It is difficult to imagine that I had a passion for English 7 years ago when I was a freshman at university. Why? Simple. I was busy with making up some love stories. LOL I wish I had played around in the romantic world later than I did, but nothing could stop it from happening. That's natural.

Actually, my passion for English started when I had to pass Band 4.  The good thing is I didn’t pass the exam at the first time.  If it was not the threat and the failure, I wouldn’t work so hard that I got up at 5:30am running towards the library. 

The funny thing was I wasn’t the only one. I didn’t know her, but I knew her face because either she or I was the first one who got the library.  The funnier part was it became a competition later on.  Before I walked into the room, I was quite excited to know whether she was already in or not.  And if not, I would turn on the light with a victorious smile; if she was in, I would feel encouraged to know she was as diligent as I was.  

This period lasted for about a month.  I was endeavored to memorize the vocabulary with a thick book—Xing Huo.  The result is obvious, I passed the exam. 

However, the impulse that to the great extent pushed me to work on my English was I needed to communicate with the foreigners.  At the beginning, I was just curious.  I had to hold my dictionary when chatted with them.  So, my friend, the key part of learning English especially oral English is to communicate with Americans or Englishmen.  

There are two points here, one is you have to speak English with them since you have no other choice for those who don’t know Chinese at all; the second point is you have to speak with a foreigner who is from English country.  I strongly recommend new starters to practice with good accent foreigners.

The reason I say so is some friends of mine they couldn’t speak good Standard English for they made friends with Africans and Indians at the early stage of study, therefore their accents are really difficult to be corrected.  

(to be continued……)