Records from an English learning group

Records from an English learning group

16/7
Good morning! Study is a long journey, which is a hard job, but a happy job in our life. Get ready! Buckle up! Go!

Summer, noon, the sun is burning. The earth is melting. My blood is boiling. The vapor is bursting through my mouth, my noses, and even my eyes. Hot, very hot! It is indeed the summer.

18/7
We went to the Telegraph Building yesterday, which is one of the representative buildings of new China’s construction in 1950s. When we arrived there, it’s just 10 o’clock. After the beautiful melody of “East Red”, the bell rings next, bong, bong, bong, … The sound is not loud, but can be heard several miles away. People around the building have gotten used to the sound, get up in the morning hearing the bong, and go to bed in the evening hearing the bong. Leaving the building, it’s near to noon, we expected to hear the ring again, but our car was going faster than clock. I believe that we have plenty of opportunities to hear that, don’t we?

19/7
Thanks to Mr. T.B. Lu, who initiated the English learning platform, on which all of us are actors, and no more spectators. If someone asks me, “what’s the shortcut to learn English?” my answer must be “practice, practice, and practice”. Mr. Y. Chen advocated that we need to practice the presentation skills, organizing the internal training sessions or presentation sessions. His intention, I guess, must be to provide more opportunities for us to practice. If you don’t speak, you can never speak. If you don’t practice, you can never gain any skills.
It looks like most of you have switched to “mute”. Please join us in speaking English. Open your mouth, speak loudly. Symphony is better than solo. Do you agree with me?
I don’t want to be a back-seat driver. Or, I’ll switch myself to sleeping mode unless someone will wake me up.

5/8
It was winter, 1998. When I first time visited Boston, I was going to tour New York on a Sunday. I was told that a local Chinese company was running a bus between the cities. I thought that would be great, because we shouldn’t have any barriers to communicate. Most of the passengers should be Chinese, I guessed. When I stepped on the bus, It’s true that almost all of the passengers were Chinese, at least they all had Chinese features. By my side, sat a Chinese aunt. I was trying to talk to her in Chinese, while she replied in Cantonese. Oh, my goodness! I could hardly understand a single word. Then, I was trying to speak in English, and she replied in English too. This time, we could understand each other.
Many years later, when I recall the story, I would conclude that language is nothing but a tool to communicate.

12/8
One more story happened in Boston, too. It was a Sunday morning, while I was walking along the Charles River. A young couple with typical oriental features came in front of me. The husband asked me in broken English, “Where … is …” No sooner had he completed his question than I asked them in Chinese, “Are you from China?”
“Yes, we are from Beijing.”
“I am from Beijing, too.”
Afterwards, we talked a lot, of course, in Chinese.
Language is the carrier of culture. Normally speaking, when we find some body speaks our mother tongue, we may have the same culture and easily get cultural consensus. Immediately, we will never feel any cultural gaps in between. Do you agree with me?

@xxx English is not our native language. All of us are speaking in “broken English”. Of course, you are not the person in the story, I promise. Otherwise, I can never post anything here.

@xxx Sorry, I may misunderstood you. You really speak English much better than the person in the story. If you would change your words to “Please bear with my broken English. But I like talking in English because I need more practice”, it would be easier to be understood. I guess, it better matches what you wanted to express. You may notice the nuance between yours and mine. “Excuse me” means “I did something wrong”, and “bear with” means “I didn’t do anything wrong”. Right?

13/8
Vocabulary is the cornerstone of a language. Without an abundant vocabulary, excellent writings are impossible. It is said that Japanese has the most abundant vocabulary amongst the languages over the world. A Japanese word can normally be expressed in three styles - native, Chinese, and foreign (including Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, etc.), which build a huge vocabulary in Japanese. Therefore, it is difficult to learn Japanese.
However, if we don’t have a plentiful vocabulary, can we express ourselves clearly? Of course, the answer is yes. For example, kids start speaking from a single word, more precisely from a syllable. Even with the simple syllables, they can express themselves well, and the parents can understand them well.
Vocabulary is important, but it is not the unique factor. In general, a vocabulary of 3000-5000 words is enough for a second language speaker to express clearly. (Unfortunately, 10000 words are not enough for Japanese.) My question is that, “Do you really master those words?” If you really master the words, 3000 words are enough. I mean, you must really know how to use the words in the sentences in addition to the meanings of them. In many cases, we can replace a special word we may not know with a common word we know. If we don’t know the word “woodpecker”, we can use “bird” instead.
Anyway, we must trust ourselves we can find a way to better express. Practice might be the only way to go.

14/8
About the name
eChancer = all of the people of eChance family
eCorner = English corner. The small “e” means that English is nothing. We can conquer it and master it.

Please join me in welcoming the new comers.
Welcome onboard!
For the sake of the new comers, let me post the assignment again.

Assignment:
Every body writes a paragraph that describes what you are doing or what you are thinking. Post it here by the EOBD(the end of the business day). I’ll revise them one by one.

15/8
Yesterday, Mr. T.B. Lu asked me a question how we should choose a proper pronoun for a company. This is a good question and a professional question. I’m afraid that I can not answer the question perfectly, but I would like to share my thoughts with you.

1. I - If you use “I” in your writings, you can create an intimate relationship between the company and audience. You also need to clarify “I” by using a byline or signature. Otherwise, the audience may not understand whom “I” is.
2. we - In case addressing customer complaints, the “we” is the best pronoun. All of the employees of the company should burden any faults, but not a single person.
3. it - Grammatically, this might be the only one to be used always correctly.
4. she - If you want to express the mood that you love the company very much, you may personify the company by using “she” or “her”.
5. they - When you mention a company as a whole team of the employees, you may use “they”, “them”, or “their”.
6. you, he, him - These can seldom be used.
   Hope these shed some light on the question.

17/8
Riddle: What kind of table has no legs?

(About “Vegetable”) Interesting. But it may not be the right answer.

There are multiple answers. Let me give you an answer you may not know.
Water table(地下水位) - a surface between unsaturated soil and saturated soil.
Anyone can give us more?

@xxx “Vegetable” is not a table, just like that “termination” is not a nation. You know what I mean.

18/8
Again, I would like to emphasize the importance of practice.
Mr. D.M. Hou was a boxing lover when he was in college. He was always found fighting in the boxing ring. If you ask him how to improve the boxing techniques, he must tell you, “Practice!”
Mr. Y.Z. Wang is a good player of Chinese chess. He started playing Chinese chess when he was a little child. Now, he is powerful enough to easily beat his father. If you ask him how he can improve his strategies, his answer must be “Practice!”
So does the English learning. The more you practice, the more knowledge you can gain, the better you can master English language.

“Knowledge” is uncountable. “more knowledges” above should be “more knowledge”. Thank Y.Z. for pointing out the error.

I need your feedback, either positive or negative. Even an emoji can be satisfying feedback.