How to Chinese People Learn English?

[Lino]

Hi everyone,

I’ve had some great advice to learn Chinese on this website, memrise probably being my favourite tip.

I am however teaching adults and am getting questions like “how can I improve my oral English and my listening skills?”. Although I always give them the obvious answers (English corner, chat with a foreigner, etc) I wonder if there are any websites or other tips to learn English.

A very good tool to improve listening skills and at the same time broaden the mind would be http://www.ted.com. The most popular videos have English and Chinese subtitles which is great for listening skills and learning some advanced English.

Any other suggestions?

[Ian]

BBC Takeaway English

[Miya]

I guess it would depend on the level of student’s English and his/her purpose of learning. TED is good for familiarize oneself with different accents, as for acquiring one, perhaps expose oneself to a constant accent is better, like watching the BBC for received pronunciation (or other british accents).

I guess English corner would be of some use for beginners, at least it is an occasion people wouldn’t cringe about uninteresting conversation being spoken among (mostly) Chinese. It won’t help advanced learners if they are not interested in socializing there for they constantly have to bear with the broken English of others and probably pay a fee for being Chinese there :/. and for intensive- ‘where are you from/what do you do/how long you’ve been~’ avoidance, don’t go.

Chat with native English speakers is good for recognizing and adapting their diction/tone-of voice, but unless with teacher or those who are willing to help and explain, chatting alone won’t help much in improving one’s understanding of more complicated meaning, since the student would only tend to pick-up and respond the things he/she already knows, whilst omit the more complicated things said.

for me reading/study-of-text is a slow yet efficient way of improving English, reading would help building vocabulary gradually which could be easily sort in categories or to be put in context for use, better if it’s guided by a native English speaker. I’d recommend John L. Seitz’s Global Issues for improving essay writing skills, the text is clearly-structured and well-argued and easy-to-learn. quite similar to watching Ted, I find reading interviews/conversations (such as A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney) is an efficient way of learning ways of speaking whilst inspiring critical thinking/broadening mind, it allows the reader time to pick up things and digest. or find a topical post in for example Guardian’s Comment is Free, and read its readers’ comments ;P
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/commentisfree

[Charlie]

There are many different ways, but I notice that the way that most Chinese people learn English doesn’t serve them well. They all study English but very few people can actually speak English beyond hello, so here’s what I suggest to friends and people who ask me how to improve their English:

1. Watch movies and television shows, first with Chinese subtitles and then without, once their language skills are developed enough. This is great because all the English you see in movies or shows is natural, conversational English. Far more practical than the “book English” that most Chinese students study, which are filled with phrases that native speakers never use
2. Write down everything you learn, new words, phrases, and sentences. For me this step is crucial, I forget new vocabulary if I don’t physically write it down. Sometimes I’ll review what I’ve written in the past and it will lock it into long-term memory.
3. Spend time around native English speakers, either in a professional or social setting.
4. Date someone who’s a native English speaker. This might be a difficult one to pull off, but if you can, this is probably the fastest way. Ideally an English speaker who doesn’t speak Chinese! There are plenty of them in Chengdu. This is good not only for language exchange but cultural exchange and broadening your horizons.
5. There are a lot of iPhone apps for English learners, although I find most of the Chinese ones are terrible quality. I know someone who develops a popular iPhone app for learning vocabulary, called 囧记单词, which uses cartoons and humor to teach English. That might be worth checking out.

[msinglynx]

When I was learning Spanish, and now with Chinese, I like watching movies and listening to music and trying to write down what I hear as quickly as possible. I avoid rewinding (ha! What’s the new word for that? Replaying?) and just pause while trying to write it down. I try to find faster audio each time or replay the same thing several times. I find the first few times I dont understand shit and just write a garbled mess of sounds but it resolves itself into words and meanings fairly quickly. Thats also how I compare the sound to the words written on the screen (when watching chinese movies) so I’ve picked up a lot of words that way too. Closed caption is definitely my friend.

For advanced learners I’d recommend Aaron’s entrepreneurship meetups, or the other business meet up. I think there is also a toast masters in town. Couchsurfing.org is great for making friends with shared interests (most people there have traveling as their primary interest) and I’ve met a lot of local people and foreigners there who share my hobbies.

[Author]

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