时间: 2007-2-27 16:11 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend
[M01]作者: 秋水 时间: 2007-2-28 11:14 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 英语、英语，my god!作者: os 时间: 2007-2-28 11:57 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 不懂，看见阿拉拍字母就头大 [M20] ，就想 [M41] [M41] [M41]作者: 橡皮泥 时间: 2007-4-3 13:20 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 大概懂吧!作者: 兴高彩烈 时间: 2007-4-3 13:25 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 想得到，做不到， [M24]作者: 闲鱼 时间: 2007-4-3 21:16 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 坚持学英语不太容易。除非有很强的动力，比如多记一个单词老板加一元薪 [M04] [M04]作者: kaven 时间: 2007-9-15 11:23 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 可以试着参加一些培训班了,可能英语就会好点,作者: yina 时间: 2007-9-15 15:07 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend “I have suggested to some people that they read 1 article from one of the better English language newspapers every day and look up any words they don't know. “
似曾相识作者: JIMMY CHOO 时间: 2007-9-17 16:12 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 偶有很多老板给我的英文原版的VOGUE,ELLE，好难读啊。作者: 小鱼儿 时间: 2007-9-17 20:08 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 引用作者 mylautriv 于 2007-2-26发表的原文
睡觉前翻翻唐诗,觉得老外的废话真多,写了一萝筐,就是一个意思.
有同感！！！作者: loverwife666 时间: 2007-9-18 17:37 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 俺是哑巴英语,,能看不能说 [M20] [M41]作者: helbo 时间: 2007-9-19 00:57 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 如果ＪＪ有个ＥＮＧＬＩＳＨ ＣＯＲＮＥＲ，坚持起来会容易些 [M04]作者: mesusan 时间: 2007-9-19 01:00 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 唉，只是心情不好，不然偶到是有兴趣作者: 听风不是雨 时间: 2007-9-21 13:30 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 报告LZ，偶看懂了、、、全部是英文来的。 [M04]作者: HicksChan 时间: 2007-9-23 20:43 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 感觉更像是中国人写的，那种language_feel，LZ怎么把人家给你的信拿来发表啊，老美知道了会angry的 [M09]
还有，你应该让她就该信写一封中文翻译，这样她得到练习Mandarin的机会，特别照顾了我们群里的同志们~~~~作者: 菜籽 时间: 2007-9-25 08:06 标题: Re: A letter from my American friend 这么老的帖子还有人翻出来啊
^_^，这个美国朋友现在在中信广场旁边的EF教书。征得她同意之后，我把她写给我的东东贴出来，觉得对学英语的朋友会有所裨益 [M05] 。 [M04] [本帖由菜籽修改于2007-09-25 08:07:29]