逍遥学能 2010-05-17 00:19
Natural Learning Method for English
老子说过："人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。"所以，我们应该树立这样的观念，凡是自然的东西都是好的。我们是自然之子，只要我们顺乎自然地发挥天赋的功能，很多东西就会很容易学会。如果一种学习方法，某人用起来很不自然甚至很痛苦，那么应该认为这个方法不适合这个人。他应该勇敢地抛弃这个不适合他自己实际情况的方法，然后去尝试其他方法。
Laozi has said, "Man takes Earth as his model; Earth takes Heaven as its model; Heaven takes Tao as its model; The Tao takes what is natural as its model." So we should set up such an idea that all natural things are good. Since we are children of nature, many things are easy for us to learn well only if we exert our connate functions. If a learning method is used by someone unnaturally even painfully, we should conclude that this method is unsuitable for him. He should abandon this unsuitable method bravely and then try other methods.
绝对不能认为方法是正确的，而这个人太愚笨。这种错误观念贬低了人的天赋和尊严。在我心目中，人，才是根本，一切方法都是可以考察和选择的对象，没有绝对正确的放之四海而皆准的方法。一切要以人为本，只能要方法来将就人，而不是相反，这是我讨论英语学习时贯穿始终的一条红线。
We shouldn't think the method is right but the learner is too stupid, because this wrong idea deb ases man's endowment and dignity. In my view, only man is the basis for examining and choosing any learning methods, and there isn't such an absolutely correct method being valid everywhere. Man is the measurement of all things, so we shouldn't make man for methods but make methods for man, which is the main thread from beginning to end when I discuss English learning here.
英语作为一种世界语，在现代社会尤其国际交往中起了很重要的作用。我们国家对英语教育应该说非常重视，我国学生在十几年的学生时代花了不少的宝贵时间来学习英语。很多学生都为学习英语感到头疼，不知道该怎样才能学好英语。学习一种语言的乐趣没有体会到，英语水平很难提高的痛苦烦恼倒是一直伴随。其效果是有目共睹的，哑巴英语不乏其人。几乎不能流畅地用英语来表达自己的思想和情感，那就是说，英语的交际功能没有很好地实现。
As a world language, English plays a very important part in the modern society, especially in our international interactions. Our country thinks highly of English education, and Chinese students spend a lot of time learning English within their student age of ten more years. It's a big pain for them to learn English without knowing how to learn English well. They haven't enjoyed the pleasure of learning a foreign language but have suffered a lot for being stagnant in their English learning. The learning effect is obvious to all, and there's no lack of dummy English learners. They can hardly express their thoughts and feelings in fluent English, that is to say, the communicative function of English hasn't been fully realized.
一些本科生和研究生即使托福考试和GRE考试成绩比较好，但是英语的语言表达能力仍然很糟糕。英语并没有融入到他们的头脑和血液中，他们完全不能熟练地运用英语来交际，只是很蹩脚地运用着英语的字词句在做翻译练习。英语没有成为他们擅长表达自己某些思想情感的一种有力武器，正确流畅不用说了，感情色彩和个性风格就更不用提了。他们的头脑一直在思考该如何把自己的想法翻译成英语，根本没有机会把自己的情感灌注到所说的话中去，结果就是干瘪瘪地平铺直叙，缺乏语言表达的动人魅力。
Even some undergraduates and graduates score high in TOEFL and GRE, they fail to express themselves in accurate and fluent English. Without melting English into their mind and blood, they can't communicate skillfully with others in English, and what they can do is only to do translation exercises word by word or sentence by sentence. English hasn't become a sharp tool for them to express some of their thoughts and feelings, so accuracy and fluency is out of their reach, let alone emotional color and personal style in their expressions. They're busy thinking how to translate their thoughts into English without pouring their emotions into what they're taking about, so they just speak in a dull or flat way without any moving charm of language expression.