Hi there I am Kare
I am a Taiwanese oversea student currently studying in Singapore
I am here to share some observation that I have made for the past 7 years
English like Chinese is one of the most widely used language of around the wor
ld
But Taiwanese seems to struggle with it, I had not only heard once or twice th
at my friends' complaining about the difficulty of English and having trouble
to soak it into the mighty brain of ours
Here are some reasons I think as of why.
1. Difficulty in defining words
In English we have to Define what we say
Especially a specific word we use. For example " I am Home ", base on this sen
tence you cannot fully explain where am I, I could be at airport of my homelan
d or at my own house or at where I was born, and because I did not define "hom
e" or elaborate on the sentence result in a chaotic confusion.
When there is a Confusion we would try not to touch it, try not to understand
it
Despite that in Chinese we also have to define word but unlike English, Chines
e word usually have a more specific meaning attach to the word, which we could
have a picture of it when we think of it, but English is a language that was
formed from many different civilization considering that English is not a nati
ve language. This is the main different
More in Chinese we describe big as 大 but in English?
Etc : Humongous, huge, gigantic, large. All these words is replacement of big.
And you have to know at least a few so that when you need to explain them you
know what it is
After talking about the cause I need to define "define"
I believe, in English, to define is to explain and elaborate a meaning of the
word.
Especially in an argumentative,
If I give a title : Should Student have a boyfriend and girlfriend relationshi
p?
In this case you have to define 3 things : students, girl-boy friend , relatio
nship so as to talk about it, but the problem lies here how do we define in En
glish?
To tackle this kind of confusion you can solve it by understanding English, wh
ich is understand the meaning and know how to use but not just memorize what i
t means and how it was spelt
You have to know if a word is a noun，verb，adjective or adverb. Trust me more
than 50% of the people cannot identify it.
2. Pronunciation / Afraid of Speaking Eng / Non- English Speaking background
To learn a Language it not simply just to memorize it, this category falls at
oral skill, to proudly say that you speak a certain tongue you must have the
ability to write and speak and even understand that language. But in Taiwan or
I should Chinese English Learner we are afraid and not capable of speaking En
glish. I summed up a few points
A. We are afraid we pronounce some words wrong and we would get mocked with
B. We are not sure if our Accent is some sort of funny
C. We do not speak English at home at School or at any other places
And in Taiwan oral skill has been neglected which is a big blockade in Learnin
g a language. Imagine the word 美丽 and imagine you do not know how to read th
at word but you know the word base on the look itself, trust me, you are not g
onna go far in learning Chinese. Project it to English the word beauty if you
only know the look of it but you don't know how it is Pronounced you gonna hav
e problem in a conversation. Language is something you can use quite often in
real life unlike Sin Cos Tan. If you cannot use a language that you learnt in
real life you do not need to consider yourself learning, perhaps a reader who
does not know what he himself is reading
To tackle this problem is the hardee it requires high amount of effort and bas
ic memorizing use a dictionary on how every alphabet is pronounced and practic
e it everyday until you get it to the tip of your finger and then start to lea
rn how to pronounce a full word and slowly build up the speed of learning woul
d directly proportional in a increasing manner.
3. Chinese way of thinking
We are too used to Chinese writing style that we will often brought it into En
glish for example 现在几点 we might say " what time is it?", but the correct w
ay of speaking is saying " What is the time now?"
To tackle this little problem just remember the way you write your English Ful
l Name
Let say if my name is 张小华 to write my name in English it is Xiaohua Zhang/C
hang
So project it back 现在几点
现在 - now
几点 - time
And it become : what is the time now
English is a worldwide language if you can hold it in your hand, a higher chan
ce that you would do great and have a bright future
Thank you for your attention
以上皆是个人观点