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一头金黄卷曲的长发，一双湛蓝的大眼睛以及上扬45度的嘴角，这深邃的容颜不禁让人联想起儿时的洋娃娃，她就是来自英国的年轻女教师Joanne。她曾留学中国，在大学时学习的是汉语和意大利语，她深知学习语言的困难，所以她会经常在课堂上与众学员分享她学习语言时的技巧与方法。
每当课下看到她匆匆飘过的修长倩影，都会被她那动感十足的活力长发所吸引，每一根发丝都像是在跳着桑巴舞，十分有趣。平和英语村的学员见到她，都会致以问候，然后她会热情地用充满伦敦腔的英文回应，顺带聊上几句。她的英语课上永远都充满活力，学员在课上不仅仅学习到英语的运用技能，还可以感受一下英伦玫瑰给我们带来的异国文化——充满贵族气息的伦敦音！
这期，平和英语村特别邀请到这位英伦玫瑰，和英语学习爱好者讨论分享学习英语的方法。
1. Lucy: It was 2009 when you first came to GLV as an English teacher. Time flies, you’ve been teaching in GLV for 3 years. In this case, what do you think has taken place greatly in GLV?
（2009年您加入了平和这个大家庭，时间过的飞快，3年过去了，您发现平和有哪些大的变化吗？）
Joanne: it used to have more school outings which both teachers and students can join together to go somewhere else to have picnics or climb mountains, something like that. But we still have sports activities like badminton and visiting the Yuan Ming garden. During these relaxing moments, we can talk and do something interesting which leaves us a lot of good memories.
Besides that GLV has set up all kinds of courses recently suitable for different people arranged from ages, English levels, works, and personal requirement. Like the youth weekend program, adult weekend program and so on.
As far as I am concerned, one of the most remarkable changes are the classrooms are all better equipped than before. Each one has huge TV and projector. Probably it is because we have more and more students as the foreign trade is growing rapidly and people need English to talk to their clients from the other countries.
Another change is that we are now offering one-to-one classes. I hope we continue to develop these classes because they are a very effective way to study English.
（以前会有很多的师生野外互动课，例如野炊和爬山。但是现在还是有保留像是羽毛球和参观圆明新园之类的户外课程，在这些过程中，师生可以交流或做游戏，留给大家一个美好的回忆。
除此之外，平和英语村还开设了很多新的课程，适合不同年龄，英语水平，职业和不同需求的人们。就像是我们的青少年周末班和成年人周末班等等。
我个人认为，平和英语最大的改变是教室设备的更新，每间教室都配备大电视和投影仪，可能是因为时代的发展，对贸易德需求，越来越多的学生前来学习英语。）
2. Lucy: you are such a teacher with passion. Once people talk to you, your high emotion would stimulate their inspiration to talk to you in English. As for that, could you please tell me the tricks to let your students handle English well in a short time? Which part do you focus on the most, listening, speaking, reading or writing?
（您是一位充满热情的老师，跟您说话的人都会被您高涨的情绪所感染到，让他们很乐意地说英语。可以分享一下让学生快速掌握英语的技巧吗？哪个部分您认为是最重要的，听，说，读，写？）
Joanne: First of all, they (students) should be realistic. Some of the students think they can learn English completely in two weeks which is completely the wrong idea. They should be patient, talk more and communicate with the others in English as often as possible. In my class, I would always tell the students not to pay all attention to their GLV English levels because you can always learn something no matter which level you are in. you would make progress as you keep studying English. It is just a matter of time. Don’t be upset and worry too much about your English level.
In my opinion, listening and speaking skills are keys in my class because people lack them their daily lives. Most people gain good reading and writing skills during several years of studying in colleges while they are not good at reading and speaking, because they don’t have chances to practice them every day.
（首先，他们应该要实事求是。一些学生认为他们可以在两周内掌握英语，这个想法是完全错误的。他们应该耐心，用英语尽可能多地与他人交流。我经常在课堂上告诉我的学生不要太在意他们在平和英语的英语等级，因为你不管在哪个等级，都是可以学习到英语知识的，只要坚持，就可以看到成效。这仅仅只是时间的问题，不要过于焦虑和担心英语等级。
我认为，听说技能是比较重要的，因为人们在日常生活上很少用到他们。许多人在大学时就已锻炼出良好的阅读和写作能力。）
3. Lucy: I admire you so much since you acquire Italian and Chinese at the same time. I know it is quite hard for you as a person who speaks English as your first language to learn them both while one is from the east and the other comes from the west. How can you handle them? As a language teacher with full of language learning experience, please show us some short cuts to gain a new language! Did you confront any difficulties while learning them?
（我非常欣赏您的才能，因为您既能说意大利语和汉语。我知道同时掌握两门完全不同的语言对于一位英语为母语的你来说是非常困难的。那么您是怎么掌控它们的呢？作为一位充满教学经验的语言教师，可以告诉我们掌握语言的捷径吗？您曾经遇到过什么困难吗？）
Joanne: To be honest, I lost most of my Italian. But I am sure I would get it back if I stayed in Italy, since I would have the Italian only environment. Obviously my Chinese is better than my Italian now, because I live in China. Similarly, GLV is the best place to study pure English while you are staying in China, because Chinese is not allowed in GLV. People talk in English and think in English.
I used to have a dorm mate who came from South Korea with a low level of English. We could barely talk to each other in English. We used Chinese which gave me a chance to practice my Chinese in my college time in TianJin, China.
After several years, I met my Chinese boyfriend whose English level is around GLV level 1 ,which means we speak Chinese all the time. That’s the main reason why I have better Chinese skills.(laughing)
GLV creates an English environment for students so that students can have a short cut to learn English.
As for the difficulties while learning another language, I have encountered many difficulties for sure. Take listening for example, when I first came to zhuhai, China, I thought I could handle Chinese quite well. But the truth is, I can’t always understand them because they have different strong local accents which confuse me all the time. People speak fast in Chinese, and I have no idea what they are going to say next, Which made me feel bad at first. And I always forget the tones.(laughing) .
when I enter the shop every time, the shopkeeper may talk to me in English is capable of, but actually I really want to talk to them in Chinese. But they just think I am a foreigner who can’t speak Chinese which makes me feel frustrated at times.
The most important thing while studying English is that patience. Do not be upset and do not feel embarrassment if you can’t understand others. It is inevitable, but it will get easier if you persevere.
（老实说，我几乎丢掉了意大利语。但是如果我呆在意大利的话，我又会很快重新掌握它，因为我有一个环境。显然我现在的汉语要比意大利语优秀，因为我现在呆在中国，同理，平和英语村是最好的在中国学习纯英语的地方，因为在这里禁止说中文，人们说英语，用英语的思维思考问题。我过去有一个来自韩国的舍友，她的英语不是很好，我们几乎不用英语沟通。我们都讲汉语，这在中国天津念书时，给了我们一个很好的练习汉语的机会
几年后结识到我的中国男朋友，他的英语只有平和英语1级别的水平，意味着我们也只能用汉语交流。那就是我为什么会说流利的汉语的主要原因。（笑）
平和英语村提供了一个良好的环境给学生，相信这就是学习英语的一个捷径。
当我学习一门语言时，当然是遇到了很多的挫折，就拿听力来说吧，我刚到珠海时，我原本以为我的汉语已经很完美了，但事实是，我不知道当地人说的是什么，大概是因为浓重的和因人而异的口音。他们讲汉语的速度很快，我不知道他们下一句会说什么，所以我会感觉很糟糕。并且我经常忘记声调（笑）
每当进入商店购物，店主都会尽可能用英语和我沟通，事实上，我很乐意用汉语和他沟通，但是他们都认为我是不会说汉语的外国人，有时我会感到很沮丧。
在学习英语时，最重要的应该是耐心，不要因为听不懂他人的对话而感到焦虑和尴尬，因为这是不可避免的，但是只要坚持下来了，学英语就会变得简单了。）
4. Lucy: How do you get along well with the foreigners while you are staying in a country which is completely different from yours, like culture shock and you are outstanding while standing with the Chinese?
（当您来到中国后，您是如何于您的外国朋友相处的呢，因为中国人与西方人有很大的不同，像是文化差异，您与众不同的外貌？）
Joanne: After living here for a few years, I have learnt how to balance my English friends and Chinese friends. I am glad to have friends from both sides which give me new ideas about things, and think in different ways, Chinese way and the western way.
I spend some time with my boyfriend’s family, during that time, I will talk to them in Chinese which it is good practice for me since they create a perfect Chinese only environment. But I would start to miss my English friends after I staying with my Chinese family for one week. Then I would probably go and visit them time from time. I do consider myself part Chinese, and my hometown is in zhuhai.(laughing). I felt bad when people I don’t know staried at me and shouted “hello” at first, but now I am just getting used to it. I figured out that I should be tolerant towards them. They are just curious about my appearance since we look different.
Speaking of the culture shock, I suffered from it for a long time. It takes years to overcome it. Just be positive. Do not let things bring you down. Especially during language learning, it is a long and slow process.
（在这里住了几年后，我学会了如何平衡我的中西朋友圈，我很高兴能够拥有来自中国和其他国家的朋友，我从他们身上能够学习到不同的东西和想法。我会和我男朋友的家人相处一段时间，期间当然只能用汉语交流，这对于我来说是一个很好的提高汉语的机会，因为他们给我创造了一个很好的汉语学习环境，但一个星期后，我会想念我的西方朋友，那时我会偶尔去探望一下他们。我现在觉得自己是中国人，而我的家乡就在珠海（笑）最初，当我不认识的人直瞪着我并对我大呼“你好”的时候，我会觉得很不好受，但现在我已经习惯了。我觉得我应该大量一些。他们只是因为觉得和我长得不一样而好奇而已。说到文化差异，我饱受折磨了一段时间。大概花了几年的时间去克服这个困难。但是只要积极一点，不要让任何事把你打倒。尤其是语言学习，是一个漫长的过程。）
5. Lucy: At last, any good advice to your students who want to study English.(books, movies)
（最后，有什么学习英语的建议呢（书本，电影介绍）？）
Joanne: I do know a lot of ways that can help the student improve their English. Such as
1) chat with English speakers online via skype, there are two languages involved in your conversation , Chinese and English. So we call it language exchange. 20 minutes in English and 20 minutes in Chinese, sounds fair!(laughing)
2) To keep on reading the interesting English stories, listening to English music and watching English movies. To feel for English, keep using English and find every means to speak in English!
3) Be smart when you go to the bookstore to purchase some English textbooks, because it would be easy to buy a bad quality book to mislead your English study. I have been to the underground bookstores in Gongbei many times and I find out the English textbooks there are bad quality and often have spelling problems. So before you pay for the books, you might want to find out who the publisher is. Like Oxford and Cambridge universities are good publishers which mean the books are good quality.
4) There is another rule to study English well. Please keep the rule in mind, which is studying English 20 minutes a day for a long time is much better than seven hours in one go once a week. It is easier to maintain a 20 minutes-a-day habit over a long period of time. So you are less likely to give up in the long run. Just make progress little by little, step by step and don’t give up!
5) Travelling to English-speaking countries might do you the trick if you get the money and time.
I can completely understand what the language beginners feel, because I have the same language learning experience which I can share with the students whenever they come to me and ask.
（我的确是知道一些学习英语的方法可以帮助学生提高英语水平，例如：
1、 利用SKYPE和英语为母语的人交流，在你们的对话中会出现两种不同的语言，汉语和英语。我们可以把它称之为语言交换。用20分钟交流英语，20分钟交流汉语，听起来很公平（笑）。
2、 坚持阅读有趣的英语小故事，听英语音乐和看英语电影，坚持和感受运用英语，寻找各种方式学习英语。
3、 当去买一些英语练习册时要小心，因为很可能因为练习册上的错误而误导你。我去过很多次拱北地下书诚，发现练习册上出现过很多的拼写错误，所以在决定买下来之前，要看清楚出版社是哪里的，例如，牛津和剑桥大学出版社的，就是比较好的。
4、 要学习好英语，还需要紧记一点，就是要坚持，20分钟每天学习英语，坚持很久比一天7小时的英语学习，坚持几天要好。你很容易就会放弃学习英语。还是慢慢地进步，一步一步来，千万不要放弃！
5、 如果有充足时间，大可去西方国家旅游。）
我非常理解英语初学者的感受，因为我与他们拥有同样的语言学习经历，我们可以相互分享经验，探讨问题。
Joanne（一排右一）的欢乐班级照。
Joanne（右二）的快乐班级照。
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