You know, Will Shakespeare was right.All
the world's a stage and you are always judged by the way you perform. Especially
in business you've got to be able to learn how to articulate your message. There are three points that are crucial to reducing your accent if you want
to be presenting in English. And the first one kind of blows people out of the
water.
They've
been told for years, "Could you please speak more slowly because I can't
understandyour
accent" and then I come along and I say, "But guess what people,your
accent isn'tyour
problem." Let's
take Jackie Chan.As
soon as that man opens his mouth, you hear his mother tongue and yet we
understand him all
the time. And he makes tons of money performing in American movies.
Which takes us to the second point, the whole thing in accent
reductionis
to hear the music in the language because it isn't your accent that's the
problem. It's
that you're trying to speak my language in therhythm patternof your language
andI
can't understand you. English
is a beat-driven language.Everything
we say can be drummed out. You've
got to train your ear to hear the different musical notes as well as how the
beats the rhythms. Practice
this way and in no time you'll be speaking in the same kind of melody as does Jackie
Chan.
Q1: How to effectively learn English? 到底如何有效學英文? 1. Set a goal. 設定目標 2. Assess your ability 測試自己的能力 3. Find a qualified instructor/trainer. 找適合你的老師 4. Get the right learning material 找適合你的教材 5. Make a studying schedule 訂定念書計畫 6. Have motivation/ Find a study partner 有動力/找念書夥伴 Q2: What is a good way to expand our vocabulary? 如何增進字彙量? 1. We need to learn in a contextualized way. 從語境中學習單字 2. Learn collocations/ lexical chunks 學搭配詞/字塊 3. 注意具象到抽象的改變 4. Pronunciation 發音 5. 可數/不可數 6. 心智圖整理單字 Q3. How do we improve our listening and speaking abilities? 如何加強口說及聽力? 1. 關鍵的口說能力是由聽力培養。(建立腦中的資料庫) 每天聽一點點有興趣的片段(例如: 自己喜歡的藝人的訪談) 2. 口說透過練習加強，分為兩個部分 (1) 模仿: 模仿越誇張越好 (2) 熟練 3. 聽力--> 學習作筆記(main points, supporting points, details) 4. 練習 spontaneous speech (睡前用三分鐘試著用過去式summarize 自己一天的生活，自問自答) Q4. How can I prepare for the GEPT, TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS? 1. TOEFL 托福: (1) 用學科來準備 (2) 很注重聽力 2. IELTS (1) 有考一些口語用法 (2) spelling (3) paraphrasing skill 3. 多益 (1) 工作場域會遇到的各種情境 business English, Office English (2) Reading Passages are very well-written. 由其是書信部分 Q5. Should we focus on grammar when we are learning English? 學英文應該注重文法嗎? (1) 要看學習英文的目標為何? 溝通-- 文法沒那麼重要。 留學考試 -- 重要。 (2) 學生常常學到基礎的規則，就用基礎的規則來詮釋所有的東西，但不一定是正確的。 Live healthy (O) > Live healthily (X) 文法不一定每次都正確，但還是一個很好的基礎 (3) Raise awareness of little things. (4) 可以先從生活化的題材，讓自己資料庫豐富一點，再來整理、歸納、熟讀這些文法。 可以先學/背 If I were you 這句，在學假設語氣。 Q6. Can we use American TV shows to learn English? 歐美影集可以拿來學英文嗎? (1) 要有英文字幕 (2) 和 culture 的連貫 (--> figurative meaning) (3) Turn on the learning mode. 有意識地去聽(單字、片語)
