第六届希望之星大学组决赛选手梁晓：学习经验

　　我是这样学英语的：

　　Learning English is a long and accumulating process. Don’t trust that you could ever grasp this foreign language within one day or a short period of time. I started learning English in junior high school. At that time I lived in rural area of Changsha, where English was regarded as a rare thing. Fortunately, I had a wonderful beginning teacher, Ms. Ma. She has a nice voice and an excellent grasp of the foreign language. Also, my mother, who was an “intellectual youth” from the Cultural Revolution time, taught me to memorize and use the language. I believe these two factors contributed a lot to my great interest in English. Later on I became a representative for the course and exchanged ways of learning the language with fellow students on different occasions. Sometimes to present the ideas of how to learn and learn from others would increase your understanding of the whole process of learning.

　　I became an English major at Hunan University. Carefully following the instructions of my Chinese and foreign teachers, I wrote down my thoughts everyday in English – diaries. Although the usage of the language at that time was far from perfect, I am still proud of myself being brave enough to make a try.

　　My graduate area was linguistics and applied linguistics. Linguistics is quite boring. But from the two to three years of Master’s studies I realized that every language has certain rules and regulations. Knowing this could enhance our way of approaching and gaining the language.

　　In 1999, I went to Canada through a joint academic program. I first studied for about one year as a visiting scholar. Then I successfully applied for a PhD program. This time I chose education as my major. In the four years when I was in Canada, my English was improved very quickly. The most important reason is that I was using the language every day: in class, at home, in shopping centers, on buses, in social activities. Therefore I believe an English environment that requires us to use the language is very crucial. In addition, one person’s personality counts. Being open and courageous, I attended many social events, met plenty of English-speaking people of different background, and of course, made some Canadian friends whom I could talk with in any time. Communication makes great sense here. I communicated with friends, fellow students and foreign teachers, just to exchange ideas in the target language. Making mistakes was quite common. This does not matter much. What matters is that you are brave enough to try and to learn from what you experienced. In China, we should try to create an English-learning environment instead of only focusing on “book English.”

　　When I started learning the language I tried to memorize the vocabulary and imagine every sentence as a live picture. English for me has never been dull and I even regarded English, the subject, as a kind of entertainment out of the heavy workload when I was approaching College Entrance Examination.

　　Today as a university administrator and teacher, I still keep learning and using the language every moment I can. Among my job responsibilities, I hire foreign teachers form abroad and am in charge of the foreign teachers affairs in my college. This brings a lot of opportunities for communication --- communication of language, culture and studies. I like my students and would always share with them my thoughts about learning.

　　同事的文章

　　I first came to know Stephanie Xiao Liang as a fellow student in my home country; Canada. We were both enrolled in a University Teaching Certificate course at the University of Calgary, along with 25 other students, some of whom, like herself were also foreign students.

　　As in any class, there are always those few who seem to stand out. Those who participant rather than observe, those who are not afraid to speak their mind and offer their point of view, those who contribute, Stephanie was one of those students.

　　Generally speaking most of the foreign students were very shy and soft spoken, not so with Stephanie. She was an example, always encouraging the other Asian students to speak out regardless of their language barriers.

　　Stephanie was an involved foreign student, volunteering her time to other students and fellow Chinese in Canada; that’s why I’m here today. Her dream to come back to China to make a change in the education system encouraged me to come here to meet the people she loved and wanted to help.

　　Now I find myself in her shoes so to speak, a foreigner in her home country; China. As colleagues at the International College, in Changsha， Hunan, I see the way she encourages our students in their English language studies. Working to help them seek and fulfill their dream of going abroad and in turn, return to China bringing back new ideas to make changes like herself. As well she challenges herself by working towards a better future for the Chinese students and those who work with her by choosing not to speak Chinese when it would be so much easier for everyone if she did. She makes herself an example.

　　In a society of people where losing face is often considered a weakness, Stephanie is living proof that hard work, doing your best, facing your fears and never turning back, will bring you your biggest rewards. Even losing face, should not be considered your greatest failure but your greatest lesson in life.

　　Facing an English competition is no easy fate, even for a native speaker and when I see Stephanie rise to the challenge to face her fears, I am in awe of the strength she carries to show her students that anything is possible, as long as you try.

　　There is a saying that goes: “If you are at ease with yourself in the world, the world will be at ease with you”. I can say for certain, that Stephanie is a person at ease with herself and for those of us who know and work with her, her ease helps us as foreign teachers feel at ease and believe that we too can make a change.

　　Certainly in our conversations Stephanie expresses her doubts and fears of failure and the, “what ifs’” in life but who doesn’t. The only barriers that hold us back are the barriers we build for ourselves.

　　As a friend and colleague Stephanie has supported, taught and encouraged not only myself but many of us here at the University. She is not only an example to students, and young teachers, she is an example to us so called Foreign Experts of English who if faced with the same challenge of learning a new language and making it our own , might not be as brave as she. In my books Stephanie; “ROCKS” !

　　(Foreign teacher from Canada: Ms. Lily E. Visser)