A blond-haired boy approached me at the playground and said, “Tahw si ruoy eman?” I stared blankly at him and, after some consideration, decided to answer with a simple “No.” The boy looked at me and started to laugh, then said something else and walked away. Confused and a little hurt, I turned to my translator, who had by then started to laugh, too. She pulled me beside the swings and explained in Mandarin that the boy had merely asked me for my name, and I had told him it was No.

This incident took place on my first day of second grade at St. Mungo’s Primary School in Glasgow, Scotland. I had just moved to Great Britain with my degree-seeking parents. Leaving behind my safety net of language and culture in China and armed with little more the two English words of “yes” and “no, ” I embarked on a mission in which I was forced to adapt to the Western world. Although children are often quick assimilators of new environments, I feel like I spent my entire elementary years simply trying to learn the convoluted English language, as well as getting used to eating fish and chips.

Like all foreign languages, English is difficult to learn. But because of the history of so many people contributing to its modern form, English contains a prodigious number of complex rules and exceptions, a profusion of word forms, and vexingly different pronunciations of the same and similar spellings. “Through, ” “thorough, ” and “enough, ” for example, are all common words containing “ough, ” but in each case the letters are pronounced differently. I found perseverance to be my answer to the challenge, and I worked assiduously to perfect my English. I remember borrowing numerous illustrated books from my teachers and reading for two hours every night with my parents. I found my greatest difficulty lay in pronunciation. While Chinese is spoken with little movement of the mouth, English requires the opening of the soft palate and explicit articulation. Pronouncing “th” sounding words proved the most arduous of all tasks; I used to stand in front of my dresser mirror and watch my tongue push against my top teeth as I, to my dismay, continue to spit out “ss” sounds. This frustration affected my performance in school; I was afraid to ask questions because it took me ten minutes to think of each word in my question and how to pronounce them.

My irritation did not last long, however, and my daily diligence in front of the mirror soon paid off. I gradually began to comprehend my teachers in school and learned to understand my textbooks. My ESL teacher, Mrs. Murray, was compassionate and progressive, helping her students to learn English through “mini-field trips.” Each week, Mrs. Murray would take us to one specific room of the school and have us name all the objects in that room. As silly as it may seem, the method both increased my vocabulary by implanting mental pictures of the objects in my head and gave me ample opportunity to practice my pronunciation.

When I moved to Detroit at the age of nine, many of my new friends and teachers told me my English was fluent, even articulate. At my new school, however, I was faced with a new problem: my peculiar sounding Chinese-Scottish accent. This dilemma caused me plenty of heartache; as a newcomer, I had trouble making friends, and other children consistently made fun of my accent and treated me like an alien. But again, with an unwillingness to surrender to my circumstances, I redoubled my efforts and before long made several good friends.

I have now lived in the United States for eight years. Although my difficulties with English gradually diminish with each passing year, I constantly face new challenges and obstacles. But through my experience with learning English and making friends in a new land, I found that hindrances are best met with persistence. I will always remember my encounter with the blond-haired boy in second grade, and, more importantly, its significance in beginning my ten-year struggle to improve my comprehension of the English language and English-speaking people.

點(diǎn)評(píng)：

通過(guò)學(xué)英語(yǔ)的歷程向?qū)W校展示了自己的人生經(jīng)歷和個(gè)人性格。通過(guò)一個(gè)較有趣味的小故事開(kāi)頭，讓人有一種讀下去的欲望，作者在這方面做的比較成功。此外，由于作者長(zhǎng)期在國(guó)外生活，英語(yǔ)表達(dá)能力很強(qiáng)，文章寫(xiě)的很流暢生動(dòng)。雖然故事并沒(méi)有出奇之處，但對(duì)于AdCom來(lái)說(shuō)，這樣的文章，比那些呆板的重復(fù)簡(jiǎn)歷里的活動(dòng)無(wú)疑強(qiáng)的太多。

譯文：

學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)

在運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)上，一個(gè)金發(fā)男孩走近我說(shuō)，‘Tahw si ruoy eman?’我茫然的看著他，考慮了一下，決定回答一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的‘No.’男孩看著我并開(kāi)始發(fā)笑，然后又說(shuō)了些什么并走開(kāi)了。我感到很困惑并有點(diǎn)被傷害，于是轉(zhuǎn)去問(wèn)我的翻譯，他聽(tīng)完后也開(kāi)始笑了。她把我拉到秋千旁邊，并用普通話向我解釋?zhuān)莻€(gè)男孩僅僅是問(wèn)我的名字，而我告訴他我的名字是NO。

這件事發(fā)生在蘇格蘭的格拉斯哥，我就讀St. Mungo’s小學(xué)二年級(jí)的第一天。那時(shí)我剛和父母一起搬到英國(guó)，而他們則是為了獲得更高的學(xué)位。離開(kāi)了中國(guó)熟悉的語(yǔ)言和文化，并帶著兩個(gè)英語(yǔ)單詞‘Yes’和‘No’，我開(kāi)始被強(qiáng)迫去接受西方的世界。雖然兒童對(duì)于新環(huán)境的接受能力比較強(qiáng)，但我感覺(jué)我花了整個(gè)小學(xué)只是為了學(xué)習(xí)那繞口的英語(yǔ)，并用來(lái)熟悉吃魚(yú)和薯?xiàng)l這樣的英國(guó)式食物。

和所有的外語(yǔ)一樣，學(xué)英語(yǔ)很難。由于長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)太多的人參與到現(xiàn)代英語(yǔ)的形成中去，英語(yǔ)包括了無(wú)數(shù)復(fù)雜的規(guī)則和特例，單詞的形式，以及多義詞和同音詞。比如說(shuō)，through, thorough, 和enough都是一些包括了‘ough’并經(jīng)常用到的詞，但在不同的場(chǎng)合下，他們的發(fā)音都是不同的。我只有努力堅(jiān)持，并更勤力的去提高我的英語(yǔ)能力。我向我的老師借了一些帶有插圖的書(shū)本并每個(gè)晚上在父母的陪同下花費(fèi)兩個(gè)小時(shí)來(lái)閱讀。我發(fā)現(xiàn)我最大的困難就在于發(fā)音。不同于說(shuō)中文的時(shí)候嘴巴不太動(dòng)，英語(yǔ)需要張開(kāi)軟腭并清楚的發(fā)音。發(fā)“th”這個(gè)音對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)是很困難的任務(wù)；我曾經(jīng)對(duì)著梳妝臺(tái)的鏡子練習(xí)，但我看到我的舌頭打在我的上排牙齒上，使我沮喪的發(fā)出“ss”的聲音。這個(gè)困擾也影響了我在學(xué)校的表現(xiàn)；我很害怕主動(dòng)提問(wèn)，因?yàn)槟且ㄎ沂昼娙ニ伎济總€(gè)用詞以及怎么發(fā)音。

然而，我的窘境并沒(méi)有持續(xù)很久，每天在鏡子前面的苦練終于取得了回報(bào)。我漸漸開(kāi)始領(lǐng)會(huì)老師所說(shuō)的，并開(kāi)始理解教科書(shū)的內(nèi)容。我的英文老師Murray夫人是一個(gè)很有同情心和進(jìn)取心的人，她總是通過(guò)小課的方式幫助學(xué)習(xí)學(xué)生英語(yǔ)。每個(gè)星期，Murray夫人都會(huì)把我們帶到一個(gè)特殊的房間，要求我們用英文說(shuō)出房間里所有物品。雖然看起來(lái)很傻，但這個(gè)方法不僅通過(guò)這些易于理解的物品增加了我的詞匯并且為我提供了許多機(jī)會(huì)來(lái)鍛煉發(fā)音。

當(dāng)我9歲時(shí)搬到底特律時(shí)，許多新的朋友和老師都說(shuō)我的英語(yǔ)十分流利，甚至單詞些連接的發(fā)音。但是在新學(xué)校里，我又遇到了一個(gè)新的問(wèn)題：我的發(fā)音是中國(guó)式的蘇格蘭口音。這個(gè)活動(dòng)引起了我新的麻煩。做為一個(gè)新人，我沒(méi)法交到新朋友，其他的孩子甚至認(rèn)為我的發(fā)音十分可笑，并把我當(dāng)作一個(gè)外地人。再一次，為了不向困難妥協(xié)，我加倍努力的練習(xí)并在不久后交到了幾個(gè)好朋友。

現(xiàn)在，我在美國(guó)已經(jīng)生活了8年。雖然我在英語(yǔ)方面的困難一年比一年少，但我始終會(huì)遇到一些新的挑戰(zhàn)和障礙。通過(guò)學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)和在新地方交朋友的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，我發(fā)現(xiàn)只要堅(jiān)持，任何困難都可以克服。我永遠(yuǎn)都記得我在二年級(jí)的時(shí)候遇到的那個(gè)金發(fā)男孩，那是我這十年來(lái)盡力提高對(duì)英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言和說(shuō)英語(yǔ)的人理解能力的開(kāi)始。