英语"666" 生活职场胜一筹
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时间:2008-05-26 00:00:00 作者:Sarah
简述 :My time in China has been and continues to be challenging simply
Taught in
Sarah
你快乐所以我快乐 |
I am currently teaching English to adults at
And then of course, there are the students, who still make my day, everyday. From those who can barely pronounce their own names to those who are all but fluent, each one of them has something to share or give or tell. Oftentimes my classes are little more than cultural lessons, for both me and the students. I have been able to absorb more about
foreigners were these nameless, heartless beings who all looked the same,but after meeting so many of them within GLV, their opinions have drastically changed.
There is nothing like hearing a student say "You are my first foreignfriend!" or "You are the first foreigner I have ever spoken to." Coming from NJ, that's amazing to me! I especially enjoy sharing western music w/ my students; I teach a class on the history of rock and roll and we talk a/b racial tension and
你精彩所以我精彩
Today I stood in front of twelve adults and asked them to please describe to me and the eleven others in the room their short and long-term goals. Of these adults, one was a young woman working on her university degree. One was a moderately successful businessman who had recently quit his job. One was pregnant. Another was waiting on a visa, and yet another was a manager at an international trading company. Their long-term goals included such things as “get a lot of money”, “be a successful mother”, and “start my own business”. Short-term goals included “find my ideal job”, “get married”, and, from each and every one, “improve my English”.
I am 22 years old. I have a bachelor’s degree. I got a hard-earned education at an expensive liberal arts school. My major was anthropology. I do not want to be an anthropologist.
你进步所以我进步
I work as a teacher at a private English immersion school in the south of
of respect that exists regardless of first languages, cultural differences,
and the ability to use tricky utensils. Because I work with adults as opposed to children (which as I understand it, most English teachers in
I am engaged in constant, intensive cultural exchange. Oftentimes my classes are little more than a lesson on the differences between the West and
你骄傲所以我骄傲 |
I spend most of my day listening to Chinglish and do my best to refrain from speaking it, but as with any language, if you are immersed in it, it is all but impossible not to pick it up. More than once I have caught myself dropping articles and rearranging sentences in such a way as to communicate a concept in as few words as possible.
Chinglish, while it often resembles a jumble of sounds strung together with hope and determination, and though it may take a good deal of questioning and inference to decipher, can also lend itself to a purity of language seldom achieved by native English speakers. Native speakers of any language have a canon of words at their disposal with
which to express the subtleties of how one thinks and feels. As one’s knowledge of a language grows, so too grows the intricacy of ideas one can express, and the ways in which one can express those ideas. A native speaker is able to call upon words that convey layered images rooted in the shared experience of culture. And culture itself is enmeshed, oftentimes beyond conscious comprehension, in language.
你自豪所以我自豪 |
imagination, and resourcefulness. Listening to my students speak brings me confusion and delight. Sentences are choppy and hard-won and blunt; words are basic but carry with them a certain weight owing to sincerity. If you listen long enough, attentively enough, a few lines of simple, strong poetry will be your unexpected and tender reward. Non-native speakers are able to communicate an emotion or opinion in a form undiluted by any excess of concepts or syllables.
When you are in a situation that requires communication by any means necessary, you learn quickly those words that most effectively and efficiently get your point across. They are words used commonly by native speakers, and so in conversation between one native speaker to another they may not carry much meaning. Non-native speakers
compensate a limited vocabulary and are able to breathe new life into seemingly tired words by relying on animated facial expressions, priceless body language, and unrivaled earnestness.
Before I asked my students about their goals, I told them mine. “My Short term goals,” I said, “well, to be a good teacher of course.” A few students laughed. I went on to tell them, in not quite the same words, that I thought a good teacher was approachable, patient, and to some extent difficult to please. And that just as important as having a good teacher, if not more so, was taking the initiative to learn from one another; “I can teach you English, but I can’t make you learn. You will only learn
if you speak, and I expect you to speak your mind. I came to
People endeavor to learn new languages for any number of personal reasons, but humans, as a group, do so to fulfill one very basic need: communication. To be able to speak more than one language is to be able to communicate with a wider group of people. Language allows us access to a wealth of information that would otherwise be
out of reach. As I tell my students, language is our primary tool of self-expression; it is a system through which ideas can be channeled and shared and realized in a more concrete form. Language is an equalizer: in cannot cancel out cultural differences, but it can surely smooth the way to cross-cultural communication.
你成长所以我成长 |
world. Until now I have been bound to the way English makes tangible those things that frame my worldview. By learning a new language, I can look at the world and see it in more than one way, in more than one language. Familiarizing myself with the way the Chinese see the world has been an attempt in two languages, though I have admittedly been able to glean much more of
me of their lives, their culture, through English, but I feel as thought I will not be able to fully appreciate their observations until I can communicate with them in their own terms. So I, like many of my students, am determined to acquire those skills that allow me to
learn about the world from those people with a very different understanding of it. For now though, I can only hope that I give my students as much to ponder as they give me, in whichever language they choose.
编辑:Cathy Zheng郑雁
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