What is the biggest obstacle for Chinese people to speak English?

The environment is really important. Our biggest obstacle is that we don’t speak English and we have been practicing English questions. Give us a set of papers, and we can make it perfect, so perfect that some people can get full marks, but in terms of speaking, it is almost zero. Many people only know how to do questions, but they have absolutely no knowledge of this aspect.

We have been learning English since elementary school and have been learning it for so many years now. But can we really speak English with others and have direct conversations with foreigners? No, we can’t, because we simply can’t say it. I believe that the spoken English of a child today is better and stronger than that of many college students.

It is just as difficult for us to speak English as it is for foreigners to speak Chinese. Language is inherently complicated. We need to spend a lot of time and energy to learn. Otherwise, how do you think those simultaneous translations came about? You have to work hard to achieve anything.

There used to be a top student in our class who was very good at English.

Since high school, no matter how big or small the competition is, no matter what the test is, she can basically achieve perfect scores in English test papers. When she has nothing to do, she memorizes English words and feels like she was born for English in her life.

She is really special. She can memorize almost many words in the Oxford Dictionary. She gets up at 5:30 every day to memorize vocabulary, and she can basically understand all grammar questions. But if you ask her to talk to others, she won't be able to do it. She couldn't speak at all. Her knowledge is all from exam-oriented education, so she can only cope with exams and cannot communicate at all.

We can often see foreigners, but few people dare to go up and communicate with them. We are always joking. When I went to Beijing once, I met several foreigners on the road. I really wanted to take pictures with them, but I couldn't speak English. I couldn’t even express my basic desire to take photos with them.

I don’t have the courage to say it. This sentence is actually quite simple. It’s because we don’t believe in ourselves and feel that we are not good enough. Later, a classmate who was with me, whose English was not very good, went straight forward and invited several foreigners to take a group photo with them through simple words and sign language.

After I went to college, I realized that the environment is really important to people’s language. Our school has a Russian language department, and many of them have never been exposed to Russian. They only started learning Russian when they went to college. Then, the things taught by others are no longer dead. Their study here is no longer about preparing for exams. There are many international students in the school, and they can study and communicate together.

Our biggest obstacle is that we don’t dare to speak English or practice speaking English. We always feel that others will laugh at us. It doesn’t matter whether you have passed CET-4 or CET-6, the important thing is that you should be able to speak, which is much better than your certificate.