How can I learn English well?

Professor Zhong Daolong and the reverse method of English learning

Learn English steadily for one year and become a translator

He taught himself spoken English at the age of 45 and became a translator one year later.

He taught himself computers at the age of 52 and became a computer writer. He has written and translated 38 books so far.

At the age of 57, he studied and researched memory methods and can recite more than 1,800 digits of pi. .

In his 60s, with great enthusiasm, he inspires people with words and deeds, encourages people to learn English, and leads many people to the road to success.

He is Professor Zhong Daolong, who once served as the deputy dean of a certain college.

Why do you fail to succeed in English after repeated attempts? How to get rid of the "dumb English" state? How to understand English radio? Professor Zhong Daolong used his own experience of self-learning spoken English at the age of 45 and becoming a translator a year later. He found a way out for English learners through many living examples of successful reverse method learning.

Professor Zhong, like many people, has spent a lot of time learning English. He has studied books and audio tapes such as "900 English Sentences" and "Today's English". When I was studying, I looked at the book and there seemed to be nothing I didn't understand. However, due to the weak foundation and improper methods, I spent a lot of effort but gained little. In the end, I can't get rid of the embarrassing "dumb" state.

In the early 1980s, he studied by dictating and recording words word by word and name by name. He first learned the basics for 5 months, and then dictated English radio recordings every day. His dictation was dictation in the original sense, with a tape recorder, a pen, a dozen papers, and no text textbooks except a dictionary. If you don’t understand something the first time, just rewind the tape and play it again until you understand it completely. In this way, within a year and a half, I accumulated 3,000 hours of spare time study, and finally became a spoken translator. And summed up the "reverse method of English learning" that combines the five methods of "listening, writing, speaking, memorizing and thinking" and has remarkable results.

Professor Zhong Daolong created the reverse method of learning English

1. The embarrassment of mute English

I didn’t learn phonetic symbols when I was in middle school, so I basically followed the teacher’s instructions , I don’t know if it’s right or not. Sometimes we would make a joke, for example, the first i in dining room was pronounced [ai] instead of [i], but the teacher pronounced it [i], so we made the mistake and corrected it later. After going to college, I switched to Russian. After graduating from college, I taught myself some English and was able to read relevant professional books. But I have never learned "listening" and "speaking", basically "dumb English".

In 1979, at the age of 45, he visited France and Germany with a group for the first time. At that time, I could read professional books and periodicals that I was familiar with, and my English proficiency was relatively high among the delegation. But when I arrived in a foreign country, I couldn't understand or speak except for general greetings, so I couldn't understand the technical explanations at all. For familiar professional written materials, if the instructions are written in capital letters, you may not be able to react at the moment. You need to translate them into lowercase letters in your mind to understand them. The head of the delegation also encouraged me to "be bolder" from time to time. In fact, what is the issue of courage? If you can’t understand, speak, or understand, where does the courage come from? When I was abroad, like everyone who didn't speak a foreign language, I carried a note in my pocket that said "I'm staying at XXX Hotel, please send me back." in case I got lost. I was the chief engineer and senior engineer of a design institute at the time. When I saw this note, I felt an indescribable feeling of being insulted. “As a Chinese senior engineer and chief engineer, I only have this level, which is almost the same as being illiterate. How can people think so highly of us?" I felt angry and determined to study hard and improve my English speaking ability after returning to China.

--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------

2. One year of self-study Translation

I asked foreigners whether they deliberately slowed down their speech because they arrived in China? They smiled and replied: "We have always spoken at the same speed. It's just that your hearing has improved and you think we speak slower." From these experiences, I saw my progress.

As my English proficiency has improved, I can now make judgments about whether the translations in technical lectures are correct or not. Sometimes the translation is inconsistent with my understanding, and the foreign Chinese present generally say that my understanding is correct (of course, the main factor here is that I understand the profession. In fact, the English proficiency of professional translators is much higher than mine). This situation repeated many times. Before visiting Germany in early 1982, the general manager of China Electronic Equipment Systems Engineering Company asked me to be a translator. This was something I never expected, so I replied that I couldn't do it. But he insisted that I could do it and gave me a lot of encouragement. So I made detailed preparations and drew up some scenario dialogues. For example: upon arrival at the customs, what questions may be asked, how to answer, what questions may arise during the visit, how to translate, etc. And read the prepared script into the tape recorder, and then play it for yourself to listen to and see if it sounds like it. Despite such preparations, once I arrive abroad, the actual conversation is completely different. I either don’t understand or can’t speak. It’s extremely difficult. At that time, I had a notebook in my hand at all times. If I didn't understand something, I would write it down immediately. When I returned to the hotel at night, no matter how tired I was, I would look up the dictionary and read the conversation manual to make sure I understood what I didn't understand during the day. Rest only after that. This incident was a turning point for me, which greatly increased my self-confidence and convinced me that I could learn English. After I was able to take on the task of interpretation, I still did not relax at all in my self-study. I still insisted on learning English every day, so as to "keep the music in my mouth" and "always learn something new". Sometimes people ask me: "You can already speak and listen, that's enough. Why do you spend so much time learning English?" I can only answer: "I like English." This is also true. For example, during the Spring Festival, other people in the family watched Spring Festival TV programs until one or two in the middle of the night, and I continued to study English until one or two in the middle of the night.

Similar to learning other knowledge, self-study English must be meticulous and keep improving the learning spirit. When encountering problems, you must break the casserole and ask to the end. Never give up until you achieve your goal. As long as you don’t understand, you must always keep it in mind. Go ahead and learn and ask questions whenever you get the chance. Never be satisfied with a partial understanding of what you have learned, but study deeply and understand every corner of the relevant knowledge. Only in this way can you learn new words every day and master English like a primary school student learning Chinese. There will be more and more knowledge and the level will be higher and higher. Here are some typical examples.

Once I heard Khmer Rouge, I couldn’t understand the word Rouge. Two years later, I heard an article about American women's makeup, which mentioned rouge (lipstick), and then I suddenly realized that it was the "Khmer Rouge". The question that had existed for about two years finally had an answer.

The explanation of the word "Condition" in relation to medicine is usually only in terms of "condition and state". However, when describing people with heart disease, heart condition is used. I feel that it is not very smooth to explain it as "heart condition and state". . Later, from a newly published Longman dictionary, I learned that this word can be directly translated as "disease".

When I was listening to the news about the assassination of Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, I kept hearing the word tar mac. I couldn’t find it based on the pronunciation. Later, I asked an American engineer and found out that it was “tarmac road”. It is simplified from the word tar macadam.

Another example is the sentence "The peace talks between lran and lraq went into square one". Based on the context, it can be inferred that the peace talks between Iran and Iraq have not made much progress. However, the phrase "square one" is not in the dictionary at hand, so it is impossible to know for sure. Is the dictation correct? So I ask people when I see them. Later, I showed the recording to a doctor who came back from Canada, and he confirmed that my dictation was correct. I didn’t stop there. I searched for dictionaries everywhere, and finally found the following explanation about back to square one in The Penguin Dictionary of English ldioms:

Back to square one back to the very beginning of some task or enterprise as a result of a setback. The allusion is to the game of Ludo when a player is sent to square one if he lands on the wrong square. In this way, the origin of this word is known. Once you know it, it will be useful. There was a headline in China Daily on July 7, 1990 that read: Back to square one on talks over Northern Ireland. Another example is the word derivatives dictated from a program on economic news in Special English. , I looked it up in the dictionary, and the explanation is "derivative, derived; derivative". I couldn't find an explanation related to economics, and I don't know what it refers to. It was not until the case of Leeson, an employee of Barings Bank in the United Kingdom, that reports on derivatives increased in various news media, and we learned that the Chinese translation of the word is "derivative financial products", which specifically refers to interest rates or bonds, foreign exchange or exchange rates, and stocks. Financial products derived from spot markets such as stock prices or stock price indices mainly include futures, option trading and swaps.

I pay more attention to summarizing learning experiences, and recall lessons and experiences every once in a while. The learning method I adopted did not have a tangible textbook. At the beginning, there was only sound. I had to use the five methods of "listening, writing, speaking, memorizing, and thinking" at the same time to figure out what the recording said. Only when all the recordings were dictated, could I understand A tangible textbook is different from the usual "forward" method of starting from tangible textbooks. It is done "reversely", hence the name reverse method. There are many advantages to learning English by yourself using the backward method. The experience and understanding are written down in the five books that have been published, including "Introduction to Slow English", "Self-study Tips for Scientific and Technological English Listening", "Reverse Method of Learning English", "Listening Skills" and "Selected Words Commonly Used in English News Broadcasting" Book.

Since then, I have often taught others how to learn English. Especially since 1990, I have often tutored people at all levels to learn English, and have a better understanding of the various problems they encounter in learning. The experience of the advantages of the reverse method becomes more profound.

--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------

3. I am in China Learned

Some people think that I learned English because I often go abroad. In fact, I learned English before going abroad, not after I went abroad. Of course, there are good objective conditions for learning English and the possibility of learning English well abroad. But to convert possibility into reality and make full use of favorable conditions, we still need to work hard. Many people go abroad again and again, but they just don't learn English. The second time I went abroad, I worked as a translator.

In fact, in terms of the amount of English knowledge I have learned, sometimes I learn more English knowledge every day at home than abroad. Because there is a lot of clerical work to be done abroad, especially as a translator, there are even more clerical tasks, and there is no more time to sit down and learn English. In China, if you study for five or six hours a day, you can learn a lot of English knowledge. A colleague used to think that I learned English by going abroad. Later, he went to the Netherlands with me and saw that I continued to listen to recordings every day abroad, so he said: "So this is how you learned English."

Some people only see the result that my current English level is relatively high, and do not understand the hard work that led to this result. So it is easy to think that I am smart and have a very good memory, so I have learned English. In fact, memory is not innate, but an ability acquired through training. As for how I learned English through hard work, I can cite the words of three people to illustrate this point. One was my boss when I was working in Shenyang. He saw me studying English day after day, forgetting sleep and food, and said to me: "Studying like you is going to impress God." The other person is a staff member of China Electronic Equipment Systems Engineering Company. When she passes by my office every day at work, she always sees me taking dictation. She is very touched and says: "I have never seen anyone who studies English as hard as you." people". The last one was my wife. When she saw me learning English whenever I had free time, the tape recorder kept buzzing and she said, "Why are you so stupid that you can't learn it after studying for so long?" In fact, others said that I was smart. Isn't it a very glorious thing? Why don't I go on and say: "Yes! It is very easy for me to learn English. When I have free time, I listen to the tapes and write, and I will learn it without knowing it", thus making others more aware. Do you think you are really smart enough? Because that's not the case. A first-year reader who read my book "Slow English for People" said to me: "You should not write down the actual difficulties of self-study English truthfully, but should make it easier so that readers will have the confidence to learn English." study". I did not adopt his opinion because the issue of knowledge is a scientific issue and cannot be false in any way. I want to truthfully describe the difficulties of self-study so that readers can be fully mentally prepared.

And practice has proven that it is more beneficial to estimate difficulties more than to estimate them less. If you estimate the difficulties more, you will be down-to-earth and will not be lazy in seeking success. Underestimating difficulties will lead to an attempt to achieve success in the short term, only to give up halfway. In order to learn English, I put in a lot of effort. Here are some specific examples: I insist on dictating 20 pages of A4 paper every day. I will never stop until I reach my goal. I have to make up for it even if I am late for the meeting in the evening. From January 31, 1980 to February 1983, when I was transferred to Beijing, I wrote a whole cabinet of dictation records in three years, using up a handful of ballpoint pen refills (I inserted the used refills into the pen holder at the time and asked for See how much you use to learn English), 9 tube recorders, 3 semiconductor cassette recorders, 4 cassette players, and two dictionaries were broken (because I kept writing and drawing on them). So I often say to others: "Words are hard work." This is what I say from the bottom of my heart and is not an exaggeration.

--------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------

4. Level at the beginning Not high

Some people think that my English level was already very high when I started dictation, so I learned it.

In fact, this is not the case. The first news transcript I dictated on January 31, 1980 is as follows (the unintelligible words are in brackets):

Iran's foreign minister has condemned Canada for helping six Americans ( diplomats) escape from lran. He said the action violated international law and may lead to (worse) (treatment) for the fifty American (hostages) remaining in Tehran. The foreign minister warned that Canada would have to pay for its action. The six American (diplomats) (fled) United States, embassy in Tehran when lranian (militants) (seized) the building on December 4th. The six (diplomats) hid in Canadian embassy for twelve weeks and left lran a few days ago by using Canadian passports, They returned to the United States on Wednesday. In Washington, the state department (called again on) Iran to release the remaining American hostages in Tehran. It said they must be freed before any effort can be made to (improve) the (relations) between the United States and lran, The hostages have been held for eighty-eight days.

一***There are only 10 lines of records, nine of which are new words:

condemn, diplomat, violent, treatment, hostage, fled, embassy, ??militant, seize, etc.

Some words that you can recognize when writing but cannot hear are:

worse, call on, improve, relation, etc.

It can be seen that my English level when I first started was not high. I am afraid that most people who have graduated from middle schools and universities now have much higher levels than I did at that time.

--------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------

5. Take advantage of every opportunity

(1) When I need to read reference materials at work, whenever possible, I force myself to read them in English rather than in Chinese, in order to continuously improve my English proficiency.

(2) Practice writing diary in English.

In order to learn English, I started practicing writing diaries in English in 1981. Although the diary I wrote was like a primary school student's diary, which was full of running accounts, it was still rewarding from the perspective of learning English. In the process of memorizing, you will definitely encounter many English words and expressions that you don't know. You can solve them by looking up Chinese-English dictionaries or asking others for help, so that you can learn a lot of English knowledge.

(3) Watching China Daily is a good way to learn English, especially to understand new trends and learn some new English words. The international situation is constantly developing, science and technology are changing with each passing day, and new English words are emerging one after another. You cannot learn these new English knowledge by reading old dictionaries and books, but there are timely reports on china Daily.

(4) Learn from professional translators. In addition to asking them for advice when I have questions, when participating in technical exchanges, I carefully compare their translations with my own silent translation to see how they translated, and immediately write it down in my notebook. Because I have not systematically learned spoken English, what I say is either wrong or memorized from the book, which is not very colloquial. Translators are different. Their terminology is standardized and colloquial. If you pay attention to their translations, you can learn a lot of oral expressions.

Similarly, when conducting technical exchanges with foreigners, regardless of whether you act as a translator or not, as long as there is something you do not understand, you should ask the other party to repeat or explain it in order to learn more English. Never pretend to understand something you don’t understand.

(5) Learn English by watching TV. For example, when watching international news on the Xinwen Network program, you can often see some English words and slogans on the TV screen. You should pay close attention to learning. If you don’t understand, look up the dictionary immediately. If you can’t remember it after seeing it clearly, read it again when it is replayed. Memorize; if you are still not sure, read and memorize again when watching English Service. You will definitely learn a lot of English words in this way.

(6) When you see various English advertisements and slogans when walking on the road, read carefully the English instructions you bring when shopping, and look up the dictionary if you don’t understand.

(7) Even if you tutor others to learn English, you can still learn a lot of English knowledge from them.

6. Enjoy English

7. Gain knowledge outside English

What is the reverse method? ----In short: go against quick success, go against impetuosity, go against impetuousness, go against without laying a foundation

Professor Zhong believes that learning English is like "a boat that cannot sail against the odds, and will fall back if it does not advance". To be specific, "reverse" has the following meanings:

■1. Go against quick success and establish the idea of ????long-term hard study.

■2. Instead of reinforcing and improving out of thin air, we advocate laying a solid foundation before strengthening and improving.

■3. Instead of studying for exams, focus on improving practical abilities.

■4. Specific operations of the reverse method