【老外说】是一档以“采访”老外为主的节目，帮助大家更好的了解中西文化差异，一窥英国人、美国人日常生活。每周一更新。本栏目适合精听/泛听。可做听写练习。

怎样才能学好英语？是抱着红宝书绿宝书背单词吗？是抱着“张道真章振邦”学语法吗？今天的老外说，是一位来自英国，在乌克兰从事英语教学的独立教师，让我们一起来听听他的观点。

English here is very very popular.A lot of people need it for work, for business. Maybe they have international relations in their business work. It’s a universal language. For example, I’ve got one student, and she is concerned that her English wasn’t that good, and she is now going away on vacation. So she wants to just practice English a little bit to feel confident. I think it’s just they feel more in contact with the rest of the world, they feel that if they go somewhere, if they travel to Europe, if they travel to America or wherever, they have a language they can rely on. They know they can communicate with it rather than their native language.

Gwen

What do you usually teach them?

It literally depends on every individual student.

I’ve got a couple of students that are solely/more inclined to learn business English. So we will go through business dialogues and how to present yourself in a business meeting etc, go through different ... like grammar and things like that.

But, for example, I have one student. He is quite particular. He doesn’t like a formal lesson. He doesn’t want to come to me and stay at a desk and have a lesson. He likes to just sit in a coffee place. Have a coffee and talk, let it come naturally. He likes to just talk about anything, just spend time talking with a native speaker.

It depends on what they want. Every individual student is different. Some like to talk a lot, some just like to talk at you cause they want to practice their speech. Some prefer listening more and just learn. It all depends.

So you have leant English by yourself without anyone to guide you?

Gwen

Yes, I’ve learnt it all by myself actually. But I do like English movies and series, and I like listening to English songs. I think those are all very good learning materials.

Definitely. I think you need to use every sense you’ve got. So you read, and listen, and speak. Obviously that’s a very important one to speak.

I think learning a language doesn’t have to be all really complicated. I always think I like it back when you’re a child and you learn your native language. When you’re a child, you don’t sit down at three years old with big text books, you just listen and you pick up the sounds and you start say certain things, and you start talking.

I think sometimes when we’re adults, we kind of think oh it’s a big complicated process we need to do, and it isn’t. We just need to try and talk. The more we talk, the more we listen, the more we immerse ourselves in the language.

For example, I’ve been learning Russian for about four years. I’m here in Ukraine and they speak Russian and Ukrainian, so I’m immersed in the Russian language. I’m here every single day, on the bus, everywhere. So every time you’re hearing it, even if it’s kind of passive，you'll get in that practice. You’re hearing phrases that maybe you already know, so that kind of getting cemented in your brain; and things that you’ve just learnt, it helps you to remember. So like you said, you watch movies, that’s a great way, cause you’ve immersed yourself in it.

If you just go to one English lesson every week, you probably not gonna learn that much, unless you’ve got real good memory you gonna remember everything. But if you do something everyday, like you said, listening to songs, it’s a great way especially you like the song, you can listen to the song, you’re enjoying the song and then you end up singing it, and you’re just naturally learning the language (Oh I know what that means now, I’m remembering it.).

I like to think logically. I like to think that things don’t have to be difficult. Most things are quite simple. Sometimes in life we can overcomplicate things. We like to make it all complicated and difficult, and it isn’t really. This is why I use the illustration of a child. I hear three or four year old children, they’re still learning, but they’re speaking quite well. They do not go to university to learn that. They just pick it up. They learn it. They just practice. And they’re practicing without knowing they’re practicing. All we need to do is just do it and just relax. Try not to make it something big and difficult. To be honest, to me it’s just common sense.

Gwen

I don’t know what the situation is in Ukraine, but actually in China, Chinese students are so into English grammar. That is something really complicated. They would analyze every sentence or how the words are combined together as a sentence.

But actually I think spoken English and communication with the language is totally different from doing a lot of researching on grammar. The concept of Chinese students (about) learning English should be transformed as a four or five year old, to focus on the language itself instead of grammar or pronunciation or anything. Because communication is the utmost important thing in language.

Obviously grammar is important to a certain degree.

I’ve got one student. I’m doing some grammar with her and she’s struggling with it, because there’re so much of it to understand, there’re a lot of irregular things as well. And you can’t just sit down with someone and say “right, this is the grammar for this.”To learn grammar like a native is going to take a long time for some people.

If you think like “what tense should I use now I need to try and communicate.” You can’t do that. When you communicate with someone, you can’t go “right, what tense do I need to use now. Should I use past perfect, should I use...” That’s not how it works. You need to communicate. Yeah, you need some basic grammar rules and you can learn that on the side, but don’t make it a big deal like I need to learn all the grammar first before I can communicate properly.

Some people who have minds very quickly might be able to do that. But general most people take a long time. The most important thing is to speak, to talk.

I also think it's like to go into a gym. If I go to a gym and I just stand around, drinking water, and I don’t go on an equipment and use it, I’m not gonna build my muscle. But if I go to the gym and I’m often using the equipments, I’m gonna get strong. It’s like speaking English, if you don’t use it, if you don’t speak, you’re not gonna build that muscle. Your brain is like muscle, if you don’t exercise it properly to communicate, and try and talk with someone...even if you make mistakes, it doesn’t matter, you can learn from your mistakes. People can correct you. But like you said the key thing is try and talk to someone and express. What you’re trying to express, that’s the main thing, and everything else could be polished gradually in time.

Gwen

Chinese English learners are also so into mistakes. They’re so afraid of making mistakes. That’s why they’re afraid of speaking up. Because they’re afraid of getting shameful. They want every sentence they speak up to be correct and perfect, but how is that possible if you don’t speak up.

People that learn another language really need to try and leave all those negative thoughts-being ashamed and embarrassed. They need to leave it at the door actually I would say. Because you can’t successfully learn a language if you gonna be too shy to speak and too embarrassed and too scared that you gonna make so many mistakes.

Because you just climb up and you’ll be nervous and you won’t be able to ... When I’m speaking Russian I always speak that when I’m relaxed and I’m just going with the flow. If I start thinking “oh, I’m gonna make some mistakes”, it messes it up. Because you’re nervous you can’t think. So people that learn another language need to just do it. Everyone understand “hey, that’s not your native language. I expect you to make mistakes. I don’t expect you to speak like a native.”

And even native speakers make mistakes. Where I used to work, my old job, there were people there who would use the most awful grammar because it was their dialect, the way they spoke in that part of the country.

We all make mistakes, and if you’re not native, then you shouldn’t be embarrassed at all. You should be proud of yourself that you’re trying and people should be proud of you that “hey, you’re trying to speak my language. You’re making an effort. It must be difficult for you. It’s not your native language though.”

英语到底应该怎么学呢？