Yu, as the founder of New Oriental, many people want to ask him how to learn English. He believes that for ordinary English learners, to achieve a higher level of English, it is not only a matter of memorizing words, but also the ability to listen, speak and read. The amount of vocabulary has an impact on reading ability, but it only plays a half role. Especially those who want to learn a language well and apply words to reading, memorizing words should be done completely in reading. Feiji Word is an excellent word memory website, with real pronunciation, a large number of vocabulary teaching materials to choose from, and many word memory games to make you remember words happily and efficiently!
So how does Yu learn English? A reporter interviewed Yu in this regard.
Reporter: It should be said that New Oriental is famous for its English training and teaching. Especially in China, there are great differences between Chinese and English. Under such circumstances, do we in New Oriental have any secrets of success in this respect?
Yu: I don't think there are too many secrets, so let's just tell the host a little. Because New Oriental is a school that focuses on training languages, almost all kinds of English exams are everywhere in New Oriental, and the students trained are excellent. Why is this happening? As long as you grasp a little, you start with simplicity. People think language learning is particularly difficult, but it is not that difficult, because language is a skill, which has nothing to do with your IQ. It is good that many people with extremely low IQ in China can speak Chinese. Also, when you arrive in America, you will find a large number of illiterate people, but their oral English and listening skills are very good. Do you think it has something to do with his IQ? It really doesn't matter. Language is a process of repeated training. If your language is low, start with low-level training; if your language is advanced, start with advanced training. Climbing up step by step is very fast, just like learning to drive. Simple learning to drive is to step on the brakes, release the clutch and refuel. After studying in the training ground for three months, I still dare not drive on the road. Those moves have been repeated thousands of times, but you still dare not move. It is precisely because you haven't reached the state where practice makes perfect. So is language. If you practice oral English, you can't read a sentence two or three times and then think you can blurt it out later. Then practice repeatedly, and you may reach a certain level in a few months. I often tell students that spoken English doesn't need to learn many, 300 sentences, and each sentence should be read 300 times. As the saying goes, 300 Tang poems can be recited and blurted out. No matter how difficult the language test is, including TOEFL and GRE in the United States, it is actually a skill training. As long as you master this skill training trick, tell the students the important points repeatedly, let them practice repeatedly, and finally achieve the state of practice makes perfect, all kinds of exams will naturally pass, and the language level will also pass. For example, oral training includes writing training, and you keep writing every day until the last word is particularly good, which is basically the case.
Reporter: It seems that learning English in China has been very difficult. Like us, some people have been learning English since junior high school, but it seems particularly difficult to apply what they have learned in the end. What is the main reason?
Yu: China's language learning is a superficial learning method. Including from middle schools and universities, but the teacher teaches alone above and we listen below. Think about it. How many words did you say from middle school to college? Not much to say. You don't have a chance to read a lot. A few days ago, the Education Committee of Haidian District came to discuss the editing of English textbooks with us, and showed us the five-year outline of Shanghai and the five-year outline of Haidian District including Beijing, saying that students should graduate from high school and what level of vocabulary they should reach. What I said was nonsense, because it was a castle in the air and I made it up. You don't even know if the students can accept it. In addition, when you compiled this outline, you didn't grasp the essence of students' language learning. You must consider the purpose of the class. The language is simple and clear. The purpose of class is to let students think of ways to say it. If you use this language casually, it will be much better for him to use 10000 words casually than for you to know10000 words. 1000 words is enough, but in the end you will forget 10000 words. Therefore, the fundamental solution to the problem you just mentioned is to change the relatively rigid language teaching method in China, that is, the teacher's single-item teaching method of learning grammar, learning grammar and memorizing vocabulary, but his premise is flexible learning and memory, even if students learn less, they are less but better. Language is something you will never forget, as long as you really turn it into your own. Let's go out of my hometown. It has been 20 years since I left my hometown. My hometown speaks very well, and I will never forget it. English is also such a concept. If you can speak English as fluently as your hometown dialect, it will be good English if you don't speak English for twenty years, and it will never change. This is the secret of language improvement, that is, you keep honing. Anything that can be learned quickly will be forgotten quickly, including students who have studied oral English with us for 20 or 30 days. Our only requirement for them is not to learn anything new when they go back, and not to forget to repeat hundreds of sentences in the text for two or three months until you finally put forward every sentence. I have an example of a student. In high school and college, he only learned the third and fourth volumes of New Concept English, and nothing else. He memorized them. He is familiar with any page of my book. Pull out any sentence in the middle and let him go on, so he can pick it up and read it at will. Later, he entered a famous university in America. When he was studying at school, he once wrote an article, and an American professor said he copied it. Because this professor has 20 years' experience in teaching students in China, he has never met a China student who can write English so well when he just arrived in the United States. The American professor thinks it is impossible. The professor himself can't write such a good thing. How can you write so well? Later, the student said, I can't prove to you that I am really good at it, but I can recite more than 100 words, which I know very well. Every sentence is used casually. The professor asked him to recite it and was moved to tears. This is the secret of learning English. There are more than 100 articles in total. His only task is to recite repeatedly, and finally learn and use it, and it becomes a living thing. When learning a language slowly, everything belongs to others. It doesn't belong to you. If you want to use it, it must be yours.
Reporter: In fact, there are many English training methods in society. Many people claim that their English training method is a shortcut to learning a foreign language, or it can be completed soon. Do you think learning English can be finished soon? Is there a shortcut?
Yu: It's almost impossible for you to say that you can do it quickly, because the English level is high or low, just like the Chinese level, it is bottomless. Compare a novelist and linguist with us. They are much taller than us. As a reporter, your Chinese level is definitely much higher than mine, which is from the aspect of Chinese. So, if you can't speak English, you must be quick, but if you reach a certain level, you can achieve it in a period of time. Is this method fast? No matter what English you just mentioned, New Oriental now suggests that we should name it English. We don't want to talk about it. The methods we use are basically the same as other English training methods, and students train repeatedly. First of all, we have reached a very important point. When students come to study, we will first define the scope for them. You will become an English expert after you come to study with me for three months or a week. Absolutely not. You studied with me for two or three months, and that's the level. I can only guarantee that you will reach this level. On this basis, you have to enter a more advanced class and tell you that the learning method is so simple. Listen, speak, read and write with us. We don't advocate this method. The goal of students entering this class first is particularly clear. I paid so much money in this class and learned this level. As long as I study hard, I can reach this level. At this level, there is still a class waiting for me. When I take another level, my level will be improved step by step. In this way, students can quickly improve to that level in a short time. Like our classmates who have studied English, I specialize in teaching vocabulary. ABCD can recite it to the end when they come in. Many students have just learned English, but after one year, their English vocabulary will reach three or four thousand, and they have already memorized three or four thousand words. The method is particularly simple, that is, listen to me first, and then go back and recite; Another way is to test the words taught this week next week. After the exam, I will definitely test you again next week. I told you clearly that I would test you. If you fail, your score will be zero. That student wants to repeat 500 or 600 words I taught him, and he knows them by heart after several repetitions. I never criticize other language teaching methods, because any teaching method will be more or less beneficial to China students in learning foreign languages. Some methods are exaggerated, and some methods have no confidence behind the propaganda. Don't tell the students what you have learned from me, and the result is boasted all over the sky, which brings a lot of disappointment. Some people can't keep up with the follow-up work after promoting their own products, which leads to students' complaints. Our school is not exaggerating, frivolous, clear-cut, and responsible for students to the end. This is also the reason why our school has developed so much.
In short, there is no shortcut to English, so in the end, you have to rely on your usual accumulation, listen more and practice more to improve your English.